Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Burn text into a wood plate

wotaen - 13-7-2016 at 23:46

Hi All,

we will have a wooden plate with text carved onto it. The depth of the carving will not be much, just a small dent, 1-3mm

Now we need to fill in this dent so that when put on fire, it'll burn and leave burned mark afterwards. We have a couple of requirements for the fire and smoke:

1) We want as little smoke as possible. Any smoking must be relatively harmless
2) The fire must not be energetic enough so that the entire plate catches on fire
3) The substance must burn for maximum 30 seconds - any wood burning can be then put out normally
4) Fire must be "predictible" so there is small chance of local pressure buildups so to avoid splatter
5) If possible, the substance must be somehow putty-like, we want to present the burning plate at about 45 degrees angle. Not critical requirement
6) If possible the substance burns fully, so doesn't leave blobs of burned stuff

So far we've tried this:
* KNO3 + sugar - KNO3 not finely powdered, too much smoke generated
* Very crude black powder, KNO3 and Sulphur not finely powdered - burned nice, too much smoke. Sulphur oxides in the smoke is a minus
* Ethanol (maybe it was gasoline) mixed with some soap to form a snake that will burn - we tried this a few years back and it wasn't that impressive - burned for too long and got boring

We're planning to try:
* fuse cord - shape letters from it (maybe glue to the board)
* magnesium ribbon - same as fuse cord
* KMnO4 + glycerin - never tried this but it seems that the amount of smoke produced is not too bad. Also the color of the flame is a bonus. If the letters are big enough, the reaction could start nearly at the same time while not ending up in a big flame.

Do you have any other suggestions on which path to follow?

Thanks



[Edited on 14-7-2016 by wotaen]

hissingnoise - 14-7-2016 at 01:03

Quote:
Do you have any other suggestions on which path to follow?

Certainly! Just google "pyrography"?

wotaen - 14-7-2016 at 01:11

Quote: Originally posted by hissingnoise  
Quote:
Do you have any other suggestions on which path to follow?

Certainly! Just google "pyrography"?



No kiddin! There's a word for everything :), thanks

TinSandwich - 14-7-2016 at 09:49

If you actually want to get a good looking result and not just have fun with experimenting you should buy a pirographer/soldering iron.

mayko - 14-7-2016 at 10:10

If you want to experiment with non-chemical techniques:
Quote:

WOODBURNER

Once I had a brainstorm, and when I tried it out, it actually worked: send intense light into one end of a fiber-optic cable, and use the other end as a woodburner. I used an expensive glass-fiber cable 1cm in diameter which was about 1/2m long, and I placed one end of the cable at the focus of a 12-in fresnel lens in summer sunlight. The other end of the cable could char a wood surface, but just barely. A bigger solar furnace might have made it impressive. Sign your name as charcoal! Note: if you try this stunt, realize that you probably will damage your fiber optic cable, so don't try it with one that you can't afford to lose! Plastic opto fibers might melt, so use glass if anything.


source: http://amasci.com/amateur/mirror.html

PHILOU Zrealone - 14-7-2016 at 11:58

Smokeless powder dissolved into aceton (a liquid viscous resin thus) and set into the carving; then dried into the open.
Once dry set in fire...by definition smokeless burns fast and without smoke...
The products of combustion are about as toxic as those of a candle...
The flame will take from 1s to 30s to burn.

hissingnoise - 14-7-2016 at 12:43

PHILOU, SP is less readily ignitable than you seem to assume ─ cordite is often difficult to ignite as loose powder on a flat surface and ballistite more so!

As a thin, enamel film bonded to cutout depressions in wood it may not properly take fire at all ...

wotaen - 14-7-2016 at 12:53

Quote: Originally posted by PHILOU Zrealone  
Smokeless powder dissolved into aceton (a liquid viscous resin thus) and set into the carving; then dried into the open.
Once dry set in fire...by definition smokeless burns fast and without smoke...
The products of combustion are about as toxic as those of a candle...
The flame will take from 1s to 30s to burn.


I'm pretty sure I can't buy cordide anyway and I don't want to attempt to make my own. Pyrography actually lead to some interestingn techniques. Since this is one time demo and must have somewhat wow effect, solder is out. While looking into the topic of pyrography I saw some people doing it with black powder. The amount of smoke was not that bad and if I grind KNO3 better it may even work without sulphur...will give it another go.

hissingnoise - 15-7-2016 at 02:24

Omitting sulphur will make BP much more difficult to ignite ...

Sulphur the life, saltpeter the soul and charcoal the body of it!

wotaen - 26-7-2016 at 01:10

Should ever try it - both attempted methods (mg strip, kmno4 + glycerol) just burn little bit too much. The wood is charred everywhere.

The search is on :)