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Wood burning

Dennis J Gooding

Dennis J Gooding

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While cleaning out some ancient files, I ran across this little ditty by Leif Thoraldson that was posted in the old rec.crafts.woodturning forum. As I recall, it was part of a thread on wood burning.

Glow little nichrome wire of fire
Glow like an in-can-des-cent wire

Glow for the turner of the species
Turn on the AC and the DC

This night could use a little brightnin
Crank up the dimmer for more lightnin

When you gotta glow, you gotta glow
Glow little nichrome glow:)
 
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I remember the rec.woodturning forum. I also remember how nasty some of the people/posts were. Remember Al Kyder? What a jerk. So glad to have discovered forums with moderators. Also kept the spam posts out.
 
I remember it well and collected useful posts printing them to PDFs. I had been downsized out of work, “early retirement in polite terms”, in the fall of 2000 and woodworking on the net became my new home, soon morphing to a pretty much total focus on woodturning. Herm deVries started WoW in late 2001 from contacts of rec.crafts.woodturning and away we went. I made a Woodburner using modified plans from Fishcarver.com I think it was. His original plan would not work - too many light dimmers. Bought a pen from lee valley that allowed insertion of various tips. I made up a looped tip from some fine Nichrome wire a guild member gave me for basic bowl signing and am still using it. Have more wire and always wanted to try some branding as Molly Winston developed after Graham Priddle but never get to it. One posting I never recorded and was never able to find after was by Tim Clay, founder of Oneway, about how he was asked to make a four jaw chuck. That lead to the production of the 24 series of lathes in the mid 90s and the extensive line of woodturning lathes and products that Oneway has and the family continues to build.
 
Yes remember it well, posted on it lots even with no picture posting possible , I remember nasty George from the UP, also Robo hippy was there and some others that are still around posting here and at other forums.
Archy McCallister and others I wonder if they are still around, just the way things were then.

and a high heat burner.

High speed Burner .jpg
 
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I finally built a wood vaporizer the other day. I bought an old style battery charger years ago. Finally pulled it down and wired it up. I dont use high heat burning so will have to design a project just for this. Not going anywhere for the last year a d a half has given me the time to a lot of projects that have been on the back burner.
 
That Rec Crafts was okay, for a bit and then trolls took over. Not sure if Mouse is around any more or not, 'only 2 ways to do things, my way and the wrong way'. They used to let him post on Wood Net, but haven't been there since the computer crashed several years ago. Pretty sure he was kicked off of all the other forums.

I did get a wood burner, and it is gathering dust. Have to dig it out and play some more....

robo hippy
 
john lucas said:
I finally built a wood vaporizer the other day. I bought an old style battery charger years ago. Finally pulled it down and wired it up. I dont use high heat burning so will have to design a project just for this. Not going anywhere for the last year a d a half has given me the time to a lot of projects that have been on the back burner.
Click to expand...
Do you recall which dimmer switch did you used?
 
I built the 'Graeme Priddle' woodburner a few years ago using a 6/12 volt car battery charger. I used a standard ceiling fan dimmer switch and find that it works like a charm. A little past half-way 'open' and the nichrome starts to glow. Then I back off just a little and the woodburning process is actually fun. Different thicknesses of nichrome wire will give you slightly different settings. Here's a copy of the 'Woodturners Resource Graeme Priddle Wood Vaporizer System' writeup that I used to make my system.
 

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robo hippy said:
That Rec Crafts was okay, for a bit and then trolls took over. Not sure if Mouse is around any more or not, 'only 2 ways to do things, my way and the wrong way'. They used to let him post on Wood Net, but haven't been there since the computer crashed several years ago. Pretty sure he was kicked off of all the other forums.

I did get a wood burner, and it is gathering dust. Have to dig it out and play some more....

robo hippy
Click to expand...
If you're referring to 'Michael Mouse', I recall that he posted here awhile ago. If I am remembering correctly, his avatar was the image of a large military plane in flight. Could have been a troop transport or refueler. Haven't seen him here a several years. I also remember meeting Ruth Niles there, and Lynn Mangianelli (sp?). He was the turner who came up with the latin phrase on her shirts - Carpe Lignum, Torne Lignum (Seize the Wood, Turn the Wood)
 
I have a CL-TL tee shirt I bought from Ruth many, many years ago. It's so old and faded I may have to upgrade one of these days. :)
 
Donna Banfield said:
If you're referring to 'Michael Mouse', I recall that he posted here awhile ago. If I am remembering correctly, his avatar was the image of a large military plane in flight. Could have been a troop transport or refueler. Haven't seen him here a several years. I also remember meeting Ruth Niles there, and Lynn Mangianelli (sp?). He was the turner who came up with the latin phrase on her shirts - Carpe Lignum, Torne Lignum (Seize the Wood, Turn the Wood)
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Of course it was NOT Michael Mouse Donna, or Reality Check or what other name he used later, his name is George Tokarev, and is from the UP in Michigan, I got a post of him from before.

George Tokarev of da UP.jpg George Tokarev aka MM.jpg
 
john lucas said:
I just used a house hold dimmer. I have 3 that I got from.my Dad years ago so they arent modern ones. The battery charger I bought had room inside for the dimmer or I would go out and look.
Click to expand...
I used a regular 600 watt dimmer switch to feed the battery charger, the dimmer switch has the push on/off and rotational capacity knob.

I made it so that I can keep using the battery charger by placing two poles on the platform, with the handle wire coupled onto it, and the battery charger clamps are held onto those poles.

I did make some pictures after I build it, the handpiece has the thick copper wires still too far out, I later moved the end closer to the handle, it is easily adjusted, as the thick wire is just held in place with the connecter that are only used for holding the wire.

Tried several different heater wire shapes and they did work well, just have to set the heat right and away you go.

Feed to the battery charger.jpg Charger output to the handpiece.jpghandpiece.jpg
 
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