another Lichtenberg death

[richard shelby]

Be careful out there:

https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/news/man-died-of-electrocution-police-say/article_ac89b0fe-a4b7-11e9-8140-cba501e64741.html

[John Keeton]

Even with a commercially available unit there are so many things that can go wrong and with the level of current involved, the end result is almost always death. It is one thing to risk a cut or some other injury in a hobby. We all do that, even playing golf. But, playing with lethality in a hobby doesn’t interest me.

[Peter Blair]

I know there are lots of turners and other artists who say this is a 'safe' process if done properly but for me the end result just doesn't make it for me.

In the beginning I must admit I admired the patterns that were being produced but after a while the result for me was more of a "seen that now what"?

[Roger Chandler]

Regarding safe......something this dependent upon certainty of detail, proper sequence, understanding of electricity, and safety controls, which done infrequently only adds to the odds that at some point some detail will be missed by the person doing this fractal burning technique.

If one did it every single day, there would still be the lapse at some point about a detail, which could prove fatal. The heart muscle, which depends on electrical conduction, produced by the chemical reactions of sodium and potassium in the body, to properly function can have that electrical conduction interrupted with something as simple as not being properly grounded, and it's all over then.

In my opinion the resulting embellishment from fractal burning isn't that impressive anyway, and certainly not worth endangering my life in order to achieve it's results. I applaud the AAW for their cautions and their stand on the matter.

[Bert Delisle]

I just did a search on electrocutions to get a sense of how many occur generally. I was amazed at how many happen every year that involved common every day appliances, and extension cords. This never make the news or comments on forums.
Education would go a lot further to reduce occurances of all electrocution events. In most cases the individual came into contact with live wiring or energized equipment where insulation was compromised/damaged. In the case of Lichtenburg Pyrography systems, any system where a user handles the live high voltage cables or probes when power is applied is a recipe for disaster. Education moment; NEVER handle the high voltage side when power is applied. One way to ensure this could include hard wiring TWO momentary hand switches in series in the transformer low voltage supply cable. This would require both hands to be on low voltage switches to apply power. If one removes a hand from one switch to move a probe power is shut off automatically. There are so many poor examples of home made systems that are inherently dangerous on the web and very few good ones that provide safety measure information. However even with good safety information available some folks will disregard it and go for the Darwin Award anyway. It is really unfortunate that organizations that could have a positive educational effect on those artists interested in trying Lichtenburg Pyrography chose to condemn it outright. The technique is not for every one but those who are interested could benefit from good safety education. In my opinion any commercially available system that requires a user to handle probes or probe holders while energized is putting the user at risk of electric shock, because insulation gets dirty or ages and breaks down over time and they do not provide a safety testing schedule or procedure, this testing info would be common in a workplace environment.
Turning bad wood causes more incidents and potentially damaging events because of the unknown defects in wood, and education has provided many opportunities to reduce those risks and limit damage or injury but they still happen.
Enjoy your hobbies whatever they are and remember we are all responsible for our own ability to stay safe.

[Alex Zeller]

My neighbor is a woodworker by trade. As such his equipment is much more powerful that anything I would use. Of course it's all 3 phase which we don't have on the poles coming up to our houses. So he had a homemade rotary phase converter. You can find plans all over the internet on how to connect two motors together and how much capacitance is needed. To start it turning you had to bump power to the start capacitors. This thing was made with a couple 30hp electric motors to give him the power he needed. There's some very safe designs out there and then there's what he had. I have free access to his shop but until he bought a commercially made unit I always told him you start it and I'll stand next to the main breaker. I'm not timid around electricity but I do have a healthy respect for it.