#variac

Hey everyone... spent some time in my shop over my long weekend...

First few pics are progress on the variac build. First pic shows the front panel with all the gadgets fitted (though not permanently yet). Second pic shows some supplies I’m using to build the rest of the box. 

Was up at my folk’s place this weekend for Easter, and my mom (who is an artist) hasn’t done as much woodworking as she used to. She’s moved on to other creative endeavors, so she asked if I would be interested in some of the tools she has and some of the wood she was using. 

I was. So I came home with a box full of wood and a benchtop belt/disc sander. Some of the wood I got was decorative trim. I decided to use some of this to build the sides of the variac box. It will all get stained a dark color once the glue dries. 

Then, I spent Saturday sorting, cleaning and testing tubes with a friend of mine. Went through a suitcase worth of tubes. A surprising (to me) amount of them were good, so that was nice.

Last few pics show a paper towel holder that I decided to build today. I have shop towels that I use for a lot of things, and haven’t had anywhere to put them that didn’t get in the way. So, I decided to make a paper towel holder. Grabbed some scrap wood and a dowel and put the pieces together. It will hang up above my woodworking table, should be awesome.

Here are a few more construction pics of the Variac build.

I got all the holes cut in the front panel, and all the routing done on the back side to hollow out spaces for the components to mount. I also cut the tab off the plug since I don’t need it, and it would have bumped into the switch which mounts above.

Then I got the front board stained. First I stained the back as a test because I wasn’t sure how this wood was going to take a stain... it’s very soft and not that high quality, so I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t just sponge it all up and hide the grain. Fortunately it worked out alright.

Next I’m going to cut some boards to act as braces for the sides and bottom of the box. Then I’ll have to cut the lid out. This is supposed to be a steampunk variac, so I’m going to add a bunch of unnecessary details to it to hopefully make it look cool... we shall see!

Well, it’s intermission here at Magic Clam’s Old Things... I’m waiting on parts to arrive for the Philco 39-45 project, and on poly to dry on the cabinet of the Graetz radio. So... what do I do during intermission?

Restore a variac of course!

This was part restoration, part... just making something look cooler. The Adjust-A-Volt variac that I’d purchased off of Craigslist was in good working order, but needed some cosmetic work. So I spent the last few weeks intermittently working on sprucing it up. I disassembled it, removed the rust and cleaned off as much crud as I could then did some painting.

I chose brown and copper partially because I thought it would look nice and secondarily because they were both colors I had in stock already. I didn’t want to have to spend any money on this project. :)

Pretty pleased with how it turned out. Now I have another small variac to use for my electrical restoration projects. Or maybe to sell... not 100% sure yet.

VARIABLE AUTOTRANSFORMER GÜVENİŞ TURKEY OPEN TYPE / CLOSED TYPE  MOTORIZED / MANUAL VOLTAGE STABILIZER GÜVENİŞ/TURKEY

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SERVO VOLTAGE STABILIZER GÜVENİŞ TURKEY

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STATIC VOLTAGE STABILIZER GÜVENİŞ TURKEY

#Istanbul, Turkey 🇹🇷