You may have seen some of those cool "lightning strike" woodburned fretboards and stuff, but it's always seemed way too dangerous for me to want to have a go at. I've just picked up on this UK news article about a man who died whilst trying this technique. It's a harrowing and very sad event, and I'd urge anyone thinking about trying this to consider the very real dangers.
I take this as a reminder not to jury-rig power tools or electrical equipment - this can and does have fatal results. You don't get a second chance when death comes dashing into your workshop with a 2000volt homemade thunderbolt. Please be careful out there.
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I don't understand why anyone would want to do this. You can get the very same random results using a woodburner. Why risk life or limb to take a short cut? As someone who has recently survived having 110 go up threw my left knee and out my right hand I have to say No. Just no.
Cause, I totally understand your concern. Not sure how this is a shortcut though, love to see how to get similar results with a woodburner.
Our American Association of Woodturners (12,000 + members) has banned any demonstration of these techniques at any of the national or regional symposia. There have been deaths other than this one CBJ reported.
There is a commercial unit available and it includes several safeguards. I have one and will post info and a pic when I get back home-I'm currently on the road teaching (woodturning).
I don't really use it-its sort of a one trick pony.
John
Used one of my first pieces for a neck. A piece of oak.
LIKE
I was aftraid this would happen... There were a couple very irresponsible youtube videos on how to do this, one had a microwave transformer and all the wiring exposed on a desk indoors... Sigh.
I've mady many lichtenberg figures, but I've also worked with high voltages for years. This stuff is nothing to be casual about! My 9KV neon sign transformer can kill, and I remind myself every time I use it.
Heck, we don't use a switch to turn it on and off, it gets unplugged every time...
This is no different than using a radial arm saw or table saw... we need to understand the dangers and put in place practices to minimize them. Accidents don't just happen... I strongly believe that they are avoidable.
My thoughts go out to his family. Be safe.
Yes John, that's why i made the mains to primary circuit as safe as i could, but i might add a dead man footswitch before the box, on the HV secondary side, i could come up with nothing to make it safe, so i went down the physical isolation route, that way, i have to knowingly break the rules to touch the live area.
That is the way to go! I did add a foot switch to the mains side...
For demonstration purposes, we have a large box with a plexiglass lid, the lid has a micro-switch, wired in series with the foot switch. Signs everywhere say don't touch even the box... anybody gets close, the foot comes off...
I'd never heard of this till John posted a couple of weeks ago, so i went to U Tube to have a look, as i posted earlier, i was amazed at the methods some guys were using, pushing their luck to the limit, including spraying on water to encourage arcing as they were burning, and PPE was near non existent. Being curious, and having an old microwave on hand, plus most of the other stuff except, some flexible hi volt/ high temp cable i set out to see if i could make a safer method. in and on a non conductive box i mounted an on/off switch, then a 30 m/amp breaker, then to an oven temperature control switch with the active and neutral in series going to a fan and light, [both from the microwave], this allows me to power up the fan and warning light and stopping current to the transformer until i use the oven switch and controller to feed the transformer, i did want to have the controller before the box so there was no need to even touch the amplifier box during burning, but to do that i would have to run a second 240v input to the box for the fan and warning light because connected inline after the controller the transformer and warning light become alive at the same time, making the light only marginally useful. To me, this seems a pretty safe set up to the primary of the transformer. Now the secondary, with my very limited electrical knowledge, i could come up with nothing that could make the unit totally safe, not even nearly safe actually, so I went down the isolation path, i set up my work on plastic wheely bins, non conductive and a nice height, then i put physical barrier between the work and me, but close enough to reach the switch and controller, then behind me i run the power supply waist high to the wall outlet, so to go around the barrier, i have to unplug the power from the wall, not foolproof , but good discipline is needed, and to evade the cord, you need to make a deliberate decision to do so. As i said earlier, my electrical knowledge is very basic, any one seeing a way to make this safer is welcome to add their thoughts, as John said it is a very dangerous process, and on the output side, any mistake could be your last
I did the same thing as Darryl did after seeing the posting. I did it outside on concrete, and was very careful. It still was scary and a little unpredictable, some pieces came out nice and others hardly did anything. In the picture the white oak did great, red oak was ok and pallet wood was nice too. The oak is 1x2 intended for necks of some sort.
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