Without going into brand names, higher power is better. It's not that
you need higher temps than the small burners will achieve, but you do
need consistent temperatures. That means recovery time should be
minimal, particularly as you will be burning deeper and hotter than bird
carvers. The more available power, the faster the recovery time. With
the high end Detail Master or any reasonable equivalent, you can just
about burn continuosly.

Btw, 120 lines per inch, with a tip sharp as a good knife is possible,
and some can even go higher. I only did it once myself, to prove to a
bird carver that it wasn't as hard as he wanted to make it sound.

Jim


Joe Fleming wrote:

Tony,

During their AAW demonstrations, both Art Liestman and Andi Wolfe mentioned
that, for serious burning, the smaller units do not have adequate watts to
burn significant designs. They are OK for signing your name and for drawing
simple lines, but they are underpowered for deep burning and carving similar
to what those whom you mentioned (Andi, Jack and David) do in their work.

I know that Andi, Art, and Jack all have Detail Master Burning Units. I
believe that both Jack and Art have the Excalibre and that Andi has the
Sabre. On their recommendation, I bought the Excalibre.

When shopping, you should go for enough power. Here are some web sites.

Joe Fleming - San Diego


http://www.detailmasteronline.com/
http://www.woodburning.com/cords.htm
http://www.woodcarvers.com/detailmaster.htm
http://www.woodburningpens.com/



"Tony Manella" wrote in message
...


Inspired by David Nittman, Jack Vesrey and of course our own Andi Wolf, I


am


interested in decorating some turnings with woodburning. Since I am just
getting into this I don't want to spend much money. I noticed that


Highland


Hardware has a great price on a tool called the Cub made by Colwood. Does
anyone have any experience with this tool? Its rated at 35 watts and has


a


temperature control. They also have 16 tip designs, too many for a


beginner


to chose from, and I have no idea what they all are used for. I want to


buy


2, one for signing pieces and fine detail but I'm not exactly sure what I
want to do with the other yet. Is there a shape that could act as a jack


of


all trades? Any opinions will be appreciated. Thanks.
Tony Manella
http://home.ptd.net/~ndd1/
Lehigh Valley Woodturners
http://www.lehighvalleywoodturners.org/