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Re: Hey Bert (or anyone else) tell me something...



>----------
>From:  Cabbott Sanders [SMTP:cabbott-at-cyberis-dot-net]
>Sent:  Monday, August 24, 1998 3:25 PM
>To:  Tesla List
>Subject:  Hey Bert (or anyone else) tell me something...
>
>I have a 15 kva pig, and i got a 250 amp arc welder hooked in series with
>it, up to 240 VAC.  I have yet to feed this scarry arrangement any juice.
>the dial is suppose to regulate the current....  right? the dials readings
>start at 40A and go up to 250A. should i be disregarding this? i would think
>the current limiting will be much different.  how would i know what the
>actual current is if i plug it in, with the dial at a minimum? I need a
>current meter shunt thing right?
>
>Tesla List wrote:



Cabbott,


Those current values you are reading are for the secondary low voltage side
of your arc welder.  It's basically a current limiting step down
transformer that is designed to provide low voltage but high current at the
welding leads.  If it's a new welder it may have come with some sort of
booklet providing specs by which you could roughly determine the current
draw.  At a maximum setting it probably pulls somewhere from 45-50amps from
your 240 line to provide the 250amps at the leads.  The easiest way to be
sure is to pick up a little clamp-on ammeter at a hardware store or
possibly Radio Shack, and clamp it around one of the 240v lines feeding the
welder.  Note that the ammeter won't necessarily give you accurate results
with a Tesla coil, however you could just run the welder by itself for a
short time with it's leads shorted to get an idea of what it pulls at
different settings (starting at the lowest setting of course).   That is a
scary system indeed, so be extremely careful with that pole pig,
particularly if you are unsure of how to hook things up.



Charles Brush
http://www.foundrygroup-dot-com/cbrush