Battery charger wood burner

[George Morris]

Hi all looking for detailed instructions on how to build one. There is some info on web ,and here. I can not find a good details on this. any help out there?

Thanks! George

[neil mackay]

This should get you going, I have built one myself and they are very powerful.

http://www.woodturnersresource.com/extras/projects/priddle/WoodBurner.html (http://www.woodturnersresource.com/extras/projects/priddle/WoodBurner.html)
http://www.woodworkersguide.com/2012/03/20/how-to-make-a-priddle-vaporizer-1000/

[David DeCristoforo]

Before you go any further, check out this video
(http://videos.americanwoodworker.com/video/Make-A-Wood-Burning-Transformer;From-the-Editors-of-American-Wo)
I wish I had found this months ago when I was trying to do the same thing. This one is very specific about which items to buy and how to properly convert the charger. Very simple and understandable even for people like me for whom knowledge of electrical stuff ends at "plug it in".

[Paul Singer]

For those who have made the home-made versions. Can you use the regular pens such as the burnmaster pens with these units?

[George Morris]

Paul check out David vidio it is very good. Now I need the pen vidio. Thanks for all the help! G

[neil mackay]

For those who have made the home-made versions. Can you use the regular pens such as the burnmaster pens with these units

Paul, Probably but I made my own pen as well.

[Jeff Myroup]

I would not us my pens with this. It has almost 4 times the power of the burnmaster. You would most likely burn them out. They have an internal resistance of 2 or 3 ohms depending on the brand of pen. A burnmaster can burn other brand pens up if used at too high a setting

[Paul Singer]

Neil: Where did you purchase the nichrome wire and what gauge did you use?

[Jeff Myroup]

Paul, you can order Nichrome wire on amazon. I bought a couple of rolls about 6 months ago and they were around $17.00 per roll. The rolls are not large, but will last a very long time. I would recommend a minimum of 18 gauge. If you have 20 - 22 gauge wire you can twist them together.

[Paul Singer]

Jeff: Thanks for the info. I am collecting the parts to make this and hope to not electrocute myself. Found a Diehard charger at K-Mart on sale for $29.95 so I am on my way.

Thanks again.

[George Morris]

Paul keep me informed! I ordered a charger on line I have most everything else. Good luck! G

[Paul Singer]

George I will be glad to keep you informed. I ordered some nichrome wire which is suppose to be here Saturday. I will then try and put it together then.

[Paul Singer]

This is an update for George that I promised. First disclaimer is I wanted to keep the charger unmodified because it has a 3 yr warranty and I did not want to void that. You could make this much simpler if you did not care about the warranty. This is built from plans already posted in this thread with only physical changes to suit my needs.

Here is the complete unit.
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Close-up of the control unit. I used parts I had laying around. Its only function is to vary the input voltage to the charger.

238488

Here is the pen I made.
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And here is the pen under 10 amps of power.
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And here is a tip I made by pounding the tip flat to be similar to the skew tip available for purchase.
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The unit works good and is very controllable. The only strange thing i have found is when you first turn it on you have to turn it up to about 10 amps before the needle will move on the amp gauge. Then you can back it down to where you want it. I appears to have all the power I will need. hope this helps George and I used 18 gauge nichrome wire. I will probably try different gauges down the road but 18 seems to be a good all around gauge.

[George Morris]

Paul looks great! I see you can still use the charger for batteries ! I ordered a charger and will build it this week, I am dedicating the charger for this. I will take some pic. when done. G

[Paul Singer]

George can't wait to see your creation. I am dedicating this charger for the burner also but wanted to keep the warranty intact. Was not really sure how this would hold up in this configuration. I may take it apart and change the leads to get rid of the clamps. i can see through the vents that they are on spade lugs so they could be put back if I had problems. I have also noticed that if I turn it all the way up it will peg the meter beyond the 12 amp mark which I will avoid doing . Not sure how that would effect it's longevity. Plus there is no real need to go higher than 10 amps.

[George Morris]

Well I built it not hard just follow the directions on the sites. Lots of ways to do the pen. I turned a pc. of maple to a form I like,then drilled a 3/8 hole thru the pen. cut a small section off the end and this is what I ended up with. Works well I have about 90 dollars into it. Trying to upload pictures!If you notice I reused the power coard that came with the charger and I also used the cord to the battery connections. I cut off the ends and feed them thru the 3/8 hole in the new handle. Hope this helps some it works very well! It does vaporize the wood! Thanks for all your help! George.