# Conversion of battery charger to wood burner



## jeffthewoodwacker (Dec 26, 2007)

*Conversion of battery charger to wood burner*

I make a lot of my own tools for wood turning and recently decided to add wood burning techniques to my turned pieces. There are several posts on various sites about to build a wood burner from a battery charger. The first step was to purchase a 6 amp manual battery charger from NAPA. I attached a four gang metal electrical box to the back of the charger. A standard light switch was wired into the electrical cord, followed by a 600 watt single pole light dimmer switch. I cut the alligator clips off of the charger cables and ran those cables through a wooden handle that I had turned. The cables are attached to a Euro-connector which I purchased at Radio Shack. The euro connector has to be stripped of all the plastic before it can be used. JB Weld was used to secure this assembly into the turned handle. Nichrome 16 and 18 gauge wire is used to make the burning tips. This wire can be bent and formed to make various designs that can be burnt into wood. A copper nail can also be filed or ground into various shapes and attached to the Nichrome wire. This little unit vaporizes wood and works great. Entire cost to build was $48.00 - fun factor off the chart. Caution - if you build one of these follow all safety precautions. Having some electrical knowledge is helpful. If you want detailed instructions send me a PM. There is a lot of information on how to build this on the web. I would like to thank all the folks on Wood Central for sharing their knowledge.


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## Jimthecarver (Jan 14, 2008)

jeffthewoodwacker said:


> *Conversion of battery charger to wood burner*
> 
> I make a lot of my own tools for wood turning and recently decided to add wood burning techniques to my turned pieces. There are several posts on various sites about to build a wood burner from a battery charger. The first step was to purchase a 6 amp manual battery charger from NAPA. I attached a four gang metal electrical box to the back of the charger. A standard light switch was wired into the electrical cord, followed by a 600 watt single pole light dimmer switch. I cut the alligator clips off of the charger cables and ran those cables through a wooden handle that I had turned. The cables are attached to a Euro-connector which I purchased at Radio Shack. The euro connector has to be stripped of all the plastic before it can be used. JB Weld was used to secure this assembly into the turned handle. Nichrome 16 and 18 gauge wire is used to make the burning tips. This wire can be bent and formed to make various designs that can be burnt into wood. A copper nail can also be filed or ground into various shapes and attached to the Nichrome wire. This little unit vaporizes wood and works great. Entire cost to build was $48.00 - fun factor off the chart. Caution - if you build one of these follow all safety precautions. Having some electrical knowledge is helpful. If you want detailed instructions send me a PM. There is a lot of information on how to build this on the web. I would like to thank all the folks on Wood Central for sharing their knowledge.


I thank you for this post. I have been thinking about building one of these from junk I have laying around. Using a charger makes the build so much easier.
The dimmer I suspect controls the burner temp.?
Good idea.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

jeffthewoodwacker said:


> *Conversion of battery charger to wood burner*
> 
> I make a lot of my own tools for wood turning and recently decided to add wood burning techniques to my turned pieces. There are several posts on various sites about to build a wood burner from a battery charger. The first step was to purchase a 6 amp manual battery charger from NAPA. I attached a four gang metal electrical box to the back of the charger. A standard light switch was wired into the electrical cord, followed by a 600 watt single pole light dimmer switch. I cut the alligator clips off of the charger cables and ran those cables through a wooden handle that I had turned. The cables are attached to a Euro-connector which I purchased at Radio Shack. The euro connector has to be stripped of all the plastic before it can be used. JB Weld was used to secure this assembly into the turned handle. Nichrome 16 and 18 gauge wire is used to make the burning tips. This wire can be bent and formed to make various designs that can be burnt into wood. A copper nail can also be filed or ground into various shapes and attached to the Nichrome wire. This little unit vaporizes wood and works great. Entire cost to build was $48.00 - fun factor off the chart. Caution - if you build one of these follow all safety precautions. Having some electrical knowledge is helpful. If you want detailed instructions send me a PM. There is a lot of information on how to build this on the web. I would like to thank all the folks on Wood Central for sharing their knowledge.


Thats an interesting tool Nice job Jeff.


