DIY burner pen

From the author: Hello, dear friends! The art of burning came to us from the middle of the twentieth century. Today it is very popular among creative people and lovers of original interior solutions. With the help of a few items you can create paintings, interesting handmade gifts, restore old wooden things and even open your own business.

All you need for burning: a piece of wood (plywood, board, frame, etc.), a burning device, which is called an electric burner, pyrograph or wood soldering iron, and a creative spirit. Despite the fact that the market is filled with a large assortment of pyrographs for every taste and in different price categories, there are craftsmen and enthusiasts who know how to make a wood burner with their own hands and successfully apply their knowledge in practice.

How to make a wood burner: steps, assembly process

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Electrical circuit design
Preparatory work
Build process

Pyrography, or wood burning, is a fascinating and interesting hobby.
It is mastered by those who love art. Writings that first mention fire-scorched patterns date back to 700 BC. e. The burning apparatus was invented at the beginning of the 20th century. The first devices were made from a glass container supplemented with two rubber tubes.

At the end of one of the tubes a rubber ball was attached to pump air, at the end of the other there was a platinum tip connected to the handle.

In the middle of the 20th century, a new type of electric burner appeared, which became the prototype of a modern device. An original type of applied art has become available to children.

The design has undergone considerable changes since then. Manufacturers install a power regulator. With its help, you can smoothly adjust the temperature of the working needle.

This allows you to apply a pattern to any available material. On sale you can find models with a large number of attachments.

Thanks to different-sized feathers, it is possible to form strokes of different sizes and give volume to the drawing.

Despite the sufficient choice among factory-made devices, many craftsmen want to make a wood burner with their own hands. Mostly experienced artists resort to this .

Problems are often discovered with the built-in transformer, and you have to solve the problem yourself.

Some craftsmen want to supplement their existing simple burner with a special device with which you can adjust the degree of heating of the needle. The article provides a practical guide to assembling a mini wood burner using improvised materials.

Electrical circuit design

When assembling a homemade burner, you must have knowledge in the field of radio electronics. This will allow you to develop an electrical circuit. If you do not have skills in this area, you can use the diagram presented below.

The circuit can be simple or quite complex, tailored to the developer’s requirements. The task is to select the most acceptable option and implement it in practice.

Preparatory work

Before making a burner, you need to plan the process, collect the necessary materials and equipment. The set of components depends on what type of device you plan to make . If you need a burner with temperature control, you will have to find a dimmer, dimmer, or a mechanism similar in functionality. You also need to prepare:

sewing needle;
needle removable from the syringe;
power unit;
soldering device.

To work, you need to take an old mobile phone charger. For a homemade burner, a power supply from an iPhone works well. Its output voltage is 5.1 V and 2 A. The more powerful the charger or battery pack, the better.

If there is no such device, you can use a charger for a screwdriver or other similar compact tool that does not work or is not used because it is not needed. You also need to find a barbecue skewer on the farm or buy in a store, high-strength threads, flux, and solder.

A needle is one of the main elements of a homemade wood burner.
Her choice should be approached responsibly. It is this detail that determines how sophisticated the ornament, the miniature silhouette applied to the wooden surface, will be. It is recommended to give preference to a thin and sharp needle .
A good option is a medical needle. It will heat up to maximum temperature, uniformly warming up the sewing needle, which will burn the design onto the material being processed.

Build process

First you need to take round pliers or metalwork pliers. With their help, the tip of a medical needle is bitten off. Then, strictly parallel, two needles are attached to a barbecue skewer and secured with a strong thread. The end of the sewing needle is carefully bent until it lightly touches the tip of the medical needle.

Then you need to connect the wires from the charger to the needles. Polarity does not matter; wires can be connected as desired.

In order for the electric burner to serve for a long time and reliably, the connection points must be properly processed. To do this, a small amount of floss is applied to them, then they are tinned.

The wires for the burner are soldered one at a time, attached to wooden skewers, and secured with threads. The excess protruding ends of the skewers are cut off. For greater reliability, the threads can be treated with superglue and protected with heat shrink tubing. After this stage, the device is ready and can be used for its intended purpose.

The figure shows an example of a burner.

The principle of operation of the device does not differ from the principle of operation of the factory device.

Despite the fact that the charger has only 2 A and 5.1 V, at the moment the electric current is applied, the thin-walled hollow needle from the syringe heats up intensely and transfers heat to the sewing needle.

The burner is compact, shows excellent performance in practice, and allows you to apply 10 mm thick strokes to a wooden surface.

To better understand the assembly process, you can watch the video.

How to make a mini burner?

