In article ,
"Pete S" wrote:

I am in the process of cleaning up the place for a blacksmith meeting next
Saturday. One of the other members will do the main demo, making a pair of
tongs. But I, as host, am expected to do some stuff, too. And I have
plenty of things from which to choose:

Demo running a couple of generators from my Chinese wood chip Gasifier
---not much metal content, but might be interesting to some

Demo the use and making of blacksmith anvils from pieces of railroad rail
--- I will have one piece set up to cut the basic shapes w/torch
--- One set up on Mill to show truing the face
---One set up on a stand to show truing w/ angle grinder
---One set up on surface grinder to show finish grinding of face
---One set up on a stump to show that they really can work, as long as you
can keep it from moving
---Several pieces on a table to show/explain sizes/weights of rail

Show off trip hammer collection

But here's the question and intro to it:
Several years ago a guy drove up the driveway and unloaded a 5KW
Westinghouse induction heater made in the 50's or 60's. It is about 4 feet
cubed. Tube type. It's mostly a 5KW radio station transmitter tuned to a
lower frequency, I think.
I have never fired it up. It takes about 50 amps of single phase 220 to
run it. And a water supply to cool the output coil. I think I will try to
get it going for the demo.
It came with only one output coil, but that one is about 4 inches long,
with an ID of about 2 inches, so I should be able to heat 1 inch bars pretty
well. -----IF it works at all. The manual tells me that there's about
10,000 volts running around inside, so I think I will keep one hand in my
pocket.

Anyway, are any of you guys fooling around with induction heating? We had
some guys from Ameritherm up here 4 or 5 years ago demonstrating a 5KW solid
state unit that was about 1/20th the size of "my" machine, but it was about
$28K retail. Now the Chinese have a 5KW knock off of it for about $3K. A
friend of mine in AZ bought one and it exceeded his (somewhat low)
expectations.
So, what experiences do 'yall have with this method of heating things?

Beware the output coil. It will have very high RF voltages on it. Do
not handhold the bar being heated.

What does the nameplate say? Frequency is particularly useful to know.

How many turns does the output coil have?

Joe Gwinn