Hello Brandon,
Your ballast setup sounds pretty elaborate and heavy. You might want to consider making yourself a variable air gap ballast. Your setup will be a lot simpler but the ballast will still be heavy because it will have a lot of iron in it to prevent core saturation. Just to give you an idea, I designed my air gap ballast for 240 volts to supply from 2 to 40 amps without saturation. The center leg of the E section is 3.5" x 3.5". It uses 73 turns of 8 gauge wire. The total weight is about 70 pounds I believe from my pain-in-the-back estimate. For 60 amps, you would have a little more iron in the core.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the key to building it is to salvage some big E and I sections from a junked power transformer. There are some pictures of my ballast on the pupman.com site under the pictures section. I believe they are posted under my name. Also, if you look at Richie Burnett's site, there are pictures of his variable air gap ballast. It is very similar to mine.
Steve White
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brandon Bebault via Tesla" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2018 11:20:59 PM
Subject: Re: [TCML] Ballast good or not?
I’m interested in making a ballast also. Right now I have 25kva pole pig ballasted with a miller sychrowave 250 transformer and the secondary is shorted with the choke that came with the synchrowave. The choke is huge! I was curious if I can just use the choke it’s self as a ballast but I’m afraid to take it away from the 40volts At 200amps it was designed for and throwing 240v on the choke. I also use 2 Lincoln 120v buzz box transformers wired in series to (for 240v) to add an extra 10amps to the miller synchro wave. The Lincoln transformers also have their secondary’s shorted with the chokes that came with Lincoln. In total I have 30amps 240v we want at least use 60a 240.
This is starting to get heavy with all the equipment I’m about to dedicate a trailer to the rig...
Brandon Bebault
Santa Rosa California
Sent from my iPhone
> On Nov 26, 2018, at 1:58 PM, Steve White <steve.white1@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> A transformer is really only effective as a ballast if it has an air gap between the E and I sections that can be adjusted to control the flux in the core or if it has shunts of suitable size, which is very rare. Your transformers may be usable as parts to make a really good ballast by disassembling the E and I sections and using them to make an air gap ballast.
>
> Steve White
> Cedar Rapids, Iowa
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "homerlea--- via Tesla" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2018 12:12:22 PM
> Subject: [TCML] Ballast good or not?
>
> Since I don't know that much about transformers I need an opinion on ballasts. I put 3 transformers on eBay 42 pounds 208v in 50v @ 50 amp out and advertised them as good for Tesla coil ballasts. If they are not good for ballasts I need to remove that from the description.Jim Heagy -----Original Message-----
> From: Terry Oxandale <toxandale@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Mon, Nov 26, 2018 7:33 am
> Subject: Re: [TCML] Good and Cheap Ballast Options
>
> I use this method on my coil in conjunction with a more expensive variable ballast, which is pair of 1256 variacs in which I gapped the cores. The only problem I had with the welding rod ballast (which is the "set", or not adjustable ballast) is the rods get warm, to hot with extended runs, and the rods vibrate in the cylinder, and thus the flux, over time, will deteriorate to dust. It certainly does work though. My 10awg coil came from a oil circuit breaker close-coil solenoid, and probably weighs 30 lbs with no core. A fiberglass cylinder sits in the middle of this coil, and holds the welding rods (roughly about 5" tall). My reasoning for the welding rods was to reduce eddy currents, but they still exist (I'm sure to a much smaller degree than a solid piece of iron).
> Terry
>
>
> Hello All,
> I am looking to ballast my new potential transformer. I came across this
> idea (http://hotstreamer.deanostoybox.com/mnovak/ballast.html) of using
> 1/8" welding rods inside a 2" PVC wrapped with 500ft of stranded 10awg
> THHN. Seems cheap and functional. You can add or remove rods to alter
> inductance and raise and lower the core as well. I wonder if there are any
> other equally cheap/good or better ideas?
> Thanks,
> ~Dan
> Kansas City area
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