The wire heats up immediately, within seconds. Sometimes there is a coating on the wire that needs to be scraped off where the clips connect, but I’m not sure if the nichrome has the coating. I would check your clips to make sure you’re getting contact between the wire and the clip and then the wire that connects from the variac to the clip.
Took the lamp/switch out of the circuit. Bam shes hot…
Wire wouldn’t run hot with meter inline…why??
Your switch is either bad or miswired. Use your meter and continuity check the switch. But are you saying that you want to run the hot lead from the wall outlet though the meter before the hotwire? I’ll assume your saying this to get an amp reading? I would guess if it’s not working you’ve blown the fuse in the meter. Otherwise if you got the hot lead from the wall connected to red lead of the meter and the black lead of the meter connected to one side of the hotwire you should be working. You cannot connect the amp meter to each side of the hotwire it don’t work that way, you have to have only the hot lead from the wall, or variac, split by the meter. Also, hand held meters only have about 10amp max. So you might have blown the fuse. Fuses for my Fluke are pricey at $15 :-o Hope that explains it. Use a clamp-on amp meter instead.