The Eagle has landed ........my new induction heater | The Forge Fire | Forum

Gene thanks for the tip on air connectors. It's going to live on a plate on top of my coal forge and I guess once in a blue moon it will need to be pulled out of the way to get at last millenium's forge Quick connectors for the water at the back will be good. I'll play around with tehm at the front but they'll need to be quite good electriocal condutors. At full tilt it's putting 1000Amps through the coil !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John, I think you do bigger sort of work with your 5cwt. You'd probably need a bigger (and lower frequency) machine for bars over about 2". From the little I know these get very expensive. I haven't found the time for a holiday this year so this was my treat to myself 🙂 but having just used it for a hour I can see it as an investment that will pay for itself quite soon. I got it more because I can't stand the heat from my gas forge but from what I can tell there should be pretty impressive savings on the cost of propane.

I can see it changing my "flow" of work. Before, I'd always try and keep the heat in a piece of work and so would often do one operation after an other on a bar. I can now see me doing a batch of one operations on a number of bars, swapping the coil over for the best shape for the next operation and doing a batch of these operations .... a bit like Grant does with his tongs. Leaves will be great with this new toy.

[Image Can Not Be Found]

Lewis;2076 wrote: That's interersting. I understand the logic of conserving the heat in the bar, but I also feel that if the gas forge is running the whole time, and I am working the whole time then the energy consumption doesn't change. I tend to run a bunch of bars through one operation, then change tooling and run them through the next. I put multiple bars in the forge so that one is at temperature just as I finish the operation. As long as there is a hot bar ready to be worked it doesn't matter if the previous part goes back in the forge or onto a rack. (I have a couple of shelves on my forge stand to hold parts in progress.)

Which is not to say I don't want an induction heater. I am just a little surprised at your process.

Pretty much with your there Lewis. I'm lucky enough to have three 25-40kg power hammers right next to each other. (Anyang, Kinyon and KA75(ish)) I'll rotate work through the forge as you do but I'll often do three (or more with quick change tooling) operations on one heat on one bar. I won't be able to this as easy on the induction heater if one of the operations changes the cross section too much (ie a lot of spread) because you need good "coupling" to get the a fast energy transfer. Ie the coil shuld hug the work as much as possible. Athough it's only two nuts to change over to another shape coil, it will probably disrupt the flow constantly changing them.

Thing with a gas forge is that when you're at the hammer it is still burning gas and a lot of this energy is being lost with the exhaust gas into making my workshop almost unbearably hot.

John N came round to the workshop today to have play. I think he was as impressed as I was. We took a video of it heating up a piece of 40mm upto the point where it was starting to spark and burn ..... from cold in about 60 second!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once it's up to temp you slide the coil back and forwards through the coil, it quickly heats a longer length. I'll put this up on You tube in a day or so (after I've got to grips with all that computer stuff)

I can't see it replacing my gas forge but I can't see me using my coal forge again for quite a while. From an hour or so of playing, my gut reaction is I'll use it about 40% of the time, the rest being the gas forge or occasionally the oxy-propnae torch. 0.0000001% of the time for the coal forge.

[Image Can Not Be Found]

Lewis;2089 wrote: Multiple hammers with multiple setups all in one heat. That would certainly encourage getting as much work out of each heat as possible. I can see how the induction heater will mean a change in habits.

Gonna write a column about it?

Yeah, will be taking plenty of picture and do an article .... tight for time at the moment but will do.

Re the "total loss" cooler, I'll do that for a few months until I build a bigger one .... and before winter comes. Not very often, but about a few days a year, domestic water pipes will freeze up. Not being able to use antifreeze this way, it could be a disaster if the pipes in the box burst (a lot of the electronics inside is water cooled)