Experiments with Lichtenberg Figures and Different Electrolyte Solutions

It's spring again!  The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and my Lichtenberg machine is calling my name.  Last time I experimented with Lichtenberg figures on different types of wood, so this year I decided to do some experiments with different types of electrolyte solution.

When I first built my Lichtenberg machine, I did a lot of research, and it seemed that everyone I referenced used a mixture of baking soda and water as the electrolyte solution to increase the conductivity across the surface of the wood.  It didn't occur to me that there may be other solutions that might work just as well if not better.

This time I set out to see what other household electrolytes I could find, and how they stacked up against the old reliable: sodium bicarbonate, aka baking soda.

The Candidates

The first alternative I came up with was sodium chloride, or plain-old table salt.  I hypothesized that I would not see better results than with baking soda because table salt is so common.  Surely someone else would have tried salt, and if it worked better, then everyone would be using it.

The second candidate for my experiment was Epsom salts, or magnesium sulfate.  Since I had no experience with Epsom salts other than soaking sore muscles, I had no idea what to expect.

Of course, every experiment needs a control group, so I had to include baking soda in the mix so that I would have something to compare with the other two electrolytes.

The Method

I decided to test all three electrolytes on two different types of wood.  My first test would be on Mahogany, which is pretty high up on the hardness scale.  The second test would be run on a piece of Ambrosia Maple, which is considerably softer, although still considered a hardwood.

I heated water in a teapot just shy of boiling, and added electrolyte to the water until no more would dissolve into solution.

Each piece of wood was pre-treated with solution five minutes prior to electrocution to give it time to soak in.  The wood was then recoated immediately before burning, and additional electrolyte solution was added as needed throughout the process of burning.

The Experiment

Sodium Bicarbonate

First up to bat was my control group, the old reliable, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).

As you can see, my results were pretty average, as expected.

Magnesium Sulfate

Next I moved onto Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate).

I combined both tests into one video because the results were very underwhelming.  The magnesium sulfate solution repeatedly evaporated too quickly, and the wood never got hot enough to burn except for the area right around where the machine made contact with the wood.

I don't know if the poor results were because the magnesium sulfate solution was too conductive, or not conductive enough, you would have to ask a chemist.  I can tell you that Epsom salts do not make a good electrolyte solution for creating Lichtenberg figures.

Sodium Chloride

My final test utilized table salt in solution.

Much to my surprise, the table salt preformed on par with the baking soda.  Every piece of wood is going to burn differently, so it is difficult to make a quantifiable, side-by-side comparison, but I think the sodium chloride worked very well.

In addition, baking soda tends to stain the wood after the electric current is applied.  I don't know why this is, but it happens consistently.  Luckily it's not too pronounced, and as long as the entire piece is stained it isn't very noticeable.  The salt solution, however, didn't discolor the wood at all.  In the picture below you can see the difference between the natural color on the wood treated with table salt, and the discoloration on the wood treated with baking soda.

Conclusion

While both baking soda and table salt preformed admirably, I have to give the gold in this round to table salt, due to it not discoloring the wood.  More testing will be required before I will swear off baking soda completely, but I will certainly be using table salt as my go-to electrolyte solution for Lichtenberg figures in the future.

I can say with certainty, that while it may work wonders on sore muscles, Epsom salt does not make a good electrolyte solution for creating Lichtenberg figures.  If any of you reading this article are chemists, and have some insight as to why this might be, please let me know in the comment section.

I hope you have enjoyed another installment of my adventures in Lichtenberg figures.  If any of you decide to dabble in Lichtenberg figures yourselves, please be very careful, as mistakes with high voltage can be lethal.

Until next time, have fun, and keep building!

