Hi all! Are you ready to craft? Today we will make a wood burner with our own hands from scrap materials. Despite the simplicity of the design and materials from which we will make a wood burner, it has enough power to burn a hole in a piece of wood 1 cm thick.
This will be a pocket burner that runs on a 2A phone charger. If you need to quickly put an inscription or logo on a tree, or also try your hand at pyrography, don’t rush to the store. Use these instructions, spend a little time, and assemble a pocket wood burner from scrap materials.
We will need
- Phone power supply (at least 2A)
- Syringe needle
- Sewing needle
- Wooden skewer (sushi stick)
- Heat shrink
- Soldering iron, flux, solder
Making a wood burner with your own hands
So, have you made sure that the list necessary details is in every home. And if you are missing something, ask your neighbor, he definitely has it.
Bite the needle tip off the syringe. And bite off the eye of the sewing needle.
Pin on wooden stick, using thread, two needles parallel to each other. Leave the lower ends of the needles open; we will solder the wire from the charger to them.
Bend the sewing needle so that it barely touches the syringe needle.
Apply flux and tin the needles as shown in the photo.
Bite off or disassemble the charger connector. We will need a red and black wire (plus and minus). Solder the red and black wire to the needles, the polarity does not matter.
The wood burner is almost ready. Use heat shrink or electrical tape to insulate the contacts.
Conclusion
So we figured out how to make a wood burner with your own hands. There are burners different types and varying complexity of execution. Today we have collected the simplest and cheapest option. At the same time, we used readily available materials and did not spend a lot of time.
Recently, friends brought me a hookah smoking device for repair. SMOKE"with a complaint about the weak heating of the tip. I opened it and saw a standard dimmer loaded on a weak step-down transformer of about 20 watts, which, even when connected directly to the network, could not adequately heat up the 0.9 mm tip. It suggested replacing the transformer with a more powerful one, but looking at prices (600 rubles for 40 W on the ring), I was thinking about a more cost-effective option.
And then it dawned on me: there is a miracle of engineering - 220V/12V for powering halogen lamps. We definitely don’t need such a voltage of 12 V, because the burner needs a large current at a low voltage, which means we will have to change the secondary winding of the pulse transformer. It will be necessary to reduce the number of turns by 5 times and increase the cross-section of the wire by the same amount. The easiest way to rewind a transformer is with a toroidal core, that is, a ring. I bought TASHIBRA 105 W for 130 rubles precisely for this reason. Some others have an W-shaped core filled with epoxy - they are difficult to disassemble. The power reserve is twofold, the dimensions are acceptable, the windings are not flooded with anything. Inside aluminum body this is the fee.
I unsoldered the transformer, wound up the step-down winding, and instead wound 2 turns with the first stranded wire in silicone insulation 5 sq. mm that came across. I soldered it back and started trying.
To accurately select the temperature, you need a thermostat - for example, a standard triac dimmer.
I measured the temperatures of different components with a pyrometer. Surprisingly, when operating at full power, the transistors and thyristor in the dimmer do not heat up (35C - that’s why they were pressed against the body through the cardboard). The transformer heated up a little more - about 50C. The cable going to the tip heated up the most - about 75C. Anyway, I installed the transistors through a gasket on the half of the aluminum case, replaced the cable with a shortened cord from an iron, fortunately it was designed for high currents and the silicone insulation would not melt. I installed a wooden handle from a dead soldering iron.
I left the power regulator and replaced the weak triac with a BTA-16 with a radiator of about 3 square meters. see and changed the values of some resistors (R2 limits the maximum power, R3 sets the minimum power). With reduced power, a tip with a diameter of 1 mm heats up to orange color, temperature of transistors 30C, triac 30C, transformer 40C, cable 45C. I believe that with the help similar device You can also power the foam cutter. Most likely the number of turns of the secondary winding will need to be increased - but I have not tried it.
Safety precautions
All components of the burner, with the exception of the tip, the secondary winding and the cable connecting them, are under voltage of 220 volts. You can touch them only after unplugging the power cord from the outlet.
