$20.00 to save your A**

[iomegaman]

Here is a picture of a current limter I made following the instructions of "Uncle Doug" found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRFRwOnLsZI

I have gotten into the habit of plugging in ALL of my builds in each stage of the process to test etc...

Today I had wired the main power TranX as "220" when I live in N. America and we have 110 give or take a few volts...

I think the device cost me less than $20.00 and the most expensive part was the light bulb which is a really high wattage...

Anyway this thing saved my transformer by glowing up really bright and I immediately shut everything off to look-see...that's when I discovered my wiring dumb...it was a transformer that came from Mouser and the two leads were already sleeved...so I am not completely to blame...not sure why it came this way, but the current limiter told me "Danger Will Robinson"...

Build one, it's cheap especially if you work on tube gear...

 

[PRR]

Not to detract from your excellent TIP about a lamp limiter, but-

Putting 110V into a proper 220V connection should have been fine; just crap performance.

Getting a winding polarity wrong WILL act like a near-dead-short. You can get it wrong in the 110V connection also, with equally ugly result.

 

[iomegaman]

Yes for sure, it was a horse before the cartel sort of thing where I was just checking my switched for proper wiring etc...and I simply took the leads as they were sleeved and it was wrong...I will double-check and slow down a bit not taking merciless electricity for granted...