Wood Burning: How to Draw and Burn Wood Drink Coasters and Coffee Table

In this Instructable, I will show you how to transfer an image to a piece of wood and burn the image using a wood burner. I burned the table back in December 2014 and I didn't take any before pics. The wood drink coasters were made within the past week. I cut the trees (maple I think) down last summer, cut into pieces and let dry for a few months. I sanded both sides with a belt sander.

Step 1: Step 2: Design

I purchased an old image projector from a thrift shop for $5. It uses a 75 watt bulb. The lens on this projector makes a small picture to pretty much any size I want to put on any size piece of wood. To make a clear image small enough for a drink coaster I had to extend the lens using a piece of newspaper rolled up and taped in between lens and projector. The 3rd and 4th pic are without flash on the camera, thus blurry. I started with a ram head since that was my high school mascot. I printed out a few different animal images out on paper to put in projector, adjusted the view to make a clear image on the drink coaster, and used a pencil to outline the ram head. I used an electric wood burner with a fine tip to burn the ram head onto the coaster. It took about an hour (each coaster) to burn the ram head. Using a fine tip, I do not recommend using an electric wood burner. The heat it puts out, to me, is not a consistent temperature.

Step 2: Bonus Step: Coffee Table

On this coffee table, I didn't have the projector, everything was hand drawn before wood burning. I started with the bear head, then brainstormed a few days to decide how to do the rest of the table. After wood burning, I sanded the table down and used the wood burner again to touch up. I then stained the table with stain. I plan on clear-coating the table soon.

I will be making more wood furniture in the future with the added art of wood burning. I am making porch swings, rocking chairs, step stools, children's furniture, and whatever else I can think of. Keep checking my profile for more creations.