Induction Heater

[crimmods360]

looks like a meth lab

[truvak]

impressive! could you make one or share the schematics for one more DYI entry level or for dummies? even if it only reaches a couple of hundreds of Celsius the experience would be great from someone like you that clearly understands the principles and had applied and tested results. Thanks.

[UltraDavidson37]

Hello ... I know many things about induction heating, I would like to write some questions, and the first I have is, what actually happens in the tank circuit in parallel? It is true that with this, the power supply does not have to supply power to the coil when no part to be heated, and only when you add a piece of metal, the coil begins to consume power?

[rondevassi]

Hi Tim amzing piece of engineering.....i would like to know if this method that u r using has 100 duty cycle, i mean can ur machine be on and working for 12 hours provided the water cooling system is immense and at 22 degrees constant.... also i would like to knw whether u can heat shafts of 1", 1 1/2", 2" mild steel, low carbon steel material..... i would b grateful to your reply thanx

[jjppmm29]

amasing job i would love some shemas if at all posible

[living4game]

very good job man :)

[AxelTiger]

the little red light means the machine needs more salt!

[kanfagun]

hi tim william congratulations you v made 10 kw induction heater so i need that scheme and design for melting iron and steel 25 kg and work coil diameter 10 " and height 15" and you work so hard and howmuch it cost me

[SirTannen]

All of that so that you can have your own little hole into hell.

[jpchapboy]

I would really love to build an induction heater to melt aluminum. I would want the inside of the coil to be about 5-7" diameter, and 7-8" tall so I can melt a lot of metal for castings. is that way beyond reasonable for a home hobby shop? would I be able to power it off 240v household current? Would it be ghastly expensive?

[T3sl4]

Induction starts looking good when you're melting iron and steel, it's not worthwhile for something as cold as aluminum. Besides, fire is so much fun!

[jpchapboy]

I am certainly not opposed to Iron and steel. Would it be super expensive?

[T3sl4]

Well, I've spent more than a few hundred bucks developing what you see, and that's knowing what I'm doing.

Commercial power supplies run over $2000 easily.

[MisterBaz1]

Wait, so you were able to melt salts using inductive heating? I thought you could only heat up ferrous metals?

[T3sl4]

Notice the crucible, which is made of steel.

I can heat many nonferrous metals just as well. However, a graphite crucible is a little too porous for salt.

[fgleich]

I wanna build one of these, what would it cost approx ? thanks !

[planetdarwin]

If you climbed up on a ladder and did a full body slam on your work desk, would you get a major electrical shock and/or severe burns from various components?

[T3sl4]

I would be more concerned about getting the ladder inside my 8 foot ceiling basement.

[30GB]

LOL thats a lot of capacitors also that water cooling setup is the same as i did to cool my computer you should check it out

[alexsgarage]

I saw your website, what software do you use to design your schematics?

[T3sl4]

Hah, I draw them in Windows Paint! The symbols are pasted from a library also available on my website.

[alexsgarage]

I tried it this way and it takes a long time but produces better results.

[fgleich]

omg haven't you discovered linux yet ?

[juniortore]

what happens if you breath that smoke?

[T3sl4]

Nothing. It might be irritating if you have asthma though.

[jeriellsworth]

Sweet!

[marshmallowkiller]

is that asbestos insulation I see? (between the work coil and the load)

[T3sl4]

Close. It's the modern equivalent, kaowool.

[123hikid]

Hello T3sl4

I want to melt 250 to 500 grams of stainless steel.Can you help me to build induction furnace.I will be very thankful to you.

[kevinliang22us]

helo i need to build a fully running induction heater, can some 1 show me how to build 1, pls

[vodasdesign]

Very impresive your heater.Congratulations !

Can you send me more details about what do I need to be able to build these kind of heater ? Thank you very much.

[armadica10]

Fuck look at the capacitor bank wouldn't want to strap that to my balls when charged.......hell i woudn't feel safe near it lol

[T3sl4]

It's only rated for 250VAC, so it wouldn't be much worse to your balls than European line voltage (I don't know if you've tested that with your balls, that's your business).

[armadica10]

Lol

[AceLockCo]

LMFAO!

[alexsgarage]

Hey I am currently working on my own induction heater and I was wondering if you could use multivibrator as the oscillator?

[celticart]

What frequency is this running.

I work in a foundry and I'm in charge of four induction furnices (2 x 750kW and 2 x 1250kW) and they run on 600Hz.

I know how smaller the furnice how higher the frequency.

[mumish13]

:O!

[richardphat]

Sorry but im very ignorant and dont speak english well. You wrote that your electronical stuff ( capacitors or something like that) could rated over 400 amperes, but isnt the maximum amperes in a house is around 200, isnt it too much?

