Burning turning with wire

[Jeffrey Cole]

New to turning and would like to know how to use a piece of wire to burn a line in the wood. What kind of wire do you all use? Any information will be new and very helpful.
Thank you for your time!!
Jeffrey

[Sonny Kemp]

Jeffrey Im sure different people do it different ways.What I do is take my skew or cutoff tool and put a line where I want the burn mark.Then take your wire,I use guitar strings,and fasten to a short wood handle on each end to hold it with and turn the speed up pretty fast and just hold the wire against it while it spins.I wouldnt try to hold it with my hands in case something goes wrong and it hangs you could lose a hand or fingers real quick.Hope that helps.

[Brice Rogers]

I use a piece of this iron wire. I use a pointed tool to make a small groove first, to help keep the wire positioned. I am careful how I hold the wire so the if it were to grab that it would just pull out of my hand rather than cause an injury to myself. Higher speeds and more pressure create more heat.

[Barry McFadden]

I have done pretty much the same as Sonny but I've used the braided picture hanging wire you can find in any hardware store

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Check with a local music store. Some sell individual guitar strings. I use a couple different sizes/diameters depending on the width of the line I want to burn. Cut in half, I use 1/2 and save the other for future use. My local music stores sells them for $1 each.


BTW... guitar strings make a great replacement for the broken wire on cheese slicers too.

[larry senen]

Ive got a roll of rebar tie i use around the shop ,Very handy and cheap. Worked great.

[William C Rogers]

I use 0.018 solid fishing leader wire.

[Roger Chandler]

Please, please......if you are going to burn with wire, realize you can lose a finger or two if you hold the wire in your hands and not with a small handle on each end. I don't think one can guarantee the wire will just slip out of the fingers if something goes wrong, so a small dowel or even a couple of wooden balls with holes for the wire and a knot on the outside will allow for the proper tension and allow one to let go if needed.

Do stay above the turning, and not underneath, then make sure no clothing or such can get wrapped around the spindle, and approach a fast speed turning with great care, and begin with light pressure, and build slightly till you begin to see smoke. Guitar wires that are wound do the best in my opinion.

[Jeffrey Cole]

Thanks for the help!! I will give it a try.
Jeffrey

[Mark Greenbaum]

As a guitarist, I use my old wound low E string, with a couple of turned handles on the ends. I let the speed be controllable and pull back and forth to add the friction. I set off the smoke detector once, so be warned.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Burn at high speed and make a groove to easily start where you want the line or lines, by wrapping the wire partially around the turning, the friction will increase and the burning will start faster and hotter.

I use so called piano wire, it comes in different gauges, thinner wire will give you a fine line, and yes put handles on the ends, as the wire can be grabby sometimes.

343635

[Mike Goetzke]

If you prefer to buy ready made Ptreeusa had them under wood turning specialty tools (they seem to have 15% off today?).

Mike

[mike ash]

So, I use Formica chips that I get free as samples at Home Depot. I cut the grove I want with either a skew ot 3-point tool, then I rest the edge of the formica on the tool rest and press it into the grove I have cut as it is spinning fast and "presto" I've got a nice burn line. I think safer than the wire burning.

[John K Jordan]

New to turning and would like to know how to use a piece of wire to burn a line in the wood. What kind of wire do you all use? Any information will be new and very helpful.


Jeffrey,

It depends on what kind of burn line you want. The thinner the wire, the finer the line.
Most wire is too fat for my tastes since I mostly burn on small things.
I almost always use some fine galvanized wire made for fasten tags to industrial valves and things.
Expect any wire to break eventually from heating, bending, and abrasion.

As someone mentioned, it is VERY important not to hold the wire in the hand, especially by winding it around fingers to get a grip. This, of course, is common sense but it's worth repeating. I use a 12" long piece of wire fastened to two small sticks of wood. Be prepared to drop the little handles if the wire catches (but it shouldn't.)

As mentioned, a very tiny starting groove made with some tool will keep the wire on track.
Wrapping the wire further around the piece will often work better.
Use a high lathe speed. I generally run over 3000 rpm.
Don't bother trying to burn lines in lignum vitae - it is self lubricated and can't get enough friction!
Burning, of course, is more noticeable on light-colored woods although I have used it on darker on occasion to good effect.
I burn only after my final finish cut and any sanding.
After burning, I touch it lightly with very fine sandpaper to cleanup any rough edges from the burning.
I apply finish after the line is burned. Blow the dust out of the groove first!

Someone on another forum recently mentioned nichrome wire worked well, far better than copper wire. I would have not used copper since it is so soft. That iron, steel, and nichrome work better makes since due to the lower thermal conductivity of those metals.

For a better "bite", more friction, and more heat, I rough up the piece of wire with some sandpaper.


This is not specifically what you asked for, but for even more fun: years ago I developed a technique to burn lines on a sloped surface where the wire would normally slide off. I wrote up this on another forum after someone asked me how I burned these lines on a slope with a wire.

http://www.woodcentral.com/webbbs/media/turning/495/495389_1.jpg

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A while back I wrote here about this technique. People commented with other ideas such as holding a thin piece of laminate against the wood. The other ideas turned out not to be as controllable or to not produce as fine a line or make a relatively sloppy line. (Believe me, I have tried many things.) I have friction-burned lines like this hundreds of times, mostly on finger tops.

