This Forge Changes Everything

Coal Ironworks Induction Forge: coaliron.com/p...
‪@CoalIronWorks‬
The best place to follow along with the day to day updates in the shop is through my Instagram @Will_Stelter / will_stelter
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Editing by the talented / isaiaharnoldfilm
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Website www.willstelte...

[@mikedowd6015]

Electrician here who works with magnetics and induction heating: If you are going to bend your own elements, keep this in mind: You want all of your coils to go in the same direction., reversing the direction will only weaken the magnetic field, as reversed fields will cancel each other out and nullify your heating capability. a 'C' shaped element is possible, but would be grossly inefficient as you couldn't get many turns of conductor on your work without doubling back on itself and killing your field.

[@Bob_Adkins]

Your shop needs top-notch electrical service too!

[@leospitz6541]

One of the interesting things you can do with an induction furnace is place a high temp non conductive sleeve inside it and run argon or helium to prevent any oxidation on the metal.

[@joepiejaapie]

If you turn it upright you could make a kind of cup and even keep the gas in there, I know for certain carbon dioxide is heavier than air so it just kind of lies there.

[@MF175mp]

​​@@joepiejaapiebut as it warms up it's lighter than the cold air outside so I wouldn't be sure it would stay there.

[@Earthenfist]

You could probably jury-rig an old sandblaster cabinet for an O2 free environment.

[@leospitz6541]

We had a big induction furnace in one of the labs where I worked I am not sure of the output of it but the power supply was connected to a 300 amp 3 phase 480 breaker and they ran paralleled 2 aught welding cables to the induction coil. They used it to make exotic metal blends for materials testing.

[@leospitz6541]

@@MF175mp You keep just a trickle of gas flowing in after you have displaced the oxygen.

[@CMFoodFun]

I feel like you're going to want thong clips and tool rests because holding bars that long will get annoying fast. Feels like an amazing machine with endless possibilities.

[@bas17h4]

Yeah you don't want your thong out of place

[@brolohalflemming7042]

Don't mention thongs! Especially if studded with magnetic materials. This is one of the things that would make me paranoid, ie standing too close with magnetic fly zips or buttons.

[@Alex_whatever]

100% the sped up footage really shows how much he wiggles and moves the stock around LoL

[@JokerInk-CustomBuilds]

@@brolohalflemming7042 it is not much different than induction cooking tops... You don't worry about those do you? ;)

[@brolohalflemming7042]

@@JokerInk-CustomBuilds I probably would if I had one! I guess with these there's also a risk of overheating work? But I guess that's something you get used to with practice.

[@roodvleven3239]

If you want to make your own coils, use salt instead of sand. Especially with smaller coils sand is difficult to remove. Salt will desolve in water. Just force water under pressure through the salt and it will come out.

[@SeanUnkempt]

An induction forge is such an interesting piece of equipment. it won't replace a gas or coal forge entirely, but rather another helpful tool in your arsenal

[@RayTheMickey]

One of my customers made precision forged connecting rods. The near net connecting rod forms were reheated with an induction furnace and smacked by a forginging press to make the connecting rod. I had other customers that used induction hardening machines and we used induction heaters to preheat our steel strip on our galvanizing line. We use an induction welder to weld the seam on our steel tube at our tube mill. That is the seam on the square tube you use.

[@Andre_the_Lion]

It's a super smart idea to mess around with new tools like this to get to know them, but especially with a whole new technology. You know a ton already about how your bread will come out of the oven, but now you're trying to microwave it; gonna take some getting used to. Don't forget that eventually that heat will travel down the bar to your hand if you keep heating and working it.

[@TheScrawnyLumberjack]

Hear me out. Stainless tool wrap a burrito and warm it up in there.

[@bennyb.1742]

I've made hot chocolate with inductive bolt heater in a stainless mug.

[@doubledarefan]

I hope hexchrome does not become a problem. Is food-safe stainless come in foil form? (quick web search later) Online Metals has it.

[@theprojectproject01]

This is the best idea I've seen all week.

[@Bob_Adkins]

It can't replace a gas forge, but it almost can. This is ideal for small shops, and also perfect for fine work where oxidation is a problem.

[@checoleman8877]

Watched the video of them using this to make crucible steel. Was freakin nuts

[@Tinker_it]

Another tool too add to my "massive amounts of money" list of tools to get in the future. Along with a milling machine, power hammer, metal lathe, cpu/gpu manufacturing plant, and F22.

[@Ithirahad]

Hahah. Honestly the fighter jet is probably several orders of magnitude more achievable than all the proprietary crap that goes into a chip fab.

[@Tinker_it]

well, that's fine. I'd rather have the F22 anyways lol.

[@Dustins_Woodworking]

We have an Ajax Toccotron 25 Kw machine at my work. We use it to heat treat and temper 4130 steel and 440 sst parts. The nice thing about the Toccotron is you can make programs with three different power levels and times for each. Cool machines.

[@insaneredneck3917]

I’ve used induction heaters on cars. Being able to heat a seized nut in seconds without breaking out the torch is great

[@LinenAssociate]

Induction forges are pretty trick. The barrel for Desert Eagle pistols used to be two pieces (the large area where the bolt locks in and the chamber/rifled section) that were pinned together in the past. Now days Magnum Research uses induction to heat the two pieces to essentially weld them together.

[@patricke0n]

Yeah, this was the only way I could keep making knives. No workshop so i had to set my forge up in the backyard, harvested for parts within a day. So induction inside was the name of the game. Great for just heat treating too

[@billhatcher2984]

Heat treating is a great thing to do with induction you can heat only half inch along the edge and quench you get soft backs and tuff knifes

[@robertr4193]

That's a pretty interesting machine and for some things I can see where it would come in handy. Stay safe and healthy will. Sense Damascus or pattern wielded steel has different types of steel in it will there be much difference in time it takes to heat it fully with the different steel types it has?