Experiments with Lichtenberg Figures on Hardwood

     In one of my earlier blog posts on Lichtenberg Figures I made the observation that they did not work well on hardwoods.  However, after continuing experimentation and my success with the mahogany tealight holders, I decided that I simply had not perfected the technique required for burning figures into hardwood.  When I finished the tealight holders I decided to do a little more experimentation before retiring the Lichtenberg machine back to the shelf.  I chose four species of wood: red oak, mahogany, ambrosia maple, and walnut.  I used two pieces of each species, and in an attempt to be as scientific as possible, I planed and cut all the pieces to the same dimensions, approximately 10" x 3-1/2" x 3/8".  For the electrolyte solution I used 1-1/3 tablespoons of baking soda to 1 cup of hot water.  It seems that the trick for getting hardwoods to work is to make sure that they are thoroughly saturated with electrolyte solution, so two coats are necessary before burning, and then additional coats are required throughout burning as the heat from the procedure dries out the wood.  I presoaked all of the pieces by brushing on a liberal amount of solution while avoiding the edges of the pieces.  I did the second coat of electrolyte immediately before burning, concentrating more solution around the area where the electrodes will connect.  In the video below you can see that in almost all instances the pieces will dry out around the electrodes first and will require constant re-wetting throughout the process.

     Now that all of the pieces are finished, it looks like red oak turned out the best (upper left in the picture below), followed by mahogany (upper right), then walnut (lower left), then maple (lower right) respectively.  By best I mean they had more detail, and less thick, deep burns.  This is subjective of course, and other people might be looking for a different effect.

     My hypothesis was that the harder the wood, the more detail would show up, and the softer the wood, the deeper and thicker the burn would be.  While this seems to be generally true (pine and MDF burn thicker and deeper with less detail than hardwoods), between hardwoods there seems to be other factors effecting the pattern.  Confirming my theory, Red Oak is the hardest of the woods I tested, and it did have the most detail.  Maple is the softest, consequently having the least detail.  Walnut, however, is harder than the Mahogany by a significant degree, but it burned decisively deeper lines with less detail than the Mahogany.  Further experimentation along with additional research into the characteristics of the woods will be necessary to determine what factors other than hardness effect the burn patterns on various species of wood.


     Now that the experiment is over, and the Lichtenberg machine has been relegated to it's spot on the shelf, I am once again left with a bunch of wood panels with neat designs but no real purpose.  This time I decided to do something with them.  I was not overly impressed with the Maple, so I set it aside and proceeded to finish the other panels with four coats of polyurethane.  With some brass hooks and eyelets, and a length of brass chain, I connected the panels together to create a simple wall hanging.  I think it turned out nicely.

Tealight Candle Holder Featuring Lichtenberg Figures

     After my initial foray into Lichtenberg Figures, the machine ended up being put on a shelf to gather dust as predicted.  While it was inexplicably enjoyable to electrocute wood, the end results were underwhelming to me.  What do I do with a bunch of wood panels with Lichtenberg Figures on them?  By themselves they didn't merit hanging on a wall or giving as gifts.  In fact, the only piece that I was overly pleased with was my hiking stick with the figures burned at the top.  I decided that the best use for the Lichtenberg machine would be to add a decorative touch to pieces that were functional or decorative in their own right.

     As summer approaches and yard work threatens to monopolize my time, large projects in the shop have to take a back seat.  Faced with a little free time over last weekend I decided I could squeeze in a small weekend project, and maybe even find a way to incorporate Lichtenberg figures.  After taking stock of the materials I had on hand, I decided to make a tealight candle holder, since I had some tealights leftover from lathe projects I had done in the past.  As always, the first question to answer is what wood to use, so my first step was to do a little experimenting.

     The first pieces I cut were two pieces of poplar and a piece of mahogany.  These were chosen because they were small cut-off pieces from other projects that were already about the right thickness, and they were close to the top of my wood pile.  I also pulled out some small pieces of maple and walnut, but they would need to be planed, so I saved those for batch two.  I cut the wood to size and drilled the holes for the tealight candles.  I found in previous experiments that in order for the figures to work well in harder woods they needed two or three coats of electrolyte solution, and time to absorb between coats, so I went ahead and prepped the wood for burning.  Below are my experiments and observations burning the first three pieces.  I really do learn something new every time I get this machine out.

