Sorry, grumpy after my surgery. I didn't mean to say that we shouldn't use the variac for this to start. It would be the ideal way to find out exactly what voltage = what tempurature. In fact, I agree that's how I would start. I just meant to say that it's not a permanent solution. Plus, the possibility of someone, later on, turning it up to 1:1 is just dangerous...
So, I revise my suggestion.
In the electronics area, there is:
1. isolation stransformer -- it looks like this
2. Variac -- it looks like this:
Plug the variac into the isolation transformer (you need the isolation transformer, as variacs are autotransformers and don't prevent huge amounts of current from tripping the breaker, or worse -- isolation xformer limits the current).
Turn variac all the way down (and offf). Connect wire via insulated clips to the output of variac between. Hot on one side, neutral on other.
Clip a volt meter on in the same place, at either end of wire, (polarity unimportant). Set it to AC volts.
*optional -- put a temp probe on the wire (k thhermocouple, but put something non electrically conductive between wire and probe {kapton tape works -- it's in the top drawer of white drawers}).
turn on variac, slowly turn up the dial until voltage reaches 12-20 volts and experiment.
Use ohm's law to get the current at the best settings.
At that point, we could make a nice cutter. I can donate some nice connectors for wire and such. But if you want to rig it up with this bench gear for use now, go for it.
Needless to say, it's electricity running through a bare wire. The current will be limited by iso xformer, and the voltage will be limited by variac, but, still... It's electricity and it'll be hot too.
Lorin
P.S. Sorry Chris. Thank you for leaving the Variac with us. I was grumpy about it used as a high-end doorbell volume control when the doorbell actually had a built in volume control (face palm) -- but we didn't know that until years later. I have now become protective of it, as it is really useful all kinds of thngs. That said, hive should probably buy a bigger variac current metering and higher rating for bench use.