When using nichrome/fechral needles of different diameters, you have to adjust the power for each needle. In my version, I got it with a dimmer with a housing. And if you create from scratch, then the easiest way is to take a ready-made dimmer, for example. The price will actually be higher than soldering it yourself, but it will save time.
As for the needle holder - the kit included 2 holders from copper tubes with crimped nichrome needles. I left one unchanged, and removed the needle from the second and put brass bushings without insulation on top of the copper tubes with 2 screws from a regular terminal block. I inserted steel wire into the tubes so that they would not be pressed through by the screws.
If you repeat the design, then there are ceramic terminal blocks and, as an option, connectors for halogens. You can take them more powerfully, but most likely the needle/tip will not be fixed very firmly in it.
The more reliable the contact, the less heating. A compromise is needed between contact reliability and the ability to change needles. It would be nice to choose a wooden or, best of all, cork handle.
In general, I gave you the idea, and the specifics of implementation when making a homemade wood burner are up to you. Especially for the site - circon.
Discuss the article WOOD BURNER
We make an electric wood burner from a pulse transformer. Once upon a time as a child, it was considered a given to have an electric wood burner at home. And now, I thought about making a similar device for my son (4 years old). After all, a drawing on paper may not be preserved, while one burned on wood will delight you years later. Yes, and it will be useful for me, as a radio amateur. They can be used to cut plastics when making cases, they can also be soldered, and even cut out PCB. Also, carefully cut the ropes (if you are a climber :-).The device has two operating modes. In the first position of the switch " norm"(I), it operates at half power: approximately 30-35W. In the second " turbo"(II) - 65-70W. The yellow LED shines in both modes, red only in the second. Indication LEDs are any, not bright ( AL307).
In order to make an electric burner, you will need a cheap ($2-2.5) Chinese-made switching power supply (UPS), 50-60 W, for halogen lamps. You can find them in stores around furniture fittings or in hardware stores.
Burner circuit
Schematic diagram of an electric burner based on ET
On the Internet, I came across a modification for making a pulse soldering iron. In the case of a burner, minimal modifications to the UPS will be required.
First, remove the board from the case and solder the output transformer. A lot has been written about these schemes, so I won’t go into details. It copes well as an electric burner. Let me just say that bipolar transistors MJE13003 (TUVE13007) can be replaced with more powerful current ones - MJE13005, MJE13007(last digit means operating current). At choosing a UPS, you need to take into account the fact that it should not have short circuit protection!
So, having removed the transformer from the board, it must be disassembled. A lot has also been written about disassembling ferromagnetic transformers. But, I will share my experience. First of all, remove the film and use a knife to remove the glue on the core connection. Afterwards, heat the water in a small container until it boils. But we don’t immediately throw it into boiling water, but heat it first warm water. Due to the fact that the quality of these trances is very low, they can break. Therefore, after warming it up a little, we put it in boiling water and leave it there for a few seconds. The procedure can be repeated and try to loosen the winding body, and also run a knife along the seams of the ferrite halves. In the end, you will be able to disassemble it, but do not rush, do everything with caution. In my case, even after breaking such a trance, I did not despair, and connected the four pieces of the core with tape. Some glue the cracked slices, but even without that it works just fine, tightly compressed with adhesive tape.
Having disassembled the transformer, remove the secondary winding, and in its place we wind 3-4 turns of stranded wire with a cross-section of 2.5-4mm2. An electrical cable (mains cable) is suitable for this. The insulation is first removed, and in its place a heat-shrinkable casing of suitable size is put on. Why heat shrink tubing? Because she takes less space, regarding cable insulation. Now, we wind four turns, with a branch from the third. The voltage on the last turn will be approximately 9.0-10.5V. All that remains is to put the transformer back together and remove the leads, as can be seen in the photographs.
It's time to work on the body of the electric burner. For this we need an aluminum furniture leg. Yes, yes, furniture again! It is very cheap (less than a dollar), but most importantly it is made of 1 mm thick aluminum. Thus, the case will serve as a heat sink for transistors, which get very hot. Square leg height =100mm. The issue of the front panel is also resolved. To do this, we disassemble the leg and leave a plastic plug with which we cut off a part - so that all the components of the product fit. Further, the radiator for transistor switches is also aluminum.
