Homemade Burners?

[Mr.P]

not sure where to post this so I will start a thread.

I found a sheet of mica and some nichrome wire in the lab where I teach and quickly stitched together a subitism style burner. I can power it with a 9V battery which is nice but I got an inexpensive lab power supply unit like kyarazen suggested and pieced together a simple burner using a glass Petri dish and a clamp.

I love the way this instantly heats up and the temperature can be so precisely tuned with the power supply. Nice to be able to regulate the heating and adjust the temperature as the wood gradually blackens. What’s cool about these is the lack of any lag in temperature change. It is nearly instantaneous.

I never burn as much as I would like because of the obvious issue with coals. If anyone has any clever ideas for rigging rhe thing up in an efficient / sturdy way, I’d love to know. Right now it works but is pretty delicate.

 

[Woodland Note]

Here is mine...

I believe the construction is quite rigid. 5mm x 10cm steel screws buried in the reinforced concrete that sits on silicone in a thick glass bowl.

But If I were to build another one I would get a nice single piece of a ceramic tile, a square one that looks wood alike, not too large, and I would drill 4 holes in it for the screws, and it would be the base of my heater. Or perhaps some natural stone, like petrified wood for something more... hmm... classy and artsy, but that would cost more.

I spent only around $6 to build the heater above. (Note: I still need to beautify it. It’s not as I want it yet. It's using spiral coil made of kanthal wire.

 

[Mr.P]

Nice one. Mine is a little more early in the development process. Let’s see if I can attach a photo to this message...

Serves my purposes marvelously...

How’d you get the image in your message? Do I have to upload it to an image hosting site first in order to post a photo here?

 

[powdernose]

@Woodland Note what material is that? The one that the foil sits on.

I was wondering too...

How’d you get the image in your message? Do I have to upload it to an image hosting site first in order to post a photo here?

"Upload a File" button

 

[Woodland Note]

@Woodland Note what material is that? The one that the foil sits on.

I was wondering too...

It's a melted piece of European silver fir (abies alba) resin.. and the dark stuff inside is probably some dust or tiny agarwood pieces from the previous heating session. It's pale white, but once heated it's getting darker amber shades.

I described it a bit here:
http://www.ouddict.com/threads/my-natural-scents-impressions.1381/#post-36061
http://www.ouddict.com/threads/local-resins-or-fragrant-woods-anyone.1159/page-2#post-31107

I took this clip with my very old camera so forgive the picture quality:
https://files.catbox.moe/yc91dm.mp4


Currently I'm enjoying mysore sandalwood from Al Hashimi on very low heat.

 

[powdernose]

Not what is on the foil
What is under the foil?

 

[Woodland Note]

Oh crap, I'm a bit out of my head today.

Yes, it's just a cheap mica paper I bought from China $1 for 2 x 15cmx15cm sheets. (I think it's originally sold as insulation of microwave ovens - https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mica+sheet) It's doing fine job, not having own smell etc. The only cons is that it's...curving... changing shape when hot a bit, and then back to it's original form when cooling. Sure, transparent raw mica must be much better, but it's more pricey too, especially for larger pieces. However, I designed the space between the screws to be exactly a 1mm more than 39mm x 24mm. And such is the size of some popular electronic insulator raw mica plates that are much cheaper. around $5 per 30-50 pieces. I might get them at some point, and I might get larger pieces too. At the moment thought it’s working without any problems as it is.

 

[Woodland Note]

Then to be completely honest I should mention, that it had a small little bit of some scent for like 2-3 first heating sessions, and it was making some tiny “click”-like sounds (obviously because of the curving). But after a few heating sessions it’s not making those sounds any more and I detect 0 scent.

 

[Mr.P]

I will try again. Got an error last time and the image didn’t show.

My prototype burner. Glass Petri dish, natural mica (literally cut from mineral samples). The underlying heating element is rectangular, the piece of mica I lay over it is just a random flake / crystal.

I actually fired this up in my science classes and got my wing of the school smelling like frankincense. No one complained!

I need to get some rare earth magnets to hold it to the dish. Want to avoid adhesives if at all possible.

Each time I place a new flake of mica on the heating element there is a brief hint of petroleum smell and maybe a little burnt vegetable oil as well that fades over a period of a minute or two.

I recognize I get zero points for style... just figured someone might be inspired to put one together based on this clumsy example.

 

[Mr.P]

Oh lordy how I am enjoying heating my agarwood samples - the subitism is making it so easy to enjoy. I need to get my hands on small samples of woods representing various regions. It would be amazing to be able to get ahold of a whole bunch of 0.5 g samples to compare and contrast with this heating methods. Can anyone recommend a vendor who sells sample packs of wood chips of decent quality?

 

[Mr.P]

I know only vague information about the origins of these woods. They were labeled indonesia, malaysia, cambodia. One was labeled "unknown". Multiple choice test... guess which is which? I wish I know more about the specific sub-regions for these. They are very distinct in aroma. Next time I need to remember to choose my background better and pay attention to the f-stop - the depth of focus is inadequate.

n t

 

[Mr.P]

I’ve improved the rig a bit. Used some ol quarry tile to hold the heating element, hide the wiring, and dissipate heat. Looks a little better, albeit untraditional

 

[Sproaty]

Looks awesome!

 

[Mr.P]

What’s nice is I feel comfortable leaving it on for long periods of time at 9 - 10 volts, which provides a decent strong scent using the glass cover slips as a surface for the chips. I’ve never really had a burner I could leave on like this, so I am experiencing the woods and resins on a different level after many years of trying to make the best of charcoal or less capable burners.

 

[Sproaty]

What’s nice is I feel comfortable leaving it on for long periods of time at 9 - 10 volts, which provides a decent strong scent using the glass cover slips as a surface for the chips. I’ve never really had a burner I could leave on like this, so I am experiencing the woods and resins on a different level after many years of trying to make the best of charcoal or less capable burners.

That's great, I can do the same with the Imperial Oud one - I've accidentally left it on overnight a few times and no issues yet. Also it hardly uses electric based on my 'smart meter' so it's almost cost free to burn! Congrats on building your own

 

[Faizal_p]

That's great, I can do the same with the Imperial Oud one - I've accidentally left it on overnight a few times and no issues yet. Also it hardly uses electric based on my 'smart meter' so it's almost cost free to burn! Congrats on building your own

I've done that a few times by accident too and seems to be fine. Let me know what you think of the woods, should be with you today

 

[Woodland Note]

That's great, I can do the same with the Imperial Oud one - I've accidentally left it on overnight a few times and no issues yet. Also it hardly uses electric based on my 'smart meter' so it's almost cost free to burn! Congrats on building your own

I've done that a few times by accident too and seems to be fine. Let me know what you think of the woods, should be with you today

Happened to me yesterday. I was using 2 x 4V batteries. Nothing surprising though, batteries simply discharged to the very low point. I need now force them to start charging again.

 

[D'oud]

I am going to make one from the workings of a 100 year old clocks insides. Steam Punk style...

 

[D'oud]

This...