I'm afraid I'm completely out of my depth here.
I would like to use a tungsten filament to radiatively heat something near to it (in vacuum). My issue is I cannot figure out the easiest and/or cheapest way to control the power to the filament. The answer I keep circling around is something involving an SCR and maybe a transformer to step down the line voltage. But some things I've read (Chromalox's product materials, mostly) indicate that I don't need a step-down transformer, or if I did I just need a phase-angle fired SCR. Other places I've looked (product literature from other people, such as Omega) indicate that an SCR, even phase-angle fired, can't drive an inductive load reliably. I've also considered putting the transformer first, but most SCRs I've seen require line voltage input (either for auxiliary electronics or for their own operation).
Another point of confusion is that I am not sure how, if at all, I am controlling the current in the filament (high temperature resistance=0.1 ohms ~= 15x low temperature resistance). The SCR just turns the output on and off, after all, to produce some sort of average power, right?
Does anyone have experience with this sort of system or goal? The filament in question is designed to be driven at 7-ish volts and up to 62 amps, although I assume I could always drive it with higher voltage. I would like to plug into a 120V single phase wall socket. I am not wedded to the SCR, or really any element of the design, as long as it can be computer-controlled eventually (and get real hot).
Thank you!