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Dimmer as a Variac.



Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi All,

Today I got a Leviton No. 6681 600 watt dimmer switch at the hardware
store.  It cost me about $7.  I imagine these are available everywhere at
least in the USA.  I pulled the back cover off to expose the electronics:

http://hot-streamer-dot-com/temp/P7060004.jpg

Wow!  They sure are cheap!! :-))  All hand tack soldered.  Many
opportunities for shorting and such...

The main power electronic device does not have heat sink compound under it.
 I think drilling out the rivet and adding a little thermal grease will
increase it's short term power handling about 200%!

Not enough room inside to add internal MOVs but a little thermal grease and
some "adjustment" of the guts should help them to survive considerably.

I am thinking that MOVs and a good line filter will complete the poor man's
variac and I can do a little testing to see if the idea is worth while.
Still have to check what the output wave forms look like and see how that
will affect the rest of the coil...

Stay tuned...

Cheers,

	Terry