I used a 5mm thick plate radiator. It already had threaded holes, which I later used. But if you find a copper plate, it will definitely serve as a better heat sink. You can also use any other radiator of a suitable size. In addition to this radiator, I connected an aluminum U-shaped profile - you guessed it, also a furniture one, which fits tightly into the square profile of the case.
The radiator must be in close contact with the body! This way the heat will be distributed evenly, with greater efficiency throughout the body, without requiring bulky radiators. The U-shaped profile is connected to the radiator plate with a small gap (2-3 mm) through small washers and then we screw this “sandwich” to the plate included in the impulse generator kit. Transistors and the board must be attached through an insulator, also from the UPS. It is preferable to ground the burner body.
Don’t forget, the device is connected to a mains voltage of 220V, so we take all safety measures during assembly and commissioning!
Now, we drill holes in the plastic front panel for the electric burner operating mode switch - for wires and for LEDs red And yellow glow. We connect the LEDs with limiting resistors with hot glue, as can be seen in the photo.
Next, twist the switch and solder all the wires together (see figure). Switch – P2T-21(Soviet production, maximum switching power up to 660 W with active load). It is necessary to use the most powerful toggle switch possible, otherwise the contacts will overheat! Maximum power electric burner reaches 70 watts.
To the body, as legs (anti-slip), we glue self-adhesive cork or silicone (available from glaziers and furniture makers). As a handle, I used a ready-made handle from a burner industrial production. And if you make it yourself, then a handle from a burnt soldering iron will do. Or we cut it out of textolite, wood with a fluoroplastic tip of suitable thickness. Fastening for nichrome - the terminals of electrical blocks are just suitable for these purposes.
I found nichrome for tips with a diameter of 0.8-1.5 mm on the radio market. Suitable for different heating devices. It must be bent as in the photographs and the tip flattened with a hammer. I made two types of tips: one from millimeter nichrome - for burning and cutting, the other from one and a half millimeter, for rougher work. Accordingly, the second one will effectively heat in a more powerful operating mode of the device (turbo).
The wire for the electric burner must be selected with a large cross-section and the most flexible. Otherwise it will get warm. Naturally, the electric burner will work intermittently, approximately 15-30 minutes.
Firstly, the efficiency is very low, which leads to large heat losses. And secondly, the handle will heat up, which forces you to work with it cyclically. For more convenient use, I advise you to adapt a push-button pedal (from sewing machine or from some machine) or a push-button power switch, etc. I did not make additional holes in the case or radiator for heat removal. This is at your discretion, depending on the radiator used.
The device is very easy to manufacture, thanks to ready-made solutions to assemble it. It can be made by any beginner with minimal electronics skills. The main thing is to follow safety rules when working with it. After all, the tip temperature reaches 500-600 degrees.
If you make an electric burner for a child, then the presence of an adult when working with it is mandatory. I hope it brings joy and creative success! ).
Discuss the article ELECTRIC BURNER
Why exactly homemade burner? There are many domestic and imported models of electric wood burners on sale: Orbit, Pattern, Elm (ours), Stayer, Qiddycome (Chinese) and others. But lovers of artistic painting with a hot needle on wood are not always happy with this available choice.
Domestic devices usually have only one needle, imported ones have from 4 to 21 nozzles with different needles, but suffer from fragility. And you can’t always buy the right device in the right place in right time. Here we will talk about the experience of one Siberian enthusiast, an amateur, making a high-quality homemade electric wood burner with 39 (!) needles (see photo). Let's conduct, so to speak, a master class on his behalf.
First of all, we set three basic design requirements:
1. Sufficiently high power of the power supply unit, allowing the use of needles of large cross-sections.
2. The possibility of stepwise voltage adjustment for working with needles of different sections and smooth adjustment to change the temperature of the needles in a wide range.
3. Convenient change of working needles.
Simple electrical diagram device is shown in the figure. 
Now let's move on to the process of its manufacture.