I developed this technique maybe a dozen years ago. I've never seen it done by anyone else nor have any of the many people I've shown. But since very little in woodturning is new I wouldn't be surprised if someone had! Maybe even a couple of hundred years ago...

So as briefly as possible:

Basically, I shape the slope the way I want it but leave a little extra wood on the slope, maybe an extra 1/16". Then I begin my finishing cut.

I interrupt the finishing cut partway down the slope, stopping to form a tiny valley. I friction burn the line in the valley, then continue the finishing cut, stopping again if I want to make another groove.

Two things are important for a good line. One, to burn deeply enough. Two, to not cut the burn mark away completely when continuing! I often try to cut the line in half to leave a sharp and smooth-bottomed line.

For example, suppose we want to burn two lines on a slope like in this photo:

http://www.woodcentral.com/webbbs/media/turning/495/495396_2.jpg

We want to create the lines on the left slope as shown in the profile at the top of this sketch. The black dots shown at the top represent the desired burn marks.

http://www.woodcentral.com/webbbs/media/turning/495/495396_1.jpg

Step A: As represented by the green line, leave the surface a little bit higher than the desired profile. I never measured the amount of wood I take off but it doesn't need much. Just the amount of a finishing cut.

Step B: Cut the final profile down to where we want the first burn line. Hold the wire in the little valley and burn the line.

Step C: Continue at the 1st valley and cut the final profile down to where you want the second line and repeat the burn.

Finish: Continue cutting the to the end of the profile.

There, simple, once you know how!

Some points:
- Sanding too much will remove the groove! Sharp tools and a careful hand on good wood should require little no sanding. (I usually hit it with a touch of 600 grit.)
- Most of the wires I see used to friction burn lines are way too thick for my taste, especially on smaller things. I have a big stash of thin galvanized wires about 12" long. After all these years I finally measured one: they are about 0.016" (1/64").

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


JKJ

[Wes Ramsey]

As a guitarist, I use my old wound low E string, with a couple of turned handles on the ends. I let the speed be controllable and pull back and forth to add the friction. I set off the smoke detector once, so be warned.

Nice! Good to know there are some uses for retired strings. I wouldn't doubt that the high E string could fully penetrate your hand if it got wrapped around and came back down on you. It will go in like a needle if you're careless just changing them. I've found that blood on the fretboard does very little for the tone ;)

[Keith Westfall]

As was said a couple of times - DO NOT WRAP IT AROUND YOUR HANDS!!!!!!

Make a wooden handle for each end, do NOT wrap it around the piece, just apply pressure on one side. It will burn.

[John K Jordan]

...do NOT wrap it around the piece, just apply pressure on one side. It will burn.

I assume your concern about wrapping it around the piece is to keep it from grabbing. I've made many hundreds of burn lines on smaller things with various amount of wrap and I don't think I've ever had one grab. However, I don't use wound wire if that would make a difference. The .016" diameter galvanized wire is not the least grabby.

The amount you have to wrap around the wood to get it to burn may depend on the type of wood, the wire, the speed, and the diameter of the wood. For example, I have to wrap around about 50% of the diameter of a small shaft (less than 1/4" diameter). A larger diameter, not so much. I suspect it's more about the length of wire against the wood than the number of degrees around the piece. Scuffing up the wire as I mentioned helps a lot.

Just for fun, here are a few more tops I make, lots with lines burned with the thin wire:

343675

JKJ

[Dan Hulbert]

I did some burning this weekend. light touch with a skew then used about 12" of Stainless Lock Wire I had laying about with wooden handles on each end. Hold taut and press until smoke. One thing not mentioned. The wire gets HOT.

[Paul Crofton]

It depends on the effect I want to end up with. I use different sized wires for larger, smaller burn lines. I use black wire, galvanized and even some stainless on the shelf. I hold one end with my vice grips and the other with a pair of pliers. Had a couple catches over time and it just jerks it out of the pliers jaws. I also use formica , credit cards I get offered quite often, I will sharpen the edge of some hardwood to burn lines although it is not as crisp as wire. I even use the flat side of screwdrivers width the vice grips on one end and the plastic handle on the other if I want a wide line.

[roger oldre]

Coat hangers, fencing wire, anything will work. thicker wire is easy to hold. never wrap the wire around your fingers.
https://youtu.be/5PycgbO4tK0

[Dok Yager]

I too use Guitar strings through a hole in the "dowel" or bead. DO NOT EVER use your hands!!! I have a friend that lost a finger that way, even after I showed him the "proper" way to do it. STUBBORNNESS got him Hurt!

[jeff oldham]

I have used wire but I actually prefer a piece of formica,,its a lot easier to me and the more pressure you put on it the nicer the burn,,,lol,,when its smokin,,you know you got a nice burn,,,,,