by erichayes » Wed Sep 01, 2004 10:05 pm
Hi All,
I was going to save this for the treatise, but Ed opened the door.
When I was a starving college student in the late '60s, I bought, repaired and sold 1930s vintage radios to augment my parental stipend. Since the cost of a variac was hysterically prohibitive, I came up with the "Saint Nick Variac".
Take two or three 15 light strings of the old indoor-outdoor christmas lights--the ones that use the large flame shaped bulbs with the intermediate sockets. I beleive these things are still being manufactured, but if you don't want to wait until Labor Day for the Christmas season to start, you might check thrift stores or yard sales.
Now, getcha a standard single gang electrical box, an ordinary duplex receptacle with screw connections and a plate of your choosing, if desired, as well as a line cord harvested off of some dead soldier clock radio or hair dryer or whatever.
If you look at the receptacle closely, you'll see that there are tabs between the screws on each side that can be broken, thus separating the two outlets. This is so you can make, say, the upper outlet switched and the lower always hot, or for split circuits in a kitchen.
Thread the line cord into the box, break either of the tabs (but not both) and connect the line cord to the two screws that are now disconnected from one another.
Plug the strings of lights together (daisy chain, outlet strip, etc), and plug them temporarily into a wall outlet. Loosen each bulb until it goes out. Then plug the mess into one of the St. Nick outlets, and the amp or radio under test into the other.
Plug the St. Nick into a live outlet, turn the power switch of the apparatus on, and screw in one bulb. Then, methodically screw in one bulb at a time in accordance with the guides I PROMISE I'll submit worthwith.
With two strings of 15 lamps, this will give a ballast of around 200 watts total, which should be plenty for bringing up most reasonably sized amps and radios.
Eric in the Jefferson State