Lichtenburg/Fractal Wood burning

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
A Wisconsin couple died from electrocution after attempting a viral crafting technique called fractal wood burning

   I have someone who does this for me as shown above but it can be very dangerous.

[YellowHammer]

I'd read that also.  I have customers that do this.  Some are extremely aware of the dangers and some who are as careless as can be.  As one guy told me "Yeah, I've been hit a couple times" who just suddenly stop showing up to buy wood.

My assumption is they don't die, but eventually get hit hard enough to blow their teeth out.    

[Larry]

Lets see....over 50 years ago I worked on super high powered microwaves using klystron tubes and radar systems.  25 years with the telephone company with lower voltage stuff.  We always had procedures and high priced, inspected, tested, ppe to keep us safe.

Now we have the diy'er working with a high powered microwave transformer and thinks the HF rubber gloves will keep him safe.  Where do I send my condolences?

[Ianab]

Most folks that are qualified to play with those voltages are smart enough not to try. 

Back in the day I used to repair CRT computer monitors. Not the really high power stuff Larry is talking about, but enough to deserve some respect, and I wouldn't touch that wood burning stuff, even with a long and well insulated barge pole. 

[SwampDonkey]

Just let it spalt, may take longer, but safer. :D

[kantuckid]

I never "jolted wood", but we used to go after fishing worms with 110v's. ;D We called them "sheep lot worms" as a neighbor in KS had an old sheep lot near their old stone settlers house, that was fertile ground for shocking earthworms.
 We did have a light bulb wired in the gizmo to know it was plugged into juice. 

[WV Sawmiller]

  My old mentor built an electric fence for his goats. Put up the fence then stripped the wire off an old 110V lamp cord, connected to the fence and plugged it in. His goats never hit the fence a second time.

   Note: I do not recommend this practice for others.

[YellowHammer]

Since some of my customers do this, I ask them questions about their procedure and setup and most of the time it comes down to they are not really aware of the ability of the electricity to arc to them, even though the whole point of the process is to arc electricity.  

I always give them a stern lecture and one one particular I remember was using rubber gloves to "hold the electrode and write with it like a pencil" to engrave people's names ihj the wood, and I got so vocal that he was doing a super high risk thing that he got mad and left.  I've never seen him since, he either got fried or is still mad at me.  Either way, I told Martha when he left that if he get lit up, at least I tried to stop him.

A little knowledge is dangerous thing.  Getting that knowledge from the internet is even more dangerous.  

[Texas Ranger]

A little knowledge is dangerous thing.  Getting that knowledge form the internet is even more dangerous.  

absolutely on any source on any matter

[21incher]

The safe way would  be just take a picture of one and reproduce  it with a cheap laser.  I worked on a job with  GE years ago dumping lightning charges from power lines to keep capacitor banks from blowing and that would leave some awesome  patterns on steel.

[kantuckid]

I'm curious: Recently, one bunch of our Granddaughters were here, and we were tooling around on our woods roads looking for deer and such.
Up near the ridge where lightening strikes are commonplace, I was showing these young girls the effects of strikes on trees with the common "stripe" down the tree trunks. I've sawed a bunch of trees over the years but never seen evidence of any electrical (fractal burning) pattern such as this thread discusses? Why so? ???
Talking about capacitor dumping- I worked in a college lab with a fellow vet who told me a Coast Guard story. He said they made these "spiders" from copper wire and small capacitors, charged them then set them in a urinal for a victim (they chose) to come along and take a whizz on the spider. The jolt climbed the pith trail, so he said.  :
Some people are far more tolerant of electrical shock than others. I had an automotive student who'd demo his ability to hold a coil wire and lay a spark from a fingertip to ground. I've heard similar stories with grid voltages from electricians I worked with over the years.

[barbender]

I saw a kid that could tolerate voltage like that. Oddly enough, he had some sort of nervous system disorder where he trembled a bit all the time, but when he was holding onto that spark plug that was snapping nice and blue, he was nice and calm. Balanced something out, I guess🤷‍♂️

[WV Sawmiller]

   That reminds me of the Electrician on the movie "Down Periscope". He was the one Kelsey Grammar said had absorbed a lot of voltage.

[kantuckid]

I saw a kid that could tolerate voltage like that. Oddly enough, he had some sort of nervous system disorder where he trembled a bit all the time, but when he was holding onto that spark plug that was snapping nice and blue, he was nice and calm. Balanced something out, I guess🤷‍♂️

This guy talked too much but no trembles as I recall? :D 
My last year of FT work I was a HS principal and I had a girl student who'd been hit by lightening when she was little. Not a scratch!

[Ianab]

Coincidentally Youtuber Bigclive did a video today about this very subject. Basically how to kill yourself with a microwave transformer. 

The most deadly project on the Internet - YouTube

[thecfarm]

I've never put a lighting struck tree on my sawmill. But have sent a few though my OWB.  ;)
I've have not see that fine act either. In fact no marks at all. 
I am cleaning up an eastern white pine now that got hit. Left some large pieces

[firefighter ontheside]

Be careful.  I wasn't at the call, but my guys had a call where a young guy ended up dying from this.  I don't know how he ended up jolting himself, but he definitely did.  They did CPR and defibrillator and got him back a few times, but in the end he died.

[upnut]

Working at a 50MW generation plant for 30 years the safety training films were sometimes quite graphic...They also pointed out that electric shock can cause serious injury to internal organs that might not show up immediately. Better safe than sorry...

Scott B.

[kantuckid]

A few years back we had a poplar tree hit by lightning in front to our house, maybe 100' away. It exploded the top and blew wood shrapnel all over the place. It's a twin tree and the other half remain healthy and alive; the snag is a woodpecker haven now. 
I have never seen that happen in the woods and there's much big poplar on our land, including up high. I have seen splits and busted up tops in woods trees but not "exploded" as such. 
I've always assumed the bark marked trees it ran fast to ground through sap wood/cambium layer?

[Ianab]

An old thread, but the process is still dangerous. 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350295083/shop-owner-killed-etching-machine-found-wake-christchurch-earthquake