We take any transformer with a power of at least 200 W (other characteristics are unimportant), for example, OSM 380/36V (250 kW). At lower power, the transformer will overheat when operating with needles of large cross-sections. Completely remove the secondary (upper) winding. The primary (network) remains in place.
We rewind the secondary winding: one or two layers of flexible insulated wire with a cross section of 6 mm 2 (for example, PV-3). You should first calculate the number of turns per 1 V of output voltage (by selection: wind several turns, connect the transformer to the network and measure the output voltage).
Let, for example, there be 4 turns per 1 V. Having determined the value of 2 V for the lower limit of the output voltage, we first wind 8 turns, and then make taps after every two turns. This will give a discreteness of 0.5 V for stepwise adjustment. To ensure a discreteness of 0.25 V, we will add another turn (in the diagram - the upper tap of 0.25 V).
In addition to stepwise, we also use continuous adjustment of the output voltage by inserting a variable wirewound resistor PPB-25 100 Ω into the primary winding circuit (R1 in the diagram).
In view of high power device, we will abandon the male-female connector, and we will securely connect the working handle with the needle to the body with galvanized M6 bolts. We will equip the taps and ends of the secondary winding with 6/6 tinned copper tips.
Working with needles of large cross-sections requires a current of at least 30 A. Therefore, the cross-section of the wires of the working handle must be at least 4 mm². You can take two rubber-insulated cores from a KG 4x4 cable (vinyl insulation of a wire of the same cross-section does not provide the required flexibility).
We grind the handle to lathe made of ebonite. We tightly insert a fluoroplastic plug with two brass rods into the front end of the handle for attaching the working needle (see photo). These rods fit tightly into the holes drilled in the plug. At the ends of the rods, 8-10 mm recesses are drilled. Tinned contacts are pressed into the recesses located inside the handle. A needle is attached to the outer recesses. M4 screws are suitable for clamping the needle.
You can use anything as a housing, you just need to remember safety. For example, the case from a megaohmmeter of the last century is very good: it is fantastically strong and durable.
Today, many people, both adults and children, want to burn wood. This type of hobby even has a name - pyrography. Since ancient times, this type of art arose; its essence lies in depicting drawings on wood on a hard surface so as to capture the picture on long time. To do this, use a very hot object that will melt the surface, thereby leaving marks.
What materials should be used? Wood is chosen as the basis for the future image, since it is one of the most pliable, cheapest and most available materials for burning.
Undoubtedly, every person at least once saw the fruits of pyrography live. Translated, this word means image using fire. It looks really fascinating.
Surely every person has been surprised more than once by the beauty of drawings and patterns on wood. Wood burning, like drawing, is painstaking and a lot of work. Those who create with the “help of fire,” like sculptors and artists, are very receptive to the world around them, because this is the main condition for creating masterpieces. A masterpiece, in this case, is not just to depict someone’s face or an element of nature, but to convey every feature, even the smallest detail, to display the mood, the expression of the eyes (if it is a person). And all this on one small board.
There are several types of burning
Using a store-bought device (meaning purchased in a store developed by a company).
- Using homemade wood burners (that is, the element that you make from your own materials).
- Using the sun and a lens. This method is used by many children who have nothing to do in the sun, but it was used by ancient people to get a fire or transmit any information to other tribes using a drawing on the bark.
Today, the most relevant thing is a homemade wood burner, since the sun is not always there, and we are not ancient people in a hopeless situation. And when buying a new device you will have to spend a considerable amount of money.
To make it yourself, you need to have an understanding of the structure of any store-bought analogue. With the right approach, you can develop more functional and high-quality wood burners.
What does the store element consist of?
We can only consider it externally. A inner part can be seen in the drawing. The wood burner diagram is shown in the photo below.
By the way, stores most often sell power tools. Therefore, it is worth looking at the main parts, including the transformer for the wood burner. Also, for an expanded understanding of these elements, you should pay attention to the operating instructions. The main parts and the material from which they are made will definitely be specified there.
How to make a wood burner with your own hands?
To implement this idea, you need to use a lot of ingenuity and perseverance, since this is not the easiest task, and the scheme is very confusing. During manufacturing, you will have to use a variety of equipment that is not commercially available.
