Please use an isolation transformer!
Brett
Brett...I've been doing it this way since I first got into C/L Combat back around 1985 or 86 and the guy who "lined me out" on how he does it dated back to the days of when foam first became "a thing" in C/L Combat.
If I averaged 6 new C/L combat models per year plus who knows how many RC Combat foamies I have built over the years...we're talking 100s without feeling even a slight tingle [except for THE ONE TIME I WAS BARE FOOT ON A CONCRETE SLAB FLOOR and too lazy to insulate the cutting wire at the handle end.....and all I felt was a slight 60 cycle tingle].
I suppose if a person wanted to stand in a steel wash tub full of salt water that has a ground wire tied to a ground stake....
As I took a seat in the class room of my 3rd year of the Electrical apprenticeship I noticed a fish tank full of water on the "professor's" desk with a lamp cord dipped into the water and the other end plugged into a wall outlet.
At the tank end the hot and neutral had about a foot of distance between them.
There was bare copper showing at both ends.
The teacher asked for volunteers to come up and dip their hands into the water.
None of us budged..so the teacher plunged his hand into the water with no ill effects.
Of course he was well insulated from ground potential via his shoes and the carpet he was standing on....but his hand was SEEMINGLY still at risk.
The water acts like a voltage divider and no matter where you place your hand the low voltage gradient that is created by the water is constant.
Same goes for the auto-transformer/ dimmer..the only way you will get injured is if you go out of your way to touch the cutting wire while you are well grounded.
If I was really paranoid I'd wear nitrile gloves.