Battery charger woodburner

[Neil Robinette]

I have a battery charger woodburner I'm trying to make work for a friend. The dimmer control failed and I replaced it with another 600 watt dimmer which is to hot or not hot enough. Is there a control that will give me a wide range of heat, and does not cost $ 100? Thanks for any advice, Neil

 

[Clifton C]

Probably not, the Graeme Priddle style 12vdc wood burner is usually called a wood vaporizer. I made one, not sure what dimmer I used but it was the one he recommended. The thicker the wire (nichrome), the more range I seem to have, but still, not a lot. 16 and 18 gage work great but the 20 doesn't last too long...
I'll be curious to see what others have done.

 

[Bill Boehme]

The problem really isn't the dimmer controller as much as the large guage wire used. The difference between not hot enough and vaporizing wood is a pretty small difference in the current through the wire. In order to fine tune the heat, you would almost need to have two controls ... one for coarse adjustment and the other for fine tuning. For all the trouble and expense of trying to implement that I probably would just buy a commercially available unit such as the Optima 1.

 

[Richard Coers]

It's not a replacement for a quality pyrography device. What do you want it to do? If you want to do shading, it won't be easy. I have read a tip to try and use the 6 volt setting on the charger, but I only use one to vaporize the wood.

 

[Bill Boehme]

For the type of pyrography that I do which is mostly fine lines and subtle shading, there is little to no smoke being produced and far different than the battery charger type of pyrography. It's sort of like comparing a match to a bonfire. I use a Detail Master which, unfortunately, is no longer in business. However, the good news is that the handpieces for Detail Master, Burnmaster, and Optima are all interchangeable.

 

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have made one, I used a push on/off and then rotating 600 watt light switch, it works for heavier burning lines or special burn shapes I make with ni/cr wire.

The rotating switch is not the best controller, but with carefully adjusting it does work satisfactorily,