How to use wire burners?

[angboy]

I bought a set of the KC Wire Burners and tried to use them tonight on a pen blank. They don't seem to do anything for me! No smoke like the instructions warn about, only got minimal black to come through when using the largest size of the pen set. I held them on the blanks for a minute or more and nothing happened. Wires didn't get too hot to touch, I tried it with a lot of pressure and minimal pressure. Is there something I'm missing or doing wrong?

 

[dubdrvrkev]

How fast were you turning, or burning as the case may be? I found that high speed helps a bit. You may still need to hold it on for a minute but once it starts burning the line it does it pretty quick.

 

[RussFairfield]

Here's how I do it
http://www.woodturnerruss.com/Pen42.html

Works every time.

 

[epson]

I suspect you forgot to scribe the lines with the point of a turning tool. The wires should be in a groove about the size of the wire. This is what causes the friction and heat.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Russ' suggestion and demo are fine after one has some experience with this technique. For beginners, the fine wire will cut through the thin blank in a blink. The key is having the lathe on high speed. more friction = more heat Experiment on waste wood to get the 'feel' of what you are doing. After a couple, you'll be an expert.

 

[ctEaglesc]

I have found that if I have "stabilized" with CA as I turned or sanded the CA will make the blank"slick" and burning is a little tougher.

 

[wdcav1952]

Originally posted by angboy
<br />I bought a set of the KC Wire Burners and tried to use them tonight on a pen blank. They don't seem to do anything for me! No smoke like the instructions warn about, only got minimal black to come through when using the largest size of the pen set. I held them on the blanks for a minute or more and nothing happened. Wires didn't get too hot to touch, I tried it with a lot of pressure and minimal pressure. Is there something I'm missing or doing wrong?

You did have the lathe turning, didn't you? [][}][]

 

[angboy]

Oops, that must have been my mistake!!! Next time I better turn on the lathe! [][]. BUt seriously- I think my problem was a lack of patience, and too slow a lathe speed. I did turn up the speed as someone suggested (I only had it on about the middle speed) and I also held them there until it started burning, testing my patience. I was making three lines and once the first one got going, it didn't take long with the other two- guess the wire was "preheated"! So now I have renewed my interest in using the wire burners. I was starting to think I'd wasted my $10. Thanks everyone for the input!