imsmooth

I sold my induction heater today to someone who needed a heat source. We got it up and running. He heated a piece of steel and then smacked it with a mechanical air hammer. Here is the video of his first use.

When I heat a piece of steel in my induction heater I will get scale after a certain temperature. How do I minimize this? I am not able to reduce the oxygen content in the room or blow inert gas on the metal.

I found my answer. I called Hercules, which makes the cement I've been using. It states that it is rated for 2300F, but can go to 2550F. This, of course, melts and disolves into my molten steel. I found a company that makes cement rated for 3000F. It is retort furnace cement. I am going to buy some in the very near future and see what happens.

I was using fused quartz and zirconia crucibles. I would have the metal in a molten state and I didn't want to let the unit run for a hour as I progressively cooled down.

I need to reply to a few remarks. First, I agree with safety. I wear welders gloves and a face shield. Two, there is only one power cord and it is far from the molten metal. Most of the "cords" seen are water cooling hoses, and they too are not near the path of the sparks. I have been using this for several years and it is fine. Three, there is no crucible: it is a billet being held by a solid rod. I was asking about the crucible because I have also liquifed metal and want a better way to contain it. The ones that I have bought have all shattered from thermal shock. Finally, the title is a mistake. I was going to post something else, and then I left the computer. When I came back to finish the post I was thinking about crucibles and wrote about this subject. I only realized the mistake the next day. Sorry about that one.

I actually have a great way to measure the temperature, but I will release that information in a few days. It is inexpensive and has reasonable accuracy.

I have been playing with my induction forge seen here.

I have been heating smaller piece in a crucible of furnace cement. The problem is the cement has a limit of about 2000F and starts to fuse, contaminating the molten iron. What else can I use for containing the molten iron? Is there another type of cement or clay like Hessian?

Sandy was in my shop last year? or the year before....known him for years..interesting dude...one of the more useful folk I have ever met.
I have a 50Kw Pachydyne by Ajax that I am slowly getting operational...need a coolant pump and to make up some coils (and a coolant for that as well)...hope to have it powered up this year....got a generator just to provide it with 50kw of 480 food.

Sandy likes you...he describes you as the madscientist type.
Ric

I hope Sandy is happy with that tool....

Ric

Hello all. I made an induction heater for a friend who is into forging swords. Originally, I built this just for fun. I modified some of the coils to allow him to heat a brick of iron up to the point of melting if he so chooses. I am including two videos showing it heating the brick and another heating a knife blank.

I thought this would be a good place to share this technology. Please feel free to ask any questions.

iron brick

Longer video of heating brick and hammering

Heating a blank

Heating a blank and hammering