Pig inrush limiting

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Original poster: "Thomas Coyle" <zxcasd@xxxxxxxxx>

Well, I got some of my stuff out of storage including my 25kVA pig, a 
resistive ballast (pair of large heating elements that measure out to 
about 7 ohms), and various other odds and ends. I saw this pig in 
operation before I bought it a year or so ago, and then immediately 
stuck it into storage. Now I want to fire it up with just a jacob's 
ladder to see if it still works (and because I've never done a JL on 
anything except an NST), but I'm concerned about the inrush draw on 
such a monster.

If my math is right, that resistive limiter should keep the pig to 
under 20 amps, and I'm planning to plug it into my 30 amp dryer 
outlet in the garage. So, presumably no problem. But - can I get away 
with just plugging it in with the circuit breaker off, and then 
turning on the breaker? Or should I stick one of my big variacs in 
between and ramp up the voltage slowly?

In short, what can I do to get pretty sparks without blowing 
breakers, melting my pig, or killing myself?

I'm getting the rest of my Big Coil parts out of storage tomorrow, so 
if this thing works I'm going to try to throw it back together this weekend.

Thanks!

Tom