ballast questions

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "steve" <steve_vance-at-cablelynx-dot-com> 

Hi List,

  I have a few questions about making a pig ballast. My 225A welder bit the
dust the other day. I was thinking about using the core to make choke
ballast. The core is not a standard E I . It is more like an E and a
sideways E and an I. The sideways E is at 90deg of the Reg. E. It had a
small winding that had the taps for the low current side of the welder
(75-110A) There are what appear to be shunts in between the largest E
section. ( the original pri. and sec.) 1. Would these need to be removed
before winding or can they be ignored?   2. I don't see any practical way to
make an air gap in the core without cutting the top off. How important is
it? The core weighs around 80 lbs. I want to ballast the pig to around 20A.
With a core this size, would saturation be a problem?   3. Should I cut off
the E section that is not going to be used? This probably accounts for 40%
of the weight.   4. And finally, I know the formula for calculating a single
layer coil but I'm not sure how to go about calculating a multi layer coil.


Thanks in advance for any help,
Steve Vance