     The top piece in the picture above was the first piece.  The problem seemed to be that too much of the electrolyte solution dripped over and soaked into the edges of the piece, causing most of the burning to take place on the edge, not the surface.  The bottom piece above was the second burn.  For this one I made sure not to paint the electrolyte all the way to the edge, leaving a thin, dry boarder around the edge of the surface.  Unfortunately the poplar proved too eager to catch fire and burn, leaving thick smudgy lines, which was not the desired effect.  So far, two pieces burned, two lessons learned.  Just when I was getting a little discouraged, the third piece (in the middle above) brought me a pleasant surprise.  While I was hoping for a little more detail, the mahogany burned like no other wood I had tried previously.  On other woods the pattern started at both electrodes and snaked through the wood until the two ends got close enough to arc.  On the mahogany, the burn seemed to start instantaneously all throughout the wood and quickly begin to arc.

     Based on that experiment, I decided that Mahogany might be the wood to use for this project.  On the bright side, I happen to have some lying around, but on the other side, it is very expensive, and I hate to use it on a dinky little project like this.  In the long run I decided to go ahead and use a little of the Mahogany I had on hand.  What's the point in having it if I never use it for anything, waiting for that perfect project that never comes.  I ripped a length of it, planed it down to a little over a quarter inch, and cut that length into four pieces ready to be burned.  Below is the result.

     I was very pleased with the way these turned out.  You'll notice in the picture that each of these pieces has a lighter area around the boarder.  This is a result of not painting the electrolyte solution all the way to the edge.  I learned early on in the experimenting process that the electrolyte solution always discolors the wood after the electricity has been applied.  It doesn't have the same effect without the electricity, so I can't just go back and apply more around the edges after the burning.  In this case I kinda like the effect, so I don't mind it so much, but it's something to keep in mind.  The other thing to take away from this is that the patterns got better as I went along.  In the picture above, the top piece was done first, and they continue down in chronological order.  I did the first coat of electrolyte on all of them at the same time, and then went back and did the second coat immediately before burning.  This means that the pieces towards the bottom had longer for the first coat to soak in than the top pieces.  This seems to have resulted in a better burn pattern, but also a deeper discoloration from the electrolyte solution.  So it seems to be a trade-off, but the main takeaway is that on harder woods, it is better to give it a little more time to let the first coat of electrolyte solution soak in thoroughly before applying the second coat and burning. 

       OK, so now the burning is done.  Time to put the machine back on the shelf and finish up the project.  I needed some sort of legs or base to hold the mahogany up high enough for the tealights fit down through the holes.  I had a couple of ebony turning blanks that I had purchased because they were on sale, and I think the black color of ebony will go great with the mahogany.  After squaring, cutting, and drilling the ebony, the only thing left is to add a little polyurethane and do the final assembly.

     Typically I would spray-finish this type of project with lacquer or something similar, but I was out of lacquer and I had some polyurethane-type finish lying around.  Since I had never experimented with spraying this particular finish I decided to brush it on... big mistake.  Between the dry-time, the sanding, and the 3-4 re-coats the finishing took forever.  A weekend to build, a week to finish.  It's time to go get some more lacquer.

And here we have the finished product.  I think they turned out well, and they gave me a chance to play with my Lichtenberg machine again, so all-in-all I'm very pleased with this project.

