Ironic electrical problem
 

Alright, so I bought this 95 camry
a beater
I installed a cd player everything was good
however
today I put a new battery in the car and start the car
all is good however I have no instrument cluster lights, I verify that 26 fuse 15 amp keeps blowing
I can't figure it out for the life of me
so I said **** it and put a 20 amp fuse, big mistake, smoke starts coming out
I pull the battery, pull the dash
source the melted wire to the dimmer switch as the culprit that keeps causing my number 26 15 amp fuse to blow
is it possible that a faulty dimmer switch can cause my instrument cluster not to work
it is all connected to the same circuit and I believe that a faulty switch has caused my instrument not to work
to make matters worse I had to run new lines to the dimmer
then when i realized the problem, it was too late
now i need a new dimmer switch
dumb part on me but if i didn't put the 20 amp fuse in, i would have never known that the dimmer was the culprit to begin with as i didn't get a burning sensation
is it even common for these switches to go bad?