Anybody know what this is?

MikeD74T · Feb 26, 2011

Looks like a home made resistance element. If wired in series with the ground it might provide more control at a lower apmerage range than the welder was otherwise capable of ???????? MikeD74T

lordofseo143 · Mar 5, 2011

i think its a rod heater or something like that.

RobertBrown · Mar 5, 2011

jake98 said:
It was with my uncle's welder when I got it.
Heater? Battery tester?
It has a ribbon serpentined in it.

stirrilium enuffricator, early model Wish I had one

Argosy · Mar 5, 2011

An old battery load tester.

FastPauly · Mar 5, 2011

stirrilium enuffricator's.....they won't let us use them anymore at work because they are damaging to the ozone layer. They were supposed to be destroyed but I know a few employees took them home....I wish I was one of them.

Not sure if that is what we are looking at here...ours all had a small cooling fan built into the cover.

Gary Fowler · Mar 5, 2011

Isnt it obvious what it is. It is a home made shop heater that is powered by his welding machine. Back 1000 years ago when I welded, we would take an old clay tile and wrap several coils of #9 tie wire around it and hook the ground on one end and the electrode holder on the other, set the amperage per your heater requirements of the day. 4 feet of #9 wire at about 120 DC amperes will glow cherry red for days on end before it oxidized away. Then we just cut us off another piece from the several hundred coils that was always laying around the construction site and revamped our "heater" with a fresh coil. Safety gurus didnt like it much as it presented a burn hazard, but it was generally pretty safe as it was under the fab table which also eventually got warm from the radiant heat. They usually wouldnt say too much if you werent hooked up and glowing when they came by.

jake98 · Mar 10, 2011

I think it's a throw away evolution tester. When I can throw it in the garbage I'll be fully evolved. :thumbsup:

J_J · Mar 11, 2011

jake98,

I am thinking that it might be a home made current limiter for low amp welding. Really thin stuff.

Do you know what it is?

The item below is a current limiter resister for a welding machine.

Kays Supply · Mar 11, 2011

I saw a unit like that used to put between the welder and water pipes when using a welder to thaw frozen pipe.????

jake98 · Mar 12, 2011

J_J said:
jake98,

I am thinking that it might be a home made current limiter for low amp welding. Really thin stuff.

Do you know what it is?

The item below is a current limiter resister for a welding machine.

I don't know what it is JJ, it's just a box with a flat ribbon wire run back and forth between porcelain insulators, no markings on it.