Jack,
I know you aren't someone who just fell off thge mellon wagon.
The dimmer doesn't act like a variac/auto-transformer. Dimmers "clip" off
the voltage depending on where they are set whereas variacs maintain the
sine wave at 60 Hz, they just reduce the amplitude. The clipping of the
dimmer may be casuing a "kick back" from the transformer. This means that
it is not seeing 60Hz, it's seeing some funny clipped signal with a funky
duty cycle. Since AC dimmers use TRIACS, this "kick" could be causing
your fuse to blow. Depending on where your dimmer is set and the
inductance of your step-down X-former, it could happen at any number of
settings. I've had this problem before too and I only use dimmers when
the current I need is under 1 Amp.
--
James Bradford Shue jshue@comp.uark.edu
University of Arkansas Voice phone:(501) 575-6059
Physics Lab/Demo Curator FAX Number: (501) 575-4580
WWW Page http://comp.uark.edu/~jshue