Re: Ballasting a Pole Pig (Revisited)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Chip Atkinson <chip@xxxxxxxxxx>

Definitely not.  I have a single welder and it works fine.  I also have an
oven heating element in parallel with the welder.  Ed Sonderman suggested
this once and it works well for me.

I've used this setup on a 220v 30A clothes drier circuit.  I'll trip the
breaker when I have the current on the welder turned way up but I can
still run a nice jacobs ladder with the welder on nearly the lowest
setting.

Do you have the welder set on the AC setting?  That doesn't seem like it
would make a difference, but perhaps.

Chip

On Mon, 9 Jan 2006, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "C. Sibley" <a37chevy@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> In mulling through the archives, I see that Ed Wingate
> uses two welders in parallel to drive a 10KVA pig.
> Does it seem reasonable that I need to do the same for
> my 10KVA piggie?
>
> Curt.
>
>
> --- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>  > Original poster: "David Rieben"
>  > <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>  >
>  > Curt,
>  >
>  > It sounds almost like you have a short circuit
>  > somewhere,
>  > as the welder should not be tripping breakers that
>  > quickly
>  > under any circumstances. What size is the circuit
>  > breaker
>  > that you're on and how big is your welder? I have
>  > person-
>  > ally never used an AC/DC welder for ballasting a
>  > pig, but it seems to
>  > me that it shouldn't be much different than using a
>  > straight AC one.
>  >
>  > Are you sure that you have the welder in SERIES with
>  > the in-
>  > put to the pig's LV inputs? Only 25 volts reaching
>  > the pig is
>  > certainly not right. I would definitely suspect
>  > either the hookup
>  > connections or the welder itself as the culprit in
>  > this situtation.
>  > Try using the 120 volt input winding of an
>  > MOT with its secondary shorted as a temporary
>  > ballast and simply feed
>  > your pig 120 volts and see if you get any
>  > output at all from the pig in this fashion. You
>  > could also use
>  > a 500 ft spool of #12 AWG THNN building wire from
>  > Home Depot or
>  > Lowe's as a ballast with 120 volts input to try this
>  > out. If you do
>  > get some output with your pig wired up in this
>  > fashion, then the
>  > problem is most likely that your welder is bad.
>  >
>  > David Rieben
>  >
>  > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list"
>  > <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
>  > To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
>  > Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 10:45 PM
>  > Subject: Re: Ballasting a Pole Pig (Revisited)
>  >
>  >
>  > >Original poster: "C. Sibley" <a37chevy@xxxxxxxxx>
>  > >This weekend I did as suggested below and had
>  > >unsucessful results.  With the pig set up as a
>  > Jacobs
>  > >Ladder, and the welder set on the highest power
>  > >setting, I was unable to get any spark from the pig
>  > at
>  > >all.
>  > >The problem appears to be the welder taking all of
>  > the
>  > >power, input voltage to the pig is only 25V with
>  > the
>  > >welder on and running.  I do not have an AC
>  > Ampmeter
>  > >so am uncertain of the current, but was tripping my
>  > >bbreakers after only 1-2 seconds.  Setting the
>  > welder
>  > >at a lower rating would allow the breakers to
>  > remain
>  > >on, but with essentially no volta
msnip....