Hiking Stick

With Brass Ferrule, Tapered Grip, Wrist Strap, and Lichtenberg Figures

     Yes, this is just a hiking stick.  I know that this isn't really much of a project, but it has a few neat features that I wanted to record for future reference.  So, without further ado, here's the stick:

     Please disregard my messy network cabinet, it has since been straightened up.  The stick is made from Diamond Willow, which is a very pale color, almost white.  I didn't really like the look of a white hiking stick, so I stained it with some black cherry stain that I had leftover from refurbishing my hardwood floors.  Unfortunately, on the white wood, black cherry turns out bright purple.  The purple hiking stick was worse than a white hiking stick, so I sanded it off and went with a regular cherry stain.  I then finished it with Teak Oil, which I think will hold up better to regular outdoor use than polyurethane or lacquer.  Now, onto the "features":

     The Lichtenberg Figures are just decoration, nothing special, although they did turn out better than I expected (except for the part near the handle that looks "smudged" from where the stick caught on fire.)  The handle itself is wrapped in paracord to add a little cushion to the grip.  I carved a shoulder into the stick at the top and bottom of the grip that then tapered out toward the middle of the grip, so where the paracord meets the wood it is flush, but then the grip tapers out to be slightly thicker than the stick.  

     The best part of this project is the adjustable wrist strap.  I used to own a set of lightweight "trekking poles" that had wrist straps, and I never knew how important they were until I used them.  After a long day of hiking with a stick or a pole, your hands will get very tired from gripping the stick tightly all day.  The wrist strap allows you to put the majority of the weight on your wrist, greatly reducing hand fatigue.  I picked up a pair of "sleeping bag straps" at a local sporting goods store for less than $2 and they worked perfectly.  I drilled a 3/8" hole in the stick, fed the strap through, and then secured the strap to the stick with exterior wood screws.  Going through the hole in the stick should reduce the strain on the strap enough that I don't expect it to pull out of the screws. 

     Last, but certainly not least, is the brass ferrule I added to the tip of the stick to prevent the stick from splitting at the bottom:

     Our local hardware store sells these as brass sleeve bearings, but I like to use them as ferrules when making lathe tools because the brass is soft enough to turn on the wood lathe to add a little extra detail.  They are also very dull when first purchased so I usually shine them up by sanding them down to 1200 grit paper (the one pictured above on the stick is a little scratched from use).  When turning brass on a wood lathe it is important to set your lathe to the lowest possible speed.  I use a homemade skew chisel to SCRAPE (not cut) the decorative rings into the brass.  To secure the ferrule on the lathe I chucked up a piece of ash, and then turned a taper.  Using my largest live center on the tailstock I can push the ferrule into the ash taper and it holds really well.

     Once the ferrule was shined up and ready, I hand carved a shoulder onto the end of the stick, making the outer diameter of the end of the stick just slightly larger than the inner diameter of the ferrule.  I ended up having to use sand paper to get it just right.  I then hammered the ferrule onto the stick, using a second brass bearing to push it down flush against the shoulder.  And that's all there is to it.  Hopefully I never need to remove the ferrule from the stick because I don't believe I could get it loose without cutting it off the stick.

      And on a completely different subject, in case the messy network cabinet in the first picture on this post bothers anyone else as much as it bothers me, below is proof that I've cleaned it up.

More Lichtenberg Figures

I've been experimenting with different techniques for these Lichtenberg Figures using larger pieces of MDF.  Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments if anyone has any good ideas.

     In the figure above I coated the whole piece with electrolyte (excluding the edges), and then tried moving the electrodes around to different nails.  It turned out better than the previous ones using two fixed points for the electrodes, but the current kept wanting to jump back to previous carbon paths, so the second and third burns had less detail than the first.

     In the figure above I selectively coated the piece to keep the current from jumping as easily to existing paths.  The first coat was a backwards L pattern from the bottom left to the upper right corners.  The second went from the top left corner diagonally down to the right, but didn't connect to any of the existing carbon paths.  The third coat went from the top left horizontally to the right using the same nail on the right as the first burn.  This one shows more detail than the last, and shows me that I can influence the design instead of making it completely random.

