Anybody know what this is?

jake98 · Feb 25, 2011

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

k0ua · Feb 25, 2011

Well a photo might be worth 1000 words, and having it in my hands would be worth 1000 photo's, but if I had to guess, it is a load tester, or part of a battery tester, you still need a voltmeter to measure what happens to a battery when this resistive load is placed across it. Assuming the "ribbon" is a piece of nichrome wire

James K0UA

k0ua · Feb 25, 2011

On second though, any chance there are diodes in that box?, the ribbon comment made me think resistive load, but if there are diodes, then this could be a rectifier for the AC welder, to make DC?

James K0UA

Egon · Feb 25, 2011

Anode for electrolysis :thumbsup:

k0ua · Feb 25, 2011

I can only see 2 terminals on that thing, so cant be a rectifier assembly and maybe we can see the edge of the nichrome ribbon wire, I am not sure. Take an digital ohmmeter and measure between those 2 terminals. and tell us what you got.

James K0UA

Wayne_H · Feb 25, 2011

take the cover off so we can see what is inside!

Skyco · Feb 26, 2011

A rectifier (diode) only has two terminals, the anode and cathode, so don't see how the mystery device rules that out with it only having two terminals. A rectifier bridge has four.

Doesn't appear from what we can see to have enough heat sinking to accomodate a welding rectifier....

Curious to know about the welder it came with also. Perhaps it is a way to reduce current to a lower value than the lowest setting on the welder..???

We need to know more!

Hooked_on_HP · Feb 26, 2011

I am guessing it is a rod heater.
Bill

jake98 · Feb 26, 2011

I think it just has the wire ribbon in it, I'll look closer. The ground clamp on it has me confused unless it's a battery tester missing a lead. The welder was a Lincoln ac/dc 225 but it's not the vintage of this thing.

crazyal · Feb 26, 2011

Have you ruled out a flux capacitor?

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.