Pyrography Pen Build

April 2, 20206 yr

First of all, who decided "Pyrography" would be a good name for wood burning. I can't even spell it, at least as far as the spell checker is concerned. Anyway I have been futzing around in the basement shop supposedly cleaning and reorganizing, well, at least until something to play with catches my attention. I came across a battery charger I was given for parts because it didn't work and I thought someday maybe I could use it to build a wood burning machine. Well that day or I should say days finally came. I opened it up and found the transformer still worked and that is the heart of the machine. The malfunction of the charger happened in the circuit board but I found online that I could eliminate it so I did. The diodes are there to make a correct DC voltage and they are still good but decided just to eliminate the board all together. Here is that circuit board I removed.

I noticed the store bought machines had plug in pens and used plugs that appeared to be the same as audio connectors. I didn't want to go out to the store if I didn't have to. Being the pack rat I am I looked around and found what I needed. I drilled the needed holes and installed a jack I had removed from God knows what and hooked the transformer wires to them. To control the heat a standard dimmer switch is connected to the AC power in wire on the hot side. A dimmer switch that powers on as the knob is turned would be preferred over the push on push off style. The heat is adjusted by "slowly" turning the knob and the push type can be inadvertently turned to the highest heat before it is pushed on and blow the fuse. Yep, you know how I know that.

Here is a picture of the front with dimmer switch.

I put the audio jacks on the back due to space restraints.

To make the pens I took some brass rod and used the Unimat hobby lathe to make connectors.

I had some small fiberglass pop up tent poles that I cut in pieces for the hand hold.

Soldered some audio cables to the tips. I used both available conductors in the wire to carry the current. In use the wires get quite warm and I may have to go to larger wires. I am going to use it as is and see what happens. I'll keep an eye on it and it is not high voltage. 12v.

For making the burning tips Nichrome wire is needed. Nichrome wire is what is used for making heating elements. I used a piece from a small space heater. I saved the wire for this purpose when I had a heater I was discarding.

Just bend it to what ever shape you want. Comes in different diameters if you choose to buy it. This is just a 6-Amp charger but is more than enough power. I can melt the wire with it. I have played with it a little and found the wire does not need to be red hot for burning but the continuous power is there and holds an even heat.