Poppery air-popper fan speed control?

[Tex]

I'll be playing around with a a friend's Poppery next week, and I don't understand what function my variac plays that a simple pots can't handle? Of course the pots would have to be rated to handle the fan electrical capacity, but it shouldn't be difficult to locate one.

So why did I listen to CW and spend ~$200 on my variac?  

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

I'll be playing around with a a friend's Poppery next week, and I don't understand what function my variac plays that a simple pots can't handle? Of course the pots would have to be rated to handle the fan electrical capacity, but it shouldn't be difficult to locate one.

So why did I listen to CW and spend ~$200 on my variac?  

variac is for the heat... I think... I separated my fan from my heat (you need a transformer for the fan it is NOT 110v, I got the dead motor to prove it) put the fn on a dimmer and the heat on a switch... turned on and off the switch till I got a PID to do it for me and now they collect chaff from my SC/TO (not very effectively I might add)  so the variac is for the heat or you can watch your temp like a hawk and be your own PID

[rasqual]

I'll be playing around with a a friend's Poppery next week, and I don't understand what function my variac plays that a simple pots can't handle? Of course the pots would have to be rated to handle the fan electrical capacity, but it shouldn't be difficult to locate one.

So why did I listen to CW and spend ~$200 on my variac?  

A potentiometer certainly can't handle power; you'd need a rheostat for that. A big one, if you're controlling heat.

You could boost the fan speed with a transformer, then throttle back on it as necessary with a light dimmer.

The idea of a variac is to get one that'll boost to 140 VAC or so -- then you can throttle the blower up or down as needed.