hi, alan stratton, from as wood turns (www.aswoodturns.com)a part of woodburning for woodturning is to use a wood burning setup. i showed you inanother video, the power supply for my woodburning. this now is my pen that i’m using. the penhere is derived from a combination of graeme priddle’s design and molly winton’s design.it is essentially just a power cord, some brass rod, a couple of connectors, insideof a pvc pipe that is cut and then filled
wood branding iron diy, with a little epoxy.i’ll show you how to make that in a minute. you insert a tip into the end. i have justa dummy here. molly winton showed us how we could make ourown tips that have various shapes, curly que or basket weave, or a lace. these are niceto use because, while you can buy commercial
and you will need commercial tips such asthese ball tips or a skew which can be purchased, it is nice to make your own.so, let’s show you how i made my pen based on graeme and molly’s designs.to start my pyrography pen, the hardest thing was to find the connector strips. i went toradio shack but since their bankruptcy, they’re worthless. i found a better connector stripat jameco electronics. other club members found theirs at a local full service electronicsupply. retail stores just don’t have them. the connector strip was harder to find asi wanted the style with a tube to receive the wire and two screws on top. based on graeme’srecommendation, use a steel connector instead of bronze if possible – steel will lastmuch longer.
in preparing the connector, i tried removingthe screws directly, but i could not get them out of the plastic. so, instead, using a pairof diagonal cutters, i clipped back the plastic that surrounds the screw and pried away someof the plastic. now the screw came free. after that, the steel tube easily slipped out ofthe plastic housing. my connector has little flaps that go between the tip of the screwand the wire. i removed the flap from the side were i will put in the brass rod. otherwise,the rod did not fit. i’ll keep the other side.i prepared my wire by soldering one end to a male one-quarter inch jack and strippingback the wires on the opposite end. i will not show my sloppy soldering here.i’ve also cut about six inches of â¾â€
pvc pipe and two 2-3 inch pieces of 1/8â€brass rod. in this design the length is not significant. i thought about omitting therod completely but figured it gave me some additional stiffness to the assembly.i’ve fastened connectors to both ends of the two pieces of brass rod. i’m using theveneer to separate the connectors and keep them from shorting out. i’m using ca glueto glue the sides of the connectors to the veneer. one connector and rod assembly isnow glued to each side of the veneer. a popsicle stick would work well also.for a little more insurance, i’ve wrapped each end of the connector and veneer assemblywith electrical tape. now i can fasten the wire to the connectors.after a little more electrical tape, i’m
inserting this assembly into the pvc pipe.i’m stuffing a little cotton into the pipe to keep the epoxy from running out the otherend and to minimize the epoxy. after mixing the epoxy, i carefully filledone end. this was tricky to not get epoxy all over the place.after the first epoxy hardened, i got smarter and used a clamp to hold the pvc pipe whilei filled the other end. at least this time the power cord is not in the way and not tippingover the clamp. after everything hardened. my pyrography penis ready. i purchased two sets of commercially madetips: this set has a skew and several other shading tips. i expect the main one i willuse will be the skew. molly showed us how
to carefully sharpen it with a diamond stone.another set i expect to use a lot consists of various sizes of ball points.these tips, at least the five at right and across the bottom, i made in molly’s classbending nichrome 20 and 22 gauge wire. the one at upper left was made by jerry klug.since they’re made two at a time, he gave me one. anything i can imagine and bend intonichrome wire is a possible pattern i can use to burn my turnings.let’s make a simple rustic tip. i cut about 4 inches of 18 gauge wire, clamped it to arod with vise grips, and started bending it into a shape. this is stiff wire; molly recommends20 or 22 gauge wire. i’m fine tuning the shape now before heating the wire. after heatedonce, the wire becomes brittle when cool and
cannot be reshaped when cold. now i’m inserting my tip into my pen. lightpressure when tightening the screws is enough. too much pressure especially with brass couplingscould split out the coupling. but, my couplings are steel.now, let’s fire it up and see if this tip is any good. the vaporizer has enough powerto quickly reheat the tip between each touch. this tip is versatile. depending on how ihold it, i get a u-shape, slightly diverging grooves, or wider diverging marks. plentyof smoke; plenty of bursts of fire. it’s making an interesting pattern. this tip maybe a keeper. with that, we’ll see you again next weekwith another woodturning video. i love feedback
via your comments. please “like†thisvideo. if you haven’t subscribed, please subscribe to both my website and youtube channel.always wear your full face shield –goggles are not enough. until next time, this is alanstratton from as wood turns dot com.
