Electrical for a jig.

[Matt Wolboldt]

Not sure if this is the correct place for this, but I'm trying to rig up a guitar sidebending jig. The problem I'm running into is that I want use a dimmer switch to regulate the brighness of the light bulbs used to heat the jig. I figured I would need to wire the switch in parallel with the two bulbs. When I do this I end up frying the switch and tripping the breaker. Any indict would be great

[Thomas Bank]

Nope, the dimmer has to be wired in series. Just like any other switch.

[Matt Wolboldt]

Thanks, I was picturing the switch regulating the current, but i guess it regulates the voltage?

[Jerome Hanby]

Well... Applying Ohm's law, it could regulate the current...but it would have to have one heck of a current rating

[John Baranowski]

Since the light bulbs are fixed resistances, it is regulating current in effect. When you wire in parallel, you are providing a shunt which will hog all the current, burning out the dimmer switch.

[Anthony Whitesell]

The dimmer needs to be wired in series with the bulbs, but the bulbs need to be in parallel to each other. The connections should be Hot to switch to Bulb 1 and 2 IN and Bulb 1 and 2 OUT to Neutral.

What size bulbs are you using? Just make sure the dimmer is rated for the current or wattage.

If the dimmer switch doesn't have enough gusto you may need to go more hard core. A Variac (variable output transformer) will be very effective at reducing the voltage to the bulbs. They are rated by amperage. Current = total wattage (ie., 2 times the answer above) divided by voltage (120).
Here's a link to some if you need one. http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a...Variacs/1.html

[Matt Wolboldt]

Thanks for all the replies! I was seriously just being a dope when it came to what the dimmer was actually doing. Basically I didn't look at what the current rating on the switch was and assumed it was a honking variable resistor that could take a lot of current.