Welcome aboard P.w.Doodle glad to have you.

Contact Gene, if he isn't selling them anymore he'll know who does. Tell him Frosty sent you, we've been friends for years. Not good for a discount mind you but he'll get a kick out of it and making him smile is a good thing.

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Induction heaters are plug and play, 220v on a suitable breaker. Water or anti freeze coolant is mandatory but it's not as big a deal as filling a car radiator. 

I have one on my hit list so I'm not burning propane indoors anymore. I just have to save up and get the shop wired.

Frosty The Lucky.

Mr. Frosty,

Thank you for the 'Mettle Works'  reference.

The two featured machines look very intriguing.

But,  I could not find the price for either of them.

Would you please inform me as to where they are featured on that web-site?

There are prices quoted for various accessories.

Thanks,

SLAG.

Indeed. thank you for the link Frosty. I'm glad to know now what sort of device I need. Seems you and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum. I have the  appropriate power in my shop, but,  I need to save up for the unit itself. Don't know prices from the reference you provided,  but, I'm still pretty sure I need to conjure some funds. Thx.

I figured it was one of those "If you have to ask the price; you can't afford it!"  type of things...

Ok, so I bought one of the 'cheap' ebay Induction machines, 15kw.   [commercial link removed]  It was around $600 to my door. From all I can tell, it's the same as the US Solid machines. There's been a lot of confusion if you look on ebay at all the various 'models' of the 15kw machine, it's hard to know if one is 'better' than the other. I posted a picture of my machine in the facebook induction forging group and was contacted by an employee at LiHua in China who said "you have one of our machines, you will be happy." After more messages back and forth, they confirmed that they supply the machines for US Solid and just re-paint/re-brand them for them before shipping. So far, I'd buy this machine again in a heartbeat, it's sold by someone called solar.jean and is branded on ebay as "TaiShi" but the machine itself is not branded anywhere.  I've made a custom coil, one inch or so inner diameter and I was able to get a about 1.5 inches of the end of a 1/2 square bar to sparking-welding heat in less than a minute.

 I've not been super active on here but I see that monstermetal "Larry" is listed as deceased on his profile here. Does anyone have any idea what he and Grant were doing to these machines to make them 'better for blacksmithing?' I'm in the middle of setting up my cooling and making coils. So far, initial runs of the machine seem really promising but I'd be really interested to know if anyone has ideas about what kind of improvements were made.

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by Mod34
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I'm interested to see how this holds up for you after you use it for a while.  Did you get the 110v or the 220v version?

I got the 220v unit. I believe there are the SAME exact machines listed on ebay, some below 600$, some much more above. I think this is just a difference in the MANY distributors choosing to price their units differently for whatever reason. I do not believe at this time that the price difference has anything to do with the components or capability. I removed the cover and was pleasantly surprised at the build quality inside. Very much like a big computer but all the soldering points, hoses, wiring, etc is tidy and well put together. I too am VERY curious as to the longevity of the machine.