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?

Pete Stanaitis