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Death from Fractal Burnng


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Yea, that's the third instance I know of, one a few months was in OH if I remember correctly. The other I heard, was in a high school shop class with a commercially made unit, I don't believe that one was fatal but not sure. There is a serious "gee whiz" factor associated with the technique that is just making everyone want to do it. They are calling it "art" but it seems to me art should involve more than flipping a switch. No thank you for me.

 

Steve

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I totally agree.  It happens in an instant.  A big problem I see here is the tool used for burning is a homemade device in most instances.  I see safety as a big concern especially considering it is high voltage arcing electricity.

Edited by HandyDan
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I agree with Gene , it is not the fact that there are deaths in other areas of woodworkig, but the number of hours spent at each task. Probably thousands of hours in other tasks before a death recorded, however in fractual burning very few hours(including prep time.

 

One of our woodturning club members is a retired fire chief and he was one of the first to use this method and the first to do a club demo. His main thrust for about half of the demo was safety procedures and know how of safe assembly of the hardware. That was enough to let me know I did not want to do that. By the way he uses pins with clips to carry current thru the wood rather than handles on the electrodes. Then when he turns on the currect he is not in contact with either the table nor the electrodes.

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16 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

John, not nit picking, your advice is excellent, but consider the number of wood working tool used, vs the number of fractal burning set ups. 1 or 2 deaths in the latter category is huge. 

And, the margin for error in that category is practically non existent.

 

 

Good point Gene, I didn't think about the whole ratio thing, thanks.

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John it is a matter of research as far as equipment. The safe parts to build this are out there already in the electric supply industry. It is just a matter of buying good parts to build with and then follow safe practices in building and using the setup.

 

I have not researched the deaths, but today this one is all I can find on google. In the USA in 2001 there were 411 deaths for alltypes of electrocution .

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