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Re: Ballasting a Pole Pig (Revisited)

Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Adam,

Yes, I too can draw up to nearly 70 amps from a pig
using a 225 amp welder as a ballast when I basically
dead short the HV output bushings of the pig (a wire laid right acrss the bushings, no arc), when being over- 
driven with 280 volts from a variac. However, under
any other circumstances, like firing a Tesla coil circuit,
for instance, it does not draw this much current. "I" have found that I can only get around 40 to 45 amps max with this same configuration when firing my coil. I'm sure actu- 
al current draw depends on things like the primary cap size
and BPS rate. As a matter of fact, the 230 lb. Toshiba iso-
lation transformer that I now am using as a ballast allows way too much current for JL firing when the transformer is 
fed with more than 100 volts or so but works well for a bal-
last for the Green Monster Tesla coil. http://dawntreader.net/hvgroup/david/gm.html 
This will allow up to a 100 amp or so draw with 280 volt in-
put (good golly, that 28 kVA, isn't it!?) but I usually don't run it THAT high (don't need too) ;^)) 

David Rieben


----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 8:13 PM
Subject: Re: Ballasting a Pole Pig (Revisited)



Original poster: Yurtle Turtle <yurtle_t@xxxxxxxxx>
It depends on how much power you want to process. I'm
able to get 70 amps to my 25 kVA pig using a single
225 amp Lincoln on max setting on a JL. I briefly ran
my 10" coil at max welder setting, but didn't record
the amperage reading. One welder should be plenty for
a pretty large coil. 70 amps at 280 volts yields
nearly 20 kVA. I only have a 100 amp circuit, so
that's all I need (for now).
Adam
--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> 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 voltage to the pig.
>  > >One posibility, is that my welder is an AC/DC
> unit,
>  > >and must have additional circuitry over a basic
> AC
>  > >unit.  Perhaps there is some PFC or something
>  > >interfering?
>  > >Interested in any advice.
>  > >Thanks,
>  > >Curt.
>  > >
>  > >--- Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  > > > Original poster: "David Rieben"
>  > > > <drieben@mid
msnip........