Before deciding whether the title of this article is clickbait, please take a moment to watch the wonderful video of [bigclick] under the break. Then, go to your local search engine and search for the phrase “Fractal burning death”. We’ll wait.
We have to admit that when we see these “YouTube” topics on the Internet, we are a little suspicious. This is a big requirement. But then we watched the video and Google it. Sadly, there are more than 30 documented deaths from the project and more cases of permanent serious injuries.
Results of fractal wood high pressure combustion
Fractal combustion is a hobby. The method of burning wood is to apply wood in conductive mud and then apply high voltage to both sides of the wood. Usually, things that are not suitable for high voltage, such as jumper cables, are used. The high voltage is provided by an unmodified microwave oven transformer. Other projects using mot usually remove the high-voltage secondary winding and rewind it as a low-voltage, high current transformer, and use spot welding machine or even arc welding machine.
As [bigclive] said, the voltage from the unmodified mot ranges from 2-3 kV (i.e. 2-3000 V) at a very low impedance, just “don’t get close to it!” territory
Although many people in the hacker community will be dissatisfied with our hacking behavior, many people engaged in such projects are not familiar with any type of electrical safety, but are more interested in the artistic effects contained in woodworking projects. Of course, such people are not indifferent to their daily life, but the seemingly harmless “cool” factors seem to make this highly dangerous project look more attractive rather than dangerous, especially on social media platforms such as tiktok.
What are the benefits of all this? As hackers who share our projects with the world, we have a responsibility to convey the danger that anyone else may follow in our footsteps. Of course, a 60 second tiktok video is not enough to do this. Only a pair of jumper cables are suitable for safely handling voltages of 2-3kv. Perhaps this consideration will help us decide what media we want to share our projects with the world. What do you think?
Of course, high voltage is not the only way to trigger an argument (or fire). Lithium ion batteries are also known for the same function. These lithium ion safety courses are a good review course.