1. Making a holder into which the burning needle is inserted.

The holder can be made from an ordinary wooden glazing bead, the length of which can be selected individually. On average, 10 sentiments are enough. You will need to make a hole inside the handle for the wire. The procedure can be carried out using an electric drill or screwdriver.

The drill should be selected strictly according to the thickness of the wire. At the end of the bead, it is necessary to make a small extension for the terminals of the ends of the wires to which the needle of their nichrome wire will be attached.

2. Connecting the electronic unit to the needle

A homemade burner operates from a 5 Volt electronic unit with a power of at least 2 Amps. A regular phone charger with the required characteristics will be suitable as an electrical unit. To connect, make a branch of the two-core wire, divide it into 2 separate ones. The ends are passed through a previously made hole in the handle and brought out.

3. Soldering the needle to the wires

A nichrome needle must be soldered at the ends to the lead-out wires. Each separate end is soldered to a separate wire. For solder, you should use flux, since the nichrome material is quite difficult to solder. The needle size must be at least 5 centimeters, otherwise the burner will not heat the thread sufficiently and its performance will accordingly deteriorate.

How to make a wood burner with your own hands: all about pyrographs

All you need for burning: a piece of wood (plywood, board, frame, etc.), a burning device, which is called an electric burner, pyrograph or wood soldering iron, and a creative spirit.

Despite the fact that the market is filled with a large assortment of pyrographs for every taste and in different price categories, there are craftsmen and enthusiasts who know how to make a wood burner with their own hands and successfully apply their knowledge in practice.

Types and features of burners

There are several types of electric burners:

with a wire feather (nichrome thread);
with replaceable brass (hard) nib;
laser pyrograph for wood (engraver).

An alternative to factory-made devices is a homemade burner. The role of the incandescent element is played by sewing needles, syringe needles or nichrome thread. Let's take a closer look at each type of electric burner.

With wire pen:

allows you to adjust the heating temperature of the pen;
the power of the device allows you to work with any type of wood;
heats up and cools down quickly;
it takes less time to work compared to a hard pen;
allows you to perform small details;
average cost from 1500.

With replaceable brass nibs:

takes a long time to heat up and cool down;
does not allow you to perform fine details;
with prolonged use it often burns out;
convenient to draw large and medium-sized drawings;
has a low price;
The set includes attachments.

Laser burner:

can be used on any type of wood, even undried;
high performance;
laminated chipboard cannot be processed;
thickness of the processed material - no more than 2 cm;
There is no way to make shadows on the image;
can also be used on other materials (plastic, leather);

Despite the wide range on the market, it often happens that the parameters that factory-made burners provide are not enough for the master, or the price of the desired device may be too high. Homemade burners are inexpensive devices and are made to suit the needs of the craftsman. But, like all devices, if it breaks down it is difficult to find spare parts for repair.

Tips for choosing

To choose a high-quality and convenient device, you must understand the principle of operation of the device, its design features and its properties. The device works very simply. The needle heats up when exposed to electric current, then the master draws with it on the surface of the wood.

All types of devices are characterized by the presence of almost identical parts. These are a holder, a housing, an electrical wire, a burning needle and a metal screen. The tool operates on a 220 V network. For amateur burning, pyrographs with wire and hard pens are used. People call them soldering irons.

When choosing a burner, focus on your preferences. There are some tips on what to look for when purchasing a device that you will be comfortable using. Therefore, your money and time will not be wasted.

The first thing we pay attention to when choosing is the length of the rod. If it is large, it will be inconvenient to operate the pyrograph and it will be impossible to work out fine details when burning. To check, take the burner in your hand and try to draw something.

It is better to give preference to a higher-quality device, but with fewer attachments, since several basic ones are often used in work. Choose a device with high power.

If you have never used this device, try borrowing it from friends or acquaintances and try it in action. You can also search the Internet for master classes in workshops in your city and attend them. This will be a great start to your new hobby.

Making a burner

If you don’t want to buy an electric burner, you can make it yourself. You will find many options on the Internet. According to the manufacturing principle, almost all devices are the same; they differ only in the set of design elements.

When working at home on the manufacture of a device, you need to study the electrical circuit and determine the sequence of actions, as well as prepare all the items and devices that will be needed for the work.

To make a portable electric burner using nichrome thread, you will need:

phone charger at least 5V–2A;
soldering iron;
flux;
heat shrink tubes;
drill with a small drill or screwdriver;
wooden strip approximately 10 cm long;
nichrome thread (plays the role of a needle);
insulating tape.

First, we prepare all the necessary equipment and tools. Nichrome thread and flux can be bought at a hardware store, at a radio market, or you can take it from an old soldering iron. In a soldering iron, the thread is located under a metal casing on the “tip” - after disassembling the device, you can easily remove it.

