Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Original poster: "C. Sibley" <a37chevy@xxxxxxxxx> I just got back from picking up my piggie. It is made by GE, 17200V, 10KVA, 240/120V single phase, dual bushing. It's a beauty! He also gave me a GIANT wire resistor to use as a ballast. Question, do I need to use a resistor like this if I ballast with a arc welder, or is the welder alone good enough?
Don't use both. The resister will work but you will lose excessive power. Most use the inductive ballast cause less power is wasted. Your welder alone should be fine. With the welder output set at some current level, connect one of the variac OUTPUTs to one of the welder INPUTs. Connect the other welder INPUT to one terminal of an AC amp meter. Connect the other terminal of the amp meter to the remainding variac OUTPUT. Now power up the variac slowly while looking at the amp meter. Stop ramping up the power if the current doesn't look correct. The measured current at full variac output will tell you what that ballast point is good for. During the measurement, you should also check for heat build up in the ballast and variac and shut down if things dont look right. Repeat the experiment for various welder output settings and you will then have a map of limiting currents for the PIG as a function of the welder output setting
Gerry R.