Yep its stalled for sure. yay life... Im getting out of the forging world, check the tailgate section. My brother still plans on working on the forges, its mostly his thing anyway, I was just the adviser/idea monkey so he knew what features blacksmiths would like, hes been traveling a lot for work lately so there's not been much time.

For myself, I remain interested and patient for ReactorForge to complete your enterprise in induction heating. 

I did get an email saying that josh would be back on it from thanksgiving, email sent on 3/11/14 but  no reply since

 

I too would like one

 

nothing new on github about it last time I checked either

I am wondering if it makes any difference in the coil if you use 1/4" dia tubing or 3/16" ?   Any ideas anyone?

I am wondering if it makes any difference in the coil if you use 1/4" dia tubing or 3/16" ?   Any ideas anyone?

There are many differences that it makes, you have to weight a handful of variables to determine what is right for your application. 

​There is a massive amount of current flowing in that coil therefor any resistance of the coil generates heat. Smaller size = greater resistance = more heat. With the smaller size comes a reduced coolant flow which also adds to the heat build up issue. Put simply you can go smaller if you can keep it cool.

The smaller diameter allows for tighter/closer turns which can contribute to a more uniform heating of the work piece.

The smaller diameter tube is easier to bend without damaging it and can be bent into smaller and more detailed forms.

Others and I were wondering if you, Josh, were still active. I was about to post that you have updated the GitHub 30 days ago with a hardware list. Thank you for continuing to pursue this project. We await your first round of kits. Say hey to Daniel.

had an email last year from josh indicating he was getting too many emails ( 12 in two weeks! over this, I get more than that a day for things that I do ) and he said that he was going to devote the rest of the year after thanksgiving to getting this done.

that was last year and since then no emails I have sent have been replied to.

recently the chinese one on a certain auction site have come down in price by about 40% so am more seriously considering buying one of them instead, can get a 15kw for $1074 at the moment

Well IronD you could always risk sending off that money to a seller in China with over 30 negative feedbacks who sells amongst other things, fancy dress clothing and plastic parts for motorcycles. They might even send you a suitable machine, that might actually arrive and hey, even work,maybe not. It might even last a few months or so but how would you deal with warranty issues if they arise? Who knows, they might even be CE certified and so you wouldn't risk having them impounded by customs, maybe not. Or ...I could sell you a CE certified one with warranty and support from a manufacturer with a proven track record .... it will cost you a bit more than that figure you mention but could well be cheaper in the long run.

I have purchased from china before, 2 of my consignments totaled about 1 tonne, have been looking at 3 sellers at the moment on one site and will investigate whats on a B2B site I have used in the past.

out of interest PM me with your prices young dylan

Hi you all ; specially "IH brothers". I'm one more awaiting for that induction-heater releasing kits or units... In the meanwhile, I visit the "comming soon" ReactorForge, the forums I FORGE IRON, 4HV.org, and Github, sometimes very impatient... Even if the final project is open source and I could build it, anyway I would buy some kit/unit to you, sir J.Campbell. I have some experience in building different things, and that's why I considere those tons of time and work (and headaches!) must be somehow paid or congratulated. I would even click some "donate" tab in your web, if provided. In my opinion, the machine you are making goes beyond "bussines", regarding some "David vs. Goliath" fight, some genial and out of proportion effort that incurs in the field of the revolution, or even in the poetry.

Congratulations so far.

But don't stop now...

Very Cool Josh.  Glad to see you back.  Elegant design, and 100% duty cycle what is not to like.  I can wait... ;-)  I even like the Nuclear theme.

 

 

I wish I understood this better...  All of it, but right now I am specifically thinking about the coils.  It sounds like smaller diameter tubing is "good" in that it is easier to shape to smaller diameter coils.  Do they heat better for some other reason, or just because you can make a better fitting coil?  But they heat up more, and would require more coolant capacity in your system.  So is there are real down side to heating efficiency to using larger diameter tubing for your coils, if you can get the coil shaped neatly to conform to the stock you are working?  Since they are easier to keep cool, and less taxing on your coolant system...  Especially if you got good at shaping the larger tubing.

well nothing new here and no pm or mail from young dylan

well just recently I got fed up of waiting, no reply to emails or progress here on this one and still no prices from young dylan since march 16th when I asked so I bought myself a 15kw unit elsewhere at a cost of £735.67 GBP = $1,079.00 USD including delivery, it took 5 days to arrive.

will let you know what I think when I get the cooling system made and it is all working

iron dwarf, did you get your heater up and running? Are you satisfied with it?

I've been eyeing those Chinese units but I'm too chicken to be an early adopter. 

I note that Josh, the creator of this induction forge, has updated his github site, reached via ReactorForge site, twenty five days ago. That update lets us know that he is still active.

?

12 months to add a few words but no new content, josh was complaining about being inundated with emails about it 12 months ago, ( he was getting 10 in 14 days ) and could not cope.

I get more per day than that

ID did you get your unit up and running? How is it? I got a 18KW unit (single ph) a long time back... brilliant machine! Same type of folk as the IR thermocouple lot. No hassle at all.

 

IT would seem the creator has gone missing however it would still seem he has enough information on his github to still do it yourself,  I think I am going to take the next couple of weeks to study what he is doing and see if I can remember any of my digital and semi conductor stuff I learned in college to recreate it. 

PD; Very welcomed, Munra, or anyone else who could do that final push to the project gets the finish line...

I do embedded firmware for a living.  If this thing needs any microcontroller work to do a user interface or some sort of feedback control, I'd be glad to lend my skills.  For instance, it wouldn't be a big deal for me to read an IR thermometer pointed at the work and PWM, or otherwise control the power, of the heater to get a part up to a preset temperature and then keep it there.  If there is something that can be read from the output waveform that will allow on the fly tuning for efficiency I can do that, or it might be as simple as monitoring a few component temperatures to make sure that some expensive output stage part doesn't fry.

This sounds like a great project but I know that I lack the high power electronic skills needed to do anything beyond a color by number build of it.  If I can help make it better with what I know how to do, let me know.

Dear Mr. Campbell, please be back. Posterity will tell you were the first one to do something that many people awaited or wanted to. Out of 'system' circle.

Still cold iron pieces are also awaiting all over the world to be induction heated. Doesn't it give "shivers down your spine"?

Thank you anyway for reaching so long.

there are lots of details given on the github site inc the code for the microcontroller

Great.  I never looked at the Github, I'll go take a look.  If the code needs any change or if someone comes up with new features I'd be glad to help.  I've worked on a lot of things on all sorts of processors.

I just took at look at the Github page.  The processor they use is one I know very well.  There are a couple million devices out the world with my code in them that use that processor.  Easy to make changes if needed, or to just build what's there and burn the flash for whoever builds this if they aren't set up to do it.

any news of this?