Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

....Another alternative is a device marketed as a router speed control. They are good for up to about 15 amps / 1800 watts and are found from various sources at around the $20 mark. Harbor Freight sells them for a bit more than that, as seen here:

https://www.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html

 ... but often has sales that brings the price down quite a bit. If you look around you'll likely find others at sale prices as well.

These units are good enough for most electric fired steam engines with only a single heating element, but some of the larger engines, like Gil often runs, have more than one, so these little units may not be enough.

I like them, and use them at least as much as my Big Red Variac.

Hope this helps.

I absolutely love these, and have imported 2 of them as well