Woodburners

[Jerry Rhoads]

What woodburners do some of you guys use?
What hand peices?
And what tips
Which tip is best for signing your name?

I have been eyeballing a Burnmaster Eagle 2 port, for a couple of years now. I think am going to put it on my Christmas list.

Jerry

[Bernie Weishapl]

I guess I am cheap Jerry. I use a 30 watt soldering iron that has worked pretty well for me. I found several different tips for it. I have been looking at one of those units and doing some research.

[alex carey]

+1 on the soldering iron.

[Mike Minto]

jerry, i just bought a 'detailer' from packard - i've used it only a few times, but it's a really great tool. interchangeable tips for thick/thin lines, printing, shading in figures - i'm looking forward to exploring it more. for me, it's already proven to be easier to use and much more versatile than a soldering iron - which i used for a couple of years. hope this helps.

[Joseph M Lary]

Got the Cub Woodwriter from craft supply , got the adapter so i could use the Razertip accessories. it works very ,good you have to watch your heat when you change for kind of wood to another. also bought the ball stylus pen .

[Ryan Baker]

I use a Cub Woodwriter too with the smallest point tip for writing. It has plenty of heat.

[Ken Glass]

Jerry,
One more vote for the cub Woodwriter. They have lots of tips to go with it and some other brands tips work with it also.

[Jerry Rhoads]

Thanks everone

Jerry

[Richard Madison]

Razortip with skew pen, shader, and 1.5 mm ball tip pen. Would like one of the smaller ball tips but cannot justify more $$. Recently sold my first "pyro" piece, patterned after Wally Dickerman's work. Very gratifying.

[Nathan Hawkes]

I'm also a cub woodburner owner. I got the razortip accessories at the same time, but have since not really used them except for burning the edges of natural edge bowls as an accent, not really with anything other in mind than total burning of the wood area. They work much faster than the writing tips. If you're just going to use it for signing your name, you really don't need to spend the extra money IMHO. The smaller of the wires works quite well for signing your name, and is included with the basic cub burner. That said, I have read a fair bit of online tutorials about burning patterns, and hope to make some celtic knots,etc when I get some suitable light-colored non-figured wood to try it out on. I feel like it'd be too "busy" to use on tiger maple.

One thing I'd mention, is that different woods burn differently, and color up differently. You probably need to take a scrap piece and practice a bit to get used to it. Open grained woods, like some black oak (part of the red oak group) burl, I found required very methodical, slow signing. The tip wants to follow the grain in the wood. Practice makes perfect. Also, if you're signing the bottoms of bowls that are already coated with finish, make sure that they are totally dry and cured first. IME using the burner on minwax antique oil varnish 24hrs after the last coat has mixed results. The tip wants to slide around on the surface, and the varnish "bleeds" up and makes ridges around your signature. Ideally, I'd sign then varnish, but sometimes the varnish is difficult to completely wipe out of the depressed grain in your signature, leaving a bumpy feel. Just try what works for you. Different woods need different temps as well. Again, try it out, and have fun. Don't burn yourself!!;)

[Allen Neighbors]

I made my woodburner from an old 12 volt battery charger. Another wood turner is responsible for dreaming it up. I just copied him. If you're interested, I'll send you a short tutorial on how I made it.
It will burn holes in concrete..... well..... not quite..... but it is a really good burner. The tips are made from Nichrome wire.

[Tim Cacy]

I would appreciate a copy. tb4x4@sbbmail.com
Thanks-