     The figure above is larger than the previous two.  In this one I did two parallel coats of electrolyte and burned the vertical patterns on the left and the right.  I then painted a wide, slightly diagonal coat of electrolyte across the middle, connecting the carbon paths on the left and the right and did the burn using the bottom left and top right nails.  The only thing I don't like about these is the light stain that the electrolyte leaves, which shows a contrast between the parts that were coated and the parts that weren't.

     I have to give credit for this idea to my wife.  We had been looking for a "multiple-panel" piece of art to hang in our bedroom, and she suggested trying to do a paneled piece with the Lichtenberg Figures.  Each panel is 16" x 24" and was cut out of one piece of 2' x 4' MDF.  The panels were burned separately using many different points for the electrodes.  I tapered the electrolyte solution down to points at the edges of the panels to make sure that the burns lined up from one panel to the next.  Unfortunately I decided to use 1/2" thick MDF for this so that the panels would hang better and would be less likely to warp.  This thicker MDF was much more absorbent than the 1/4" MDF that I used for the previous burns, so the electrolyte soaked in quickly and created a thicker burn pattern with less detail.  I like the design, but I think I'll try it again with the thinner board.

Edit: Instead of making a whole new post I'm just adding the above picture to the end of this post. This is the three panel piece I did on the thinner, 1/4" MDF.  As I expected I ended up with a lot more detail.  I think in order for this to be worthy of hanging on a wall I'm going to have to add some color to it, so the next experiment will be to see how watercolor paint takes to MDF.

Creating Lichtenberg Figures with Microwave Oven Transformers

Obligatory Safety Warning:

     This is not comprehensive instructions on how to build one of these devices.  Please do not attempt this if you do not fully understand the concepts that you are working with, and even then, if you are not incredibly safety conscious this can easily kill you.  I have seen many videos on the internet of people doing this in a very unsafe manner.  Please do not emulate these videos.  This setup creates the potential of 4000 volts, which will jump an air gap.  This means that you do not have to actually touch this in order for it to kill you.  One little mistake can easily be lethal.  If you do undertake this project, always have a second person present to call 911 in case you only mortally wound yourself instead of killing yourself instantly.

      Now that I have absolved myself of the liability for anyone's death or injury, I'd like to assure my family and friends that I am doing this in an incredibly safe manner, and there is no need to be concerned for my safety.  Now, on to the fun.

Above are the two microwaves I will be disassembling.  If you ever decide to remove the outer housing from a microwave for any reason, please pay careful attention to the warning in the picture.  You can  verify that the caps are discharged by shorting the terminals with an insulated screwdriver.

 Look at all the neat stuff I was able to pull out of these two microwaves.  Only the transformers will be used in this project, but I'm sure the rest will come in handy in the future.

Above is the final project.  Not really that much to it.  The light bulb is just a safety precaution to remind me when it is powered up and dangerous.  Credit to the following website for the wiring schematic using two transformers for a total of 4000 volts: http://www.kronjaeger.com/hv/hv/src/mot/

Now for the real test.  For my first attempt I grabbed a scrap piece of red oak off the top of the wood pile.  I thought oak would absorb the electrolyte mixture better than other hardwoods due to it's porousness, but I was wrong.  Even with the electrodes just 4 inches apart nothing happened other than a little popping and crackling.  It seems that the rapidly produced heat evaporated the water leaving a dry patch around the electrodes, which prevented the current from going anywhere.  Next I tried poplar, thinking it might absorb the mixture a little better, but the results were the same.  I started to get discouraged, but I wasn't ready to give up yet.  A pine 2x4 led to the first success, although it wasn't very impressive.  In addition to a lack-luster pattern, as soon as the carbon trails got too close to each other the current arced through the air, and the dead short blew the fuse I had added as a safety precaution.  Luckily two microwaves equals two fuses, so on to the next trial attempt.  I used a small scrap piece of plywood because I had read that it would absorb the liquid into the first layer of laminate, but the glue made a water proof barrier to keep the mixture from soaking all the way down through the wood.  Sure enough, it worked much better than my previous attempts (video below):

A quick note on safety, there is a white isolation pad between the experiment and the table.  This is important since 4000 volts will jump through materials typically thought of as insulators in search of ground, so you can never have too much insulation.  In addition, all wiring on the secondary side of the circuit is rated for high voltage.  Typical electrical wire is rated for a maximum of 600V.  If you were to use anything other than wire rated for high voltage, such as is done on many internet videos, then you must treat the wire like it is bare copper.  It is an unnecessary risk.  Tangent over, let's move on.

