Uncle Doug's Light Bulb Current Limiter

[Jameson]

I was watching some of Uncle Doug's YouTube videos and stumbled on one where he built a current limiter using a high watt light bulb. I wanted to see what other people thought of this as a safety device - is it worth building one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRFRwOnLsZI

 

[Doc B]

Kelvin built one that we keep in the lab for bringing up gear that might have a fault that makes it draw excess current. That and a Variac are good tools to have if you are doing repair work.

 

[mcandmar]

I got fed up with variacs, light bulb limiters, and meters all over the desk so i built them all into one enclosure.  With the flick of a switch i can take the variac or limiter out of the circuit while the connected device is running 8)

If you are restoring old gear a variac and limiter is a must have.  Even building amps from scratch i highly recommend using them for the first power up, it has helped me catch a few mistakes in the past before i fried something.