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## StevenAntonucci (Aug 14, 2007)

jeffthewoodwacker said:


> *Conversion of battery charger to wood burner*
> 
> I make a lot of my own tools for wood turning and recently decided to add wood burning techniques to my turned pieces. There are several posts on various sites about to build a wood burner from a battery charger. The first step was to purchase a 6 amp manual battery charger from NAPA. I attached a four gang metal electrical box to the back of the charger. A standard light switch was wired into the electrical cord, followed by a 600 watt single pole light dimmer switch. I cut the alligator clips off of the charger cables and ran those cables through a wooden handle that I had turned. The cables are attached to a Euro-connector which I purchased at Radio Shack. The euro connector has to be stripped of all the plastic before it can be used. JB Weld was used to secure this assembly into the turned handle. Nichrome 16 and 18 gauge wire is used to make the burning tips. This wire can be bent and formed to make various designs that can be burnt into wood. A copper nail can also be filed or ground into various shapes and attached to the Nichrome wire. This little unit vaporizes wood and works great. Entire cost to build was $48.00 - fun factor off the chart. Caution - if you build one of these follow all safety precautions. Having some electrical knowledge is helpful. If you want detailed instructions send me a PM. There is a lot of information on how to build this on the web. I would like to thank all the folks on Wood Central for sharing their knowledge.


Pretty cool. You might want to jumper the ends of the pen to get th heat away from the wood. I had an issue with it melting the terminal blocks until I did, and Graeme Priddle recommended that to me. If you look at Charlie Belden's article, you see the section I wrote for how to do this.


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## jockmike2 (Oct 10, 2006)

jeffthewoodwacker said:


> *Conversion of battery charger to wood burner*
> 
> I make a lot of my own tools for wood turning and recently decided to add wood burning techniques to my turned pieces. There are several posts on various sites about to build a wood burner from a battery charger. The first step was to purchase a 6 amp manual battery charger from NAPA. I attached a four gang metal electrical box to the back of the charger. A standard light switch was wired into the electrical cord, followed by a 600 watt single pole light dimmer switch. I cut the alligator clips off of the charger cables and ran those cables through a wooden handle that I had turned. The cables are attached to a Euro-connector which I purchased at Radio Shack. The euro connector has to be stripped of all the plastic before it can be used. JB Weld was used to secure this assembly into the turned handle. Nichrome 16 and 18 gauge wire is used to make the burning tips. This wire can be bent and formed to make various designs that can be burnt into wood. A copper nail can also be filed or ground into various shapes and attached to the Nichrome wire. This little unit vaporizes wood and works great. Entire cost to build was $48.00 - fun factor off the chart. Caution - if you build one of these follow all safety precautions. Having some electrical knowledge is helpful. If you want detailed instructions send me a PM. There is a lot of information on how to build this on the web. I would like to thank all the folks on Wood Central for sharing their knowledge.


I'm kinda the guy who likes to blow things up in the garage. Don't tell my insurance company. It's fun to experiment though, you'll never get anywhere if you don't, right Karson, Well a finger once in a while but what the heck, we got ten.


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## jeffthewoodwacker (Dec 26, 2007)

jeffthewoodwacker said:


> *Conversion of battery charger to wood burner*
> 
> I make a lot of my own tools for wood turning and recently decided to add wood burning techniques to my turned pieces. There are several posts on various sites about to build a wood burner from a battery charger. The first step was to purchase a 6 amp manual battery charger from NAPA. I attached a four gang metal electrical box to the back of the charger. A standard light switch was wired into the electrical cord, followed by a 600 watt single pole light dimmer switch. I cut the alligator clips off of the charger cables and ran those cables through a wooden handle that I had turned. The cables are attached to a Euro-connector which I purchased at Radio Shack. The euro connector has to be stripped of all the plastic before it can be used. JB Weld was used to secure this assembly into the turned handle. Nichrome 16 and 18 gauge wire is used to make the burning tips. This wire can be bent and formed to make various designs that can be burnt into wood. A copper nail can also be filed or ground into various shapes and attached to the Nichrome wire. This little unit vaporizes wood and works great. Entire cost to build was $48.00 - fun factor off the chart. Caution - if you build one of these follow all safety precautions. Having some electrical knowledge is helpful. If you want detailed instructions send me a PM. There is a lot of information on how to build this on the web. I would like to thank all the folks on Wood Central for sharing their knowledge.


Jim - the dimmer switch controls the burner temp - get the Lutron switch from Lowes, it does a better job than the one that Home Depot sells. Steven, I saw Graeme Priddle's write up and read Charlie Belden's article before I built the unit and incorporated a heat sink attached to the terminal blocks inside the handle. Seems to work great. One other hint that I picked up was to bypass the internal circuit breaker built into the battery charger.


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