So I've made a hot pipe bending iron and It seemed to actually work quite well. I do however have one problem with it. Instead of using a 1000W dimmer switch I used a 600W dimmer switch (because it was all I found at canadian tire) as the temp control for the 500W bbq element. anyways I noticed that once the dimmer switch is turned on it seems to always on full regardless of where the dial is at. so could it be that I destroyed the capacitors or whatever is inside the dimmer switch so now it basically works as a normal light switch? I likely made a dumb mistake as I don't really know a whole lot about electronics, I just assumed a 600W switch could handle 500W but thats probably some kind of novice electronics mistake. So I could just go out and buy a 1000W switch somewhere and see if it works but i'd rather be sure that's my problem before I do that.
any help will be appreciated
Matt