What will you need for this?
It all depends on what kind of wood burners you decide to make. The only thing that will be useful in any case is nichrome wire. The next required spare parts are a battery and a wire. The battery is preferably a rechargeable type, since constant use of the device will use up a lot of regular batteries, which can significantly hit your pocket.
There are also requirements for the wire. A good wire is the key to your safety, so you should approach this issue very responsibly.
Where can I find a diagram for development?
You can develop the scheme yourself. In our article you can find many different types of schemes - from the most basic to quite complex. All these inventions were designed to suit the nature of the developer, naturally. You can easily choose any of the schemes and work according to it.
It is worth recalling that each person is an individual, which means that each has his own character and his own requirements for life. In this case, it’s worth remembering this, looking through the large number of proposed scheme options and creating your own, even if it is a little more complicated and more demanding than the others.
Naturally, it will be easier for people who are closely familiar with physical laws, and especially with electrical circuits, to implement their idea. If you don’t understand this, no problem, you can find information about graphical representations of circuits, understand the images and find out what is what in reality.
Where should I start?
You need to start by modeling the burner first in your head and then on paper. When you have clearly defined ideas, you can start looking for parts for the device. This will not take much time, since everyone has the basic spare parts in the house. Of course, it will be more difficult if you choose a pyrograph with the ability to change attachments and change the temperature.
How to make the simplest burner?
Surely many don't large quantity time to do difficult option burner. Therefore, let's consider hiking option.
To make the device we will need:
Needle from a medical syringe;
- one sewing needle;
- 9 Volt rechargeable battery;
- double wire.
The needle should be given more attention, since the quality of your masterpieces in the future will depend on its quality. It is desirable that it be sharp and thin. During operation, it is the needle from under the syringe that will heat up red-hot. The second one will barely touch it. This will cause resistance and will cause the needle to warm up.
A cap from a syringe needle, as well as a sewing needle (with threaded thread), will also be useful in production. It is necessary to pierce the cap with a needle and stretch the thread to the end - so that the needle fits tightly to the cap. To secure it, wrap it with the rest of the thread. In this case, the needle should extend beyond the cap and be positioned strictly parallel to it.
Next, let's return to the syringe part. The cone-shaped cap is of no use, so it must be eliminated. We wind this needle to the opposite side of the cap with another thread, parallel to the sewing needle. Now you need to slightly bend the tip of the needle so that its tip touches the sewing needle. As was said above - than smaller area contact between games - the better it is for the speed of warming up.
Next step
Next, you need to take a high-quality double wire. It must be cleaned on both sides and two holes made in the cap to bring the wire out. Having done this, you need to connect each wire to the corresponding needle. It is advisable to screw the wires very tightly, since the quality of the current flow depends on this.
For safety and quality, it is necessary to finally secure the wire (including threads) with insulating tape.
At the end of the work, you need to use an unnecessary button (preferably from an old tape recorder) and a rechargeable battery. The main thing is not to confuse the polarity, otherwise homemade apparatus will not heat up (or rather, its tip).
All is ready! All that remains is to try out the made device in operation.
Summarizing
It is worth noting that now burning is not only a way of spending time, but also a way of earning money. The demand for burning portraits and landscapes is increasing every day. Now this activity competes with wood carving. Wood carving was originally created to diversify the interior of ancient houses of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After all, when there were no stores beautiful furniture, they created it themselves. Recently we started trying to use burning on furniture instead of wood carving. This solution will make the interior not only beautiful, but also unique.
The price depends on the number of strokes required and the quality requirements of the work.
In fact, you can make any wood burners in a short time. A drawn sketch or drawing will greatly simplify the assembly or even the creation of your own model of the device.
It doesn’t matter how complex the model is; the most important thing in this device is the correctness of the tip. This is what can affect the quality of your future paintings. The wood burner performs patterns very accurately, so the image can be of any degree of complexity. By the way, as shown in the previous photographs, the shape of the tip for this electrical device can be changed depending on the complexity of the work.
So, we found out how to make an electric wood burner with your own hands.