Here is what it looked like after I scrubbed off the excess soot:

Not bad, but I think it would have turned out better if it had continued burning for longer.  Unfortunately it stopped when it did because it arced and blew my second and last 20amp/120V fuse.  I realized that if I continued in this manner I would go though quite a few fuses, and my Lichtenberg figures would all stop before reaching their full potential.  The fuse was my idea anyway, and I only used it because I harvested the fuse and fuse holder from the microwaves, so I thought "why not."  Now that I know why not, I decided to bypass it using the old "penny in the fuse box" trick.

That should do it.  If my new "fuse" blows than I have bigger problems than replacing it.  And I'm still protected by the 20 amp breaker for that circuit, so really this is not as unsafe as it might seem.

Here are a couple more videos using different types and thicknesses of plywood:

Here are the results from several more attempts using plywood:

I thought these turned out OK. but I still wasn't satisfied.  They burned too deep, and lacked the detail that I had seen when researching other people's Lichtenberg Figures, so I decided to try something else.  This time I used MDF, and it worked much better.  The designs are much more detailed and more like what I was looking for.  I didn't take any video of the MDF, but there was a lot less fire than there was with previous woods.  Here are the results:

Not bad for my first time.  When I first started this project I thought it would be something that I would mess around with for a weekend, and then put it on a shelf to gather dust with the rest of my short-lived interests, but I think I might do a little more experimenting with this before it gets retired.  All of the figures above were done by saturating the entire surface with electrolyte and using two fixed positions for the electrodes.  I think I might try some bigger ones where I only paint part of the surface with electrolyte in order to influence the flow of the current.  I might also try moving the electrodes around to different spots on the same piece.  We shall see.  If I never do another post on this subject it probably means that my attention was pulled in a different direction, and my fancy new Lichtenberg Figure machine has been retired to the shelf after all.

Research on Microwave Transformers

As most people who know me are aware, I can be somewhat of a scavenger.  I recently came across two microwave ovens that were slated for the junk pile.  Inside of these things are a high voltage capacitor and a high voltage transformer that can be very useful for a variety of fun projects from building an arc welder to making a high powered electromagnet.  I believe that the first thing I am going to build is a device for burning Lichtenberg figures into wood.  Because of the inherent dangers of using high voltage I am going to do plenty of research ahead of time.  Below are some links for my own reference while working on these projects.  If anyone else is thinking of doing any of these projects, please look through the links below and thoroughly research the safety measures required when using high voltage.  It can and will kill you if handled improperly.

Here are a few links describing the process of burning Lichtenberg figures:

http://imgur.com/a/PSmcr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuG1oNRQnyI

http://www.instructables.com/id/Woodburning-with-Electricity/?ALLSTEPS

http://www.instructables.com/id/Wood-Lichtenberg-Figures/?ALLSTEPS

Here is a link on wiring MOTs (Microwave Oven Transformers):

http://www.kronjaeger.com/hv/hv/src/mot/

Here are some other projects that can be done using MOTs and MOCs:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Resonant-MOT-Stack/

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-High-current-Microwave-oven-Transformer/

https://mad-science.wonderhowto.com/how-to/turn-microwave-oven-transformer-into-high-amperage-metal-melter-0140772/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Microwave-Transformer-Homemade-Welder/

http://hackaday.com/2017/01/15/heavy-lift-electromagnet-from-microwave-oven-transformers/