Jon,
I've used the Lincoln 225 as a current limiter a number of projects. They always worked great, and can usually be found used as cheap as $40.00 if you check craigslist, etc.
Once I even bought a pallet of these (four new ones) to power a pair of massive 25kva Jacobs Ladders. I wired the welders as two sets of two with their primaries in parallel (outputs shorted internally) and ended up with two massive current limiters that worked great and had quite a range of adjustment (11x11 steps). The JL's even strained the 100kva Gennie that was powering them (but that was at 10,000 feet altitude in Keystone Colorado).
The other thing we did was to pop plastic plugs in the holes where the welding cables used to exit and made a custom graphic that covered the original faceplates.
When looking for a used one you might see it advertised as a Lincoln Tombstone welder or a Cracker Box welder.
Hope this helps,
BrianB
> On Jul 31, 2015, at 2:16 AM, Phil <pip@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> 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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