Repairing A Variac
"Variacs are all (or almost all) many decades old. "
I would say almost and that is because they are not as useful these days. Most brownwares today won't turn on at too low a voltage, even though their power supply would regulate. Even audio amps, on which the use of a variac was common, they also won't fire up at too low a voltage. You have to jump out relays n **** like that. Computers will start but the PS is practically considered replace only, except in case of the **** ones with the proprietary wimpy PSes which are smaller and also fan the processor so you can't use a standard form factor. And this **** is getting more common because businesses want a PC that screws right to the back of the monitor, like in hospitals these days. Fixing those PSes might make a comeback as people get sick of paying 4 or more times as much for an inferior product. But again, I think in some cases even though they would run on the lower voltage, the might not start.
So it's not surprising not to find them all over the place.
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