General Category > General Discussion
Pyrography....hot wire, or machined tip?
Les Symonds:
So....having accepted advise and decided that 'applied art' could well be the way to go, I'm now left with a decision to make about what sort of pyrography machine to invest in. The way I see it, I can either go down the 'hot wire' road, or down the screw-in, machined tip road for repeated textures. Several months ago I bought a cheap, soldering-iron-type machine so that I could write a few details on the base of each piece that I made. Big mistake! It was so under-powered that it instantly cooled down each time that I tried to use it and the other day, when trying to endorse a bowl that I made a s a wedding present, the pressure that I was putting on the tip, in order to get it to write a decent line of text, caused the tip to bend over and it now resembles a black banana!
Help, please, guys. I'm fed up with reading reviews that state that '...it does everything that I need' because that doesn't tell me anything.....I don't know what they need and just how it compares with what I need. So, here's what I need...
* to be able to write my name and a reference number on a piece
* to be able to keep a line burning without the tip cooling off each time that it touches the wood
* to be able to burn a repetitive pattern/texture into significant areas of the surface of a piece
* and possibly, to just burn-out a whole area into total black-out
I'll welcome any response, but please put your response into context, compared with the needs that I've listed above.
Many thanks.....Les
bodrighywood:
The Peter Childs one is probably about the best one you can get without going really expensive. I have a friend who does most of my pyro work for me and has written a couple of books on it and he used one until recently. The solid point ones aren't really worth it as they are limited whereas the hot wire ones can be made to suit your work with different gauge wire and shaping the wire as well.
Hope this helps
Pete
Les Symonds:
Hi Pete....wow, that was (another) speedy reply! Yes, that is helpful. I hadn't really thought of shaping one's own wire tips, but it sounds like a useful idea.
Is there a double-headed machine that accepts both hot-wired tips, in one head, and solid-point tips in another. If so, hoe does its price compare with the standard, hot-wire types?
Les
bodrighywood:
As far as I know your choice is one or the other. For the hot wire ones you can buy ready made shapes in wire or reels of the wire which you can shape and cut to size. The PC one is usually somewhere around the £100 mark give or take a bit. It varies.
Pete
Mark Hancock:
--- Quote from: gwyntog on October 18, 2013, 10:19:48 PM ---Hi Pete....wow, that was (another) speedy reply! Yes, that is helpful. I hadn't really thought of shaping one's own wire tips, but it sounds like a useful idea.
Is there a double-headed machine that accepts both hot-wired tips, in one head, and solid-point tips in another. If so, hoe does its price compare with the standard, hot-wire types?
Les
--- End quote ---
The burnmaster takes 2 pens so you can have a solid tip and a hot wire plugged in at the same time. It is more expensive but is a great machine.
http://www.classichandtools.com/acatalog/Pyrography.html
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