Why wooden slats? Wood is the best material for creating an electric burner.

The market also offers carbolite, which is a good option, but it conducts heat more, and on powerful devices the holder will heat up. Plastic - in appearance, one might say, is a cheap substitute for wood.

But heat-resistant varieties are expensive. If you try to save money on this material, the device will eventually become unusable.

Stages of work.

Soldering iron handle. We make it from a regular slats and select the length to suit ourselves. On average, 10 centimeters is enough. We make a slot inside the handle using a drill or screwdriver. The hole should be the width of the wire. The place where the wires will come out needs to be slightly widened. Nichrome wire is installed here.
Connect the charger to the handpiece. To do this, you need to divide the two-core wire from the charger into two ends and insert it through the hole in the rail, then bring it out.
Solder the nichrome tip at the ends to the lead-out wires. You need to put a heat shrink tube in place of the soldering joint. We attach each part of the tip to a separate end of the wire. Nichrome is difficult to solder; use flux solder for this. The thread size is at least 5–6 centimeters - otherwise, the pyrograph will heat up the tip and will not perform the job properly for its intended purpose.
We isolate the burner handle. We wrap the rail in 4-5 layers of electrical tape and squeeze it tightly in our hands until the winding completely adheres to the wood. Care must be taken to ensure that no electrical tape gets on the tip.
We are testing the device. We plug the charger into the outlet, then your homemade device warms up. The color of the tip becomes dark red. We check how the device works on the board by carefully applying the burner to it.

The second option has more filling, but there is no need to look for nichrome thread.

For this we need:

wooden block;
nails (2 pieces);
wires with a connector from the power supply;
wire cutters;
insulating tape;
soldering iron and tin (solder);
connecting terminals for wires;
syringe needle;
power unit.

We make marks on the wooden piece with a marker and hammer the nails into the block, removing the heads with pliers. We cut grooves for the cord along the base and file them for smoothness.

We install the wires with the connector from the power supply into the grooves and fix them with liquid glue. Using electrical tape, we insulate the base where the cord will be inserted. We attach wires to the nails and solder them. We take connecting terminals for wires that are attached to nails. We install the terminals on the nails. We insulate the wires.

Then we take the needle from the syringe from which the heating element will be made, and sharpen its center a little so that it heats up exactly in the middle. We blunt it and bend it into a triangle shape. We install the resulting part into the terminals. We connect the power supply and test our device. We wait for heating, try the burner.

How to burn wood

When starting to get acquainted with the art of wood burning, prepare all the necessary tools: a burner, a tool stand, a work piece and means for coating the finished product. For trial work, choose regular plywood.

During the learning process, try different types of wood, start with soft species (birch, maple, linden, pine, juniper). These woods have less resistance to the soldering iron, therefore, they are easier to work with.

Soft ones also have a light surface, which increases the contrast of the image.

Hard varieties of trees (oak, hornbeam, yew) usually have a dark surface. To make the design lighter, you can treat the surface with paint before burning. Another option is to choose a leaf of wood with an interesting natural texture and incorporate it into the design of the painting.

Try to choose a working surface without knots. The wood must be sanded before use. To do this, take sandpaper and sand along the grain. The workpiece will be smooth and easy to work with. Afterwards, wipe the board with a damp cloth and let dry.

The next step is to make a sketch of the future masterpiece. For sketching, you can use stencils and carbon paper. The drawing should be slightly noticeable.

While working, do not forget about the tool stand. This could be a specially made stand or a clay pot.

When burning wood, do not rush, this process requires concentration and painstaking work. To avoid damage to the workpiece, avoid excessive pressure with the burner pen on the surface of the product.

All work must be done with the same force, this will help to avoid gaps. Draw downwards, in the direction of the grain, so the needle will encounter less resistance.

After applying the design with a burner, it is necessary to cover the product with a protective layer: oil varnish, sunflower oil or nitro varnish.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the burning process is a fun activity, it is a great way to relieve stress and take your mind off all problems. When choosing an instrument for yourself, do not rush to listen to the advice of others.

Remember, wood burning, like any creativity, is a matter of individual preference. Think about what parameters of the burner you need, and don’t forget that you can always make the tool yourself.

Electric wood burner: master class on creating a pyrograph with your own hands using improvised materials

Creative people who love to make crafts with their own hands will undoubtedly be interested in such a direction as wood burning.

Its second name, pyrography, refers to the process of transferring a design onto a wooden surface using a soldering iron. The result is extraordinary masterpieces, and the process itself helps relieve stress.

The finished works are suitable as gifts for loved ones, friends or to decorate a wall in your own home.

