Variacs and possible alternatives

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by danrulz98

Cool, just got Findm-Keepm's variac today.
It's a bit of an odd piece. The scale on it goes from 0 to 120, but the wiring diagram shows that it's set up to go to 140. So, there's pencil marks around it at voltages that must have been important at one time. So, I think I'm just gonna put a volt meter in the case along with a cord connector from a computer power supply (I have plenty of those to scavenge) and a power outlet.

It was lovely how the power cord crumbled away in my hand...

The variac was NASA Langley excess - It was part of a process oven controller asssembly - the whole thing was the size of a refrigerator. I got it in late 2006, and all of the wiring was 50-60's era stuff - big thick rubber coated stuff. After removing most of the wiring, I was rewarded with the sight of what seemed like thousands of 225 watt resistors. I removed everyone of them - the hardware alone filled up a 5 gallon bucket. Sadly, most of the resistors are extremely odd values - stuff like 405 ohms and 1140 ohms. They musta spent a fortune on building it all. The front of the unit had a Leeds-Northrup temperature controller I sold on fleabay for more than I paid for the whole unit, so the rest of the stuff was free excess to me. I still have the 300 or so power resistors - I may give them to the father-in-law for target practice.

I tend to search locally for odd stuff - I use fleaybay, Public Surplus, and rarely, CL. About a third of my test equipment came this way - cheap too. My big ol' variac that would have set me back over 360 bucks cost me nothing after I sold off other stuff I got in the lot of equipment. Frugal, yes, but fun for sure!

Cheers,