Burning bright
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I recently became intrigued by Lichtenberg wood burners and their ability to make intricate burn patterns in wood — reminiscent of fine Chinese/Japanese paintings of trees, as well as fractal-like images.
Turning to Google as the fount of all modern knowledge I quickly discovered that it is relatively straightforward to build a Lichtenberg burner, if not exactly a safe thing to do, unless you are very careful about how you build it. You need to make sure to incorporate the sort of safety features I will detail in this article.
The heart of the machine is a transformer liberated from an old microwave oven. It can generate the necessary 2000–3000V required to start the burning process.
The secret, of course, when playing with electricity lies in being ultra cautious
Sourcing your transformer
Unfortunately, it can just as easily generate the voltage necessary for you to shuffle off your mortal coil, which is a bit of a dampener and a drawback. Apparently, neon-sign transformers are more forgiving and are able to create effects that are more delicate, but they aren’t as ubiquitous as the microwave version and
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