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Re: Ballasting a Pole Pig (Revisited)
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@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Curt,
>
> You've pretty much got the right idea ;^) I assume
> that
> you have a 240 volt input stick welder, like one of
> those red Lincoln
> 225 amp arc welders? You simply series the input
> leads to the low
> voltage bushings of the pig with the po-
> wer input plug of the welder. For maximum output
> current,
> you short the welding leads together and turn the
> amperage
> selector switch all the way up to the maximum
> amperage setting. Be
> sure to the connect the 240 volt input leads
> to the two outermost low voltage busings on the side
> of the
> pole pig tank. Leave the center low voltage bushing
> uncon-
> nected as this will be the tank case ground
> (assuming your pig is a
> single phase, 120/240 volt output unit). This setup
> will allow you to
> draw 50 to 70 amps from the 240 volt ser-
> vice with the HV output bushings of the pig shorted.
>
> Good luck,
> David
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list"
> <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 3:45 PM
> Subject: Ballasting a Pole Pig
>
>
> >Original poster: "C. Sibley" <a37chevy@xxxxxxxxx>
> >I'm considering making the move to a Pole Pig since
> >I'm having a hard time finding anything larger than
> a
> >60 mA NST. I have a old stick welder that I'm
> >considering using as a ballast, but am not 100%
> sure
> >how I should go about hooking it up. Do I just use
> >the power inputs and run it in series with the pig?
> >Do I need to terminate the "welding" output? Does
> it
> >matter what setting the welding output power is set
> >to?
> >Thanks,
> >Curt.
>
>