New Woodburner

Hi again,

Hah, two posts in as many weeks, getting the hang of this stuff now. Forgot to mention in my last post that I recently took delivery of the most amazing Woodburner I have ever seen.

For many years I have been showing students on hands-on classes in the US how to make woodburners out of battery chargers and dimmer switches. These work fine, are a lot cheaper and have a lot more power than commercially available woodburners but while I was on my tour of NZ woodturning clubs in November last year I met Brian Peers, a Rotorua woodworker who makes beautiful furniture with amazing detail but also has a day job as an electronics technician, something I also did in a previous life.

While visiting Robbie Graham in Taupo on my way to Rotorua I saw a woodburner Brian had made for Robbie using a rewound microwave oven transformer.

My interest was piqued I made a point of visiting Brian when I got to Rotorua and after a very nice visit I decided I could do with another woodburner, you can never have enough eh, saves changing tips, haha!

You can imagine my surprise when this beauty turned up a month or so later………

Knowing my previous career as a radio technician Brian went steampunk on the design. As a tech I spent some years working on analogue and digital microwave communications, installing transcievers and climbing towers on the top of mountains helping riggers run waveguide from the radio set to the dish ariel on the top of the tower, those round white things.

Running waveguide , which is eliptical corrugated copper tube as you can see the woodburner handle is made of, was the most difficult and critical part of the installation and it had to be handled with extreme care and special benders as one little dent or bad bend that changed the inner profile of the tube meant that you had to cut off the damaged bit and start again, not good if you dented it at the bottom of a 150ft run and a tad expensive to replace!!!

But my favourite feature is the brass wingnut on top of the box which starts to spin as you wind up the power, haha! Work becomes sheer pleasure when you have tools that are a work of art to work with, THANKS Brian  :)

And while I was at it I ordered another burner for my friend/student/accountant Neil Ruddell.

I have been teaching Neil for a couple of years now and soon I think he be be starting to teach me!! Neil has done well over the last year with a highly commended award for his first ever entry in the Kawerau National Woodskills Festival and also picked up a fair share of the awards at the Northland Woodworkers Guild end of year show and competition. Congratulations Neil:)

So if you are in the market for a custom made high power woodburner I’d definitely recommend you get in touch with;

Brian Peers   soundserv@xnet.co.nz

Ph 64 7 347 9007

Happy burning:):)