Handheld induction heater to forge?

[whitewill1412]

I've seen on Amazon and other online marketplaces these handheld induction heaters that are made for loosening old rusted nuts and bolts.  I'm wondering if one of those could be used as a small forge.  Does anyone here have any experience with these little heaters?

They look like this

 

[JHCC]

That's an interesting question. I took a quick look online at the manufacturer's website for that particular item; the company is called Solary, and it looks like a decent product for its intended use. Whether or not it would be sufficiently robust for forging use is a separate issue. This in particular stood out to me:

Quote

Our buster heat induction tool is equipped with a cooling fan at the end, which can fully dissipate heat; the built-in overheating protection system will stop working when the machine temperature is too high, avoiding machine overheating damage and protecting your work safety. 

Now, my own practical experience working with induction is exactly Zero, so take the following with a grain of salt. My understanding is that an induction heater generates an enormous amount of heat within its own components and therefore requires significant cooling capacity. With forging units, that's usually some kind of chiller that circulates coolant to keep the unit from burning itself out. My guess is that while one of these handheld tools might be able to handle very small forging or heat-treating operations, anything requiring higher energy levels would exceed its capacity -- that is, that it would shut itself off before it was able to get the workpiece up to forging temperatures.

That's my semi-educated guess, anyway. I'd be interested to hear more from those with more experience and knowledge.

[Buzzkill]

For use as a small forge, the short answer is no.  Those are nowhere near powerful enough to hit forging temperatures in anything approaching a reasonable amount of time.  We have one in the shop, and they work reasonably well for their intended use if you can get the coils where you need them.  However, if you use too big of a coil on a smaller nut that is enough to decrease how well/quickly it heats up.  If I have some spare time maybe I'll run out and see if/how long it would take to get something up to forging temperature, but I'm not sure it's even possible.

The handle portion of those does have a fan in it for cooling off the electronics, but I believe there is a duty cycle recommendation. As quoted above, they also have thermal shutdown protection features.

[whitewill1412]

That's what I was thinking too.  That it probably isn't heavy duty enough for forging purposes. 

Buzzkill I'd really like to see what your experiments come up with if you have a chance to do it. 

[Buzzkill]

We have the one you pictured above.   It specifies a 2 minute "on" and 5 minute "off" duty cycle.

I grabbed a 1/2" diameter bolt and put the head in a vice.  Surprisingly to me, after about 90 seconds I'd say the threaded portion I was affecting was hot enough to forge, but just barely.  The glowing portion was a little over an inch long.  The heat resistant material on the coils was smoking a little at that point too.

So, I guess I'd say I have to revise my earlier statement just a little.  You could potentially do a little bit of short-term forging with one of these within certain parameters.  However, I still don't think it would be a suitable option for sustained work on even a hobby level.

[JHCC]

So, I'll stick to the oxypropane torch for forging and heat-treating repousse tools.

On a side note, kudos to Solary for proper semicolon use.

[Daswulf]

I have a couple of them. I have the inductor venom and venom hp.  I mainly have used them for intended purpose of freeing bolts and a few other uses in the body shop and also use it for bending smaller parts on scrap metal sculptures.  I bought them because they are cheaper (in the long run) and easier to get set up than torches for small needs. 

I don't see one being very efficient for forging purposes.  They are not as powerful and the large stationary units people do use for forging. It won't get up to temps the forge gets to. 

Also the higher temps you heat to degrade the coil and coil cover faster and they recomend only heating the part to the point it frees up to prolong the coil life. 

Mine say max time on is 2 minutes on then two minutes off. 

If you were just heating and hammering on some little stock less than 1/4" in a basement or something it might get a little job done but for the price I don't see it being worth it.