One additional thing to consider is the welder's cooling fan. If you use a variac and feed the pig/welder combination less than 240 volts, the welder fan will be underpowered, so I fed mine with a separate feed. Even at 240 volts, the pig will steal juice from the fan.
From: Yurtle Turtle <yurtle_t@xxxxxxxxx>
To: 'Tesla Coil Mailing List' <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2015 7:25 AM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Variable Ballast
A good alternative is a bombarder choke, if you can't find anything locally. I have two, and shipping is WAY cheaper. Also Google ARRL and look for a nearby Hamfest. All kinds of goodies can be found there.
From: Phil <pip@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'Yurtle Turtle' <yurtle_t@xxxxxxxxx>; 'Tesla Coil Mailing List' <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2015 5:16 AM
Subject: RE: [TCML] Variable Ballast
Jon,
The modern cheap import ones you see knocking about are generally not up to the job for a pole pig, without getting pretty hot during use. I melted and shorted the windings of one a while back while running @ 10.5kv / 400mA - (hardly pig output) simply because I left it running for several minutes (they normally have a thermal cutout to disconnect the mains input during normal use)
Their duty cycle is very low sometimes, especially as Yurtle mentions, if Alu' conductor is used; also the resulting voltage drop from lossy windings gets multiplied up by the pig, so you could potentially be losing 0.5kv at the worst case.
Winding your own ballast is a better option.
Regards
Phil Tuck
www.hvtesla.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla [mailto:tesla-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Yurtle Turtle via Tesla
Sent: 30 July 2015 20:52
To: GENE GARRAGE; Tesla Coil Mailing List; Tesla Coil Mailing List
Subject: Re: [TCML] Variable Ballast
I got a 225 amp Lincoln welder at a garage sale.It was old enough to have copper windings. I chose to short the welding leads internally, and eliminate the cables.
From: GENE GARRAGE via Tesla <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2015 6:53 PM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Variable Ballast
From: Jon Danniken <danniken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2015 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Variable Ballast
On 07/01/2015 11:14 AM, Miles Mauldin wrote:
> Do I need to find an old welder, or will an inexpensive new one work
> just as well. Read many posts about shorting the secondary and using
> the primary in line with a pole pig. Thoughts, ideas or suggestions
> all wanted for a variable ballast.
You can get an old 220V arc welder for cheap on craigslist if you are
patient, less cheap if you are not patient. As a bonus, you also get a
welder.
Jon
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