[ossumguywill]

The maximum aperes in an american household is 15 amps, a european househould about half that (but twice the volts.) The thing about capacitors is that they can gather electricity over time and charge themselves higher then their input. That is how a shocking device works off of a regular battery.

[Nox665]

Uhm.. 15 amps at 120V ? just 1.8kW?

Here un Europe u can draw at least 13.5 amps @220V if u have a 3kW contract, or up to 20amps if 4.5kW.

Dunno about USA but over there u should be able to draw around the same power from the grid.. 25amps @ 120V ?

[freethisone]

dude you just gave me a great idea, are you ready for anti gravity?

try this, make the coil longer and put it inside a thick aluminum pipe. the negative field it creates against the pipe will give you a anti gravity effect. set it up vertically and then drop a nut through it.

[IronMarshmallow]

Great Rig!

[kimladha]

Just to clarify- you melt salt as in NaCl? It doesn't conduct till its molten so how do you start it off?

I like the set up, especially the tank capacitor- 'old school' style!!

[T3sl4]

To be exact, that was potassium chloride. It has almost the same properties as salt, and IS a salt, so not much difference. The crucible is made of steel, which works quite nicely, sometimes too nicely (while it's magnetic), as it loads the coil heavily (reducing output power). I don't know that molten salt would have enough conductivity to be kept liquid, at least with this much voltage.

Tim

[kimladha]

Thanks. I think most ionic compounds get more conductive with temperature as they melt. Metals do the opposite. I will try melting some salt tommorrow and see what happens!

My video is 'induction heater fun'. I found melting steel a challenge purely because the power kept going down as it heated up!

[furchina]

Tim, this is too complex LOL...

Do you have any pointers to tube circuits? I'd rather grab a couple large transmitter tubes and lose some efficiency than mess around with opamps, drivers, and various protection circuits...

[theroastedpotato]

you really need all that junk just to melt some salt??? wouldnt it be much easyer to use a propane torch or sumething?

[Hungryhowiepizza]

what are you useing to charge your caps a mot right with a bridge for some reson my mots keep fring on the secondary when i rectafi it to dc

[98209276]

dose the frequency matter so long as its high? im using a mot but do not want to add capacitors because they may over load and blow as i have already experienced.i may use 2 mots to be safe for higher amperage if you have more information plz reply to me as im currently interested in this project.

[ozoones]

I saw your webpage about the induction heater. Is there any possibility to use one or several PC power supplyes (or the components from them) to make an induction heater?

[T3sl4]

1. Much easier to use resistive metal, perhaps stainless steel tubing, and heat that with a somewhat higher voltage, perhaps 5-50 volts I would guess.

2. PSUs are usually built with bipolar transistors, which are cheaper but harder to use. You'll need the parts from about 5 supplies, assembled carefully to prevent parasitic oscillation, to build a heater similar to the example above.

[ozoones]

1st of all thank you for the quick answer. I know that is much-much easyer to use resistive metal to heat water, but I was wondering if using inductive heating is more efficient (W/degree Celsius). What amount of power uses your device? The smallest tankless water heater on the market uses 5kWh.

[T3sl4]

You suggested using waste heat from the coil and nothing more. That is only an extraordinarily elaborate resistive heater. A directly heated resistance tube has *all* the heat *right there*.

This device runs about 1kW. The circulating water, which amounts to a few liters, rises perhaps 20°C in half an hour of running.

[ozoones]

Sorry for the missunderstanding. I did not meant to use the waste heat form the coil. I would want to use the heat inducted by the coil into a tube WITHIN the coil (instead of salt). Do you think such an approach would be more efficient than the "standard" water heater?

[T3sl4]

I repeat, a directly heated resistance tube has *all* the heat *right there*.

[98209276]

im making a induction furnace but for the capacitor bank im using microwave oven caps [capacitors] will these work?

i understand that the low the capacitance the less current and more voltage inducted plz help me out

[T3sl4]

No. Take a close look at my capacitor bank: it's made from a mess of quality capacitors, and rated for over 400 amperes. No single oil-can capacitor can do that.

[kimladha]

check out CELEM PASSIVE COMPONENTS in israel. They do lovely tiny conduction cooled caps that can do half a mega watt of reactive power each! My video 'induction heater fun' uses them.

[ozoones]

Hi do you think is possible to use scuch an induction heater to create a tankless water heater? I am thinking at a copper tube that goes through the coil and water runs through it.

[diymania]

Whats the metal in there, iron? I hear "salt"

That white stuff looks like glass wool. Btw Timmy, yer lab has grown big :o Lots of wires on the breadboard there, btw get a quieter power transformer :P