I am looking to the possibility of obtaining an induction forge. I had been talking to Grant about this just before his passing and had decided on the 15kw single phase model he was selling. He told me that he modded a few things on the forge to make them more reliable and I believe more oriented for blacksmithing type applications.
I talked to the folks at blacksmith depot and they are not sure if they will be dealing with the induction forges at all, in fact David told me it was quite likely that they wouldn't due to the impracticalities of servicing then. I do know that they are Chinese imports and that Grant recommend running them with a tig cooler.
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I've seen the same basic units on ebay and even talked to one importer today. Clearly hobby blacksmiths are not their main demographic, but I did at least get someone with technical knowledge of the unit on the phone today. He asked me was size "part" I was going to be heating, what amount of time and how many per day. And if I needed Hi, mid or low frequency.
Well of course i want to be able to all sizes as fast as I can(afford or power with single phase).
He seemed to think if I was occasionally heating stuff, I could go up to a few inchs of 1" solid bar with the 15kw machine. He said most people just ran tap water through them to cool them.
Does anyone know what Grant did to the machines he sold?
Has anyone purchased one from ebay or another importer and has advise or info?
Anybody got a used one they want to sell?
Anyone had one of these things have problems?
I'd like hear what those in the know think about them.
thanks,
dw