On sale you can find dozens of models of electric burners from different manufacturers. Each type has its own characteristics, but they are all divided into two large groups:

with hard feathers. Burning devices with hard nibs can maintain a certain incandescent temperature of the pen. When choosing a burner, you need to take into account that the more power, the faster you can work. They are durable and easy to use. Most suitable for making large drawings. The set includes different attachments with which you can perform different types of work;
with wire feathers. Burning devices with wire pens can be used for delicate and painstaking woodwork.

How to make a wood burner with your own hands

Not everyone has the opportunity to purchase a burning device. To save money, you can make it yourself.

To make a burner, you need to prepare a soldering iron, nichrome thread, pliers, 1 sewing needle, 1 syringe needle, barbecue sword, glue moment, heat-shrinkable tube and power supply.

You need to take a syringe needle and bite off her nose with pliers.
Attach two needles parallel to the barbecue sword and wind the thread on top.
Next, bend until it touches the tip of the syringe needle.
Solder the wires from the power supply to the needles.
We tightly wrap the wires around the sword with a thread.
The protruding wooden bottom of the sword can be cut off.
We impregnate the wound thread with Moment glue.
Place a heat shrink tube over the thread.

The burner is ready, now it needs to be tested. To do this, you need to connect the power supply to a 220 V outlet; if everything is done correctly, the needle threads should turn red within a couple of seconds. The device should only be tested on wooden surfaces.

All necessary materials and tools are prepared in advance.
A piece of wood of the required size is selected. It is better to do the drawing on the smoother side. Wood varies in hardness from 1 to 10. Accordingly, hardness 1 refers to the softest wooden surfaces, and hardness 10 refers to the hardest. For the first attempts, it is better to use soft wooden pieces.
It is recommended to place the burner on a special stand, as it heats up instantly.
Then you need to sand the piece of wood on which the design will be applied. You can use sandpaper for this.
Instead of continuous lines, it is necessary to apply strokes. You can't press too hard on the wood, otherwise it will be difficult to control the pencil and then erase the extra lines.
There is no need to rush to get the job done faster. Wood burning itself is a long, painstaking process. For beginners, it is recommended to try to use the same amount of force when applying the design. The design can be made darker by holding the burner handle on a specific area.
The piece of wood must be positioned so that the grain is directed downward. This will help make drawing easier, since the device will move downwards all the time. Burning against the grain will significantly increase the resistance.

Workflow Recommendations

It is important to choose a comfortable place for the wooden plank. You need to place it so that you can easily reach any part with a burning device.
It is recommended to start burning the design from the bottom or along the outer edge.
It is necessary to go through places several times. If you touch the wooden surface softer, it will be easier to move the device. You should try to keep your wrist on the board.
First of all, you need to finish drawing the main lines, and then move on to the rest of the details.
To make a regular 2D drawing, and for a 3D one, you need to purchase different attachments.
Once the sketch of the drawing is ready, you can move on to adding colors. But you need to remember that an additional color will not always look beautiful. To do this, you can use watercolor paints.
Each attachment requires regular cleaning. This can be done using a sanding block for quick cleaning. Remove the nozzle with pliers and, to be safe, immerse it in cold water for a few minutes.
When the drawing is completed, you need to apply a special varnish coating to it and wait until the surface dries completely. It must be applied in a well-ventilated room or outdoors.

How to make a simple burner?

Few people have enough time to create a complex burner, so let's consider a simple option.

Materials

To assemble this device you will need the following:

sewing needle;
needle from a medical syringe;
9V battery;
double wire.

The needle is very important as its quality will affect the quality of your masterpieces. It is better to choose a thin and sharp needle. The needle from the syringe will heat up to red during operation, and the sewing needle will lightly touch it - this will cause resistance and help warm up the needle.

Build process

To make a burner you will need a syringe needle cap and a sewing needle with thread. You need to pierce the cap with a needle and pull the thread to the end so that the needle rests on the cap. To secure it, wrap it with the rest of the thread, and the needle should go beyond the cap and be placed parallel to it.

Let's return to the syringe part. We don't need the cone-shaped cap - we remove it. We wind the needle to the opposite part of the cap with another thread and a sewing needle. Now slightly bend the tip of the needle so that its tip barely touches the sewing needle. As we said, the smaller the contact area, the faster the burner will heat up.

Nutrition

We take a good double wire - it should be stripped on both sides and two holes should be made in the cap to bring the wire out. After this, connect each wire to the needles - screw them as tightly as possible, since the quality of current flow will depend on this.

For quality and safety, finally secure the wire with electrical tape.

Finally, use an unnecessary button, for example, from an old tape recorder, and a battery. The main thing is not to reverse the polarity, otherwise the device will not warm up.