I'll have to agree with Brett; there are many other things you can do in this hobby that would fill you with a greater sense of accomplishment for far less money and/or aggravation (custom winding an output transformer or building a line-level preamp both spring to mind).
Just in case nobody has mentioned it, try to attend a local hamfest. I've picked up 10 A variacs fused and in housings for as little as $5 - and I can assure you they're FAR safer and more reliable than anything you can build.
Just in case nobody has mentioned it, try to attend a local hamfest. I've picked up 10 A variacs fused and in housings for as little as $5 - and I can assure you they're FAR safer and more reliable than anything you can build.
Here is a possible compromise answer :
Buy one of the cheap readily available variacs, you will have a good safe one, as Brett and Zman3 suggest,
then
copy it, and your desire for a sense of accomplishment will be satisfied. 🙂
Buy one of the cheap readily available variacs, you will have a good safe one, as Brett and Zman3 suggest,
then
copy it, and your desire for a sense of accomplishment will be satisfied. 🙂
I didn't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but for the same effort you could wind your own audio transformers which will teach you more and you'll get a lot more use out of. I use my variac a bit, and on a busy week it'd be lucky to get an hours use.
Thanks for the input. Winding trannies is on my accomplishment list, but I don't think I'm quite ready for it yet...baby steps first. I'm kind of a Rube Goldberg-type, so anything is gratifying to me. With the clunkers I have around, a variac will get quite a workout in my laboratory.
Some reading for you then.
Turner Audio Educational pages
There's quite a bit on load matching, as well as OPT design info a bit further down.
Turner Audio Educational pages
There's quite a bit on load matching, as well as OPT design info a bit further down.
I have to reinforce the sentiment here...
A variac is an instrument of death (anything that connects directly to the mains is lethal) This isn't a good choice for a 1st build.
Buy a good safe one and it will help protect you during your other experiments🙂
A variac is an instrument of death (anything that connects directly to the mains is lethal) This isn't a good choice for a 1st build.
Buy a good safe one and it will help protect you during your other experiments🙂
Any recomendations? I just picked up one as a part of a test equipment buy. It looks to be from the 30's,and the cord appears to have caught fire!😱 I'm guessing I shoud just junk it. I'd like something newish and cheap.😀
If in doubt about it's safety, don't use it.TubeMack said:
Variacs are on ebay all the time, new and used quite cheap.
TubeMack said:
Why junk it just check it out real well and replace the cord.
As for building a variac, I sort of tried it when I was young before I knew that transformer core had to be made of laminations. I wound it on a tee post with about 400 to 500 turns and hooked it to 120 vac and pow the breaker tripped.
It was a good learning experience and it made a good electro magnet LOL.
I got the idea from a hipotronics voltage regulator which had a long variable transformer. It was about 3 feet long and not a toroid. It drove a buck and boost trans.
Nick
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