[@F0XD1E]

Very cool. I always thought these seemed like they might be kind of a gimmick, but not being a blacksmith I hadn't realized how slow the gas forge was. I imagine it's probably more efficient energy cost wise since you don't have to leave it burning in between heats.

[@TrabberShir]

More efficient in just about every way, not just because of the reduced time. A gas furnace heats air, and the air heats the forge and steel, then the forge radiates some its heat to the steel and vise-versa with every step being less than 50% efficient for at most 20% efficiency when the steel is in the forge. Induction heaters of this sort are usually greater than 60% efficient with resistive losses in the coil being the majority of the loss. High end units can get over 85% efficiency. Not to mention that in most places these days, the electricity is cheaper than the gas per unit energy.

[@T3sl4]

The 1/4" rod still heats up pretty quickly at first, because it acts like a pole piece, focusing the magnetic field into its length. In addition, as long as steel is magnetic (below Curie temperature), it has double losses from magnetic hysteresis as well as the induced current. Above Tc, the hysteresis and magnetic focusing effects go away, and it's like heating any other nonferrous metal -- you need much more voltage on the coil now to keep it heating up, it's harder to heat past orange-hot. EE here -- have designed and built several induction power supplies. It's fascinating tech, just a bit hard to use: the coil shape matters so much. To help with that, you can get or make a quick-change adapter (to mate electrical and water connections in one motion), and with some limitations, you can get/make flexible coils by stuffing chonky ground braid (the tubular-weave kind) inside a hose (make sure it's got good enough water flow to keep cool all the way along it!!). The tuning settings are also critical. Not clear if that unit is fixed or what, but tuning determines how much power you can get into a coil of given design (size and number of turns), and what frequency it runs at. Typically, there's a number of capacitors inside that tune the frequency, and a transformer with selectable taps that matches the high-frequency inverter to the coil. Frequency won't be important for forging application, but in precision applications like case hardening, it's critical for the case depth (you can heat the outer layer, 1/16", 1/4", whatever, just over austenizing temperature, then quench with water spray, to get a much deeper case than chemical treatment can do; power supplies for this application, have replaceable capacitors and adjustable tap settings to enable this). If you don't have tuning options, the range of coils you can use will be quite limited; generally speaking, you will have fewer turns as diameter goes up, but also the range of diameter ratios (coil to work) that you can deliver full power into is limited, and somewhat dependent on the coil design (size and turns -- inductance, overall).

[@christopherwise7067]

Dual coil, melt forge for gold and silver. Have a small melting coil go into a bigger coil around a crucible to keep the metal liquid.

[@flpmlks5181]

if you want to bend copper pipes, fill them with soapy water and let it freeze. that´s how trumpets are made :D

[@Freakmaster480]

I wonder if wax would work better. It would 't require chilling the metal to the same level.

[@flpmlks5181]

@@Freakmaster480 i cant see a problem with that, if you can get it out afterwards.

[@Freakmaster480]

@@flpmlks5181 Wax would be easy enough to just melt out. The reaidue should burn out easily enough if anything gets left inside

[@jakobfindlay4136]

Can also fill a pipe with water and freeze it to stop it from collapsing or kinking if you don't wanna get sand everywhere

[@josephknudson5097]

God bless you Will.

[@crispiernuggets7971]

My first thought was you could use it to heat your metal initially then use then gas forge to keep it hot once it’s a weird shape, but with all the fun coil shapes you might not even need to do that. I’m interested to see what you can do with this thing

[@Jrakula10]

good to know the power button does in fact turn it off AND back on, very cool thanks Mr. Billiam Stelter of the USAs of america.

[@felixm.8910]

This is really handy for hardening just a face or an edge of a tool, I think.

[@SpaceShrimp]

I always wondered why neither you or Alec were using that :)

[@JamesYoung61]

I think that the most exciting thing about an induction forge is that you can melt metal in an oxygen free environment, either in an inert gas or a vacuum, I used to run an 11kw induction evaporator that evaporated molybdenum at about 1,600 C and 10-7 vacuum. I can see going forward you making all sorts of special tools and guides to compliment this awesome addition to the shop. If you are really interested in making alloys let the channel know and I am sure any of us who have some experience will give you some things to look out for.

[@JokerInk-CustomBuilds]

it is an induction heater. Just like induction cooking tops. -You can easily google how those work. :)

[@justinbanks2380]

16:25 looks like he's holding a cigar and doing sone magic trick, lol

[@Kolnerbigblue]

As a former engineer, I greatly appreciate the flexibility that you can make your own coils. How wide and thin can you make the coil to keep the blade equidistant from the coil on all four sides?

[@TheBigburcie]

It seems so bizarre to see you holding a bar and your hand is only inches from 1500 degree+ glowing steel but you're not burnt. The speed that it heats up an isolated area before the heat propagates down the bar is hard to fathom. I'm excited to see how you can use this to do precise edge hardening and tempering.

[@DrewProductions6]

I love how confident Will is with a power hammer. The Little Giant put in some work!

[@artor9175]

The hammer knows what Will will do to it if it fails him.

[@WillStelterbladesmith]

It’ll get the pallet jack 💀

[@dragonwing4ever]

​@@artor9175still too soon

[@jolioding_2253]

@@WillStelterbladesmith it feels good that you can joke about it today. It was traumatic back then

[@williambrouwers5664]

It is still traumatic, for the rest of us.

[@LordDarque]

I'd love to see that try something like Cannister Damascus. Might need a custom coil for it but that this is amazing.

[@kermitthorson9719]

@16:13 no bad will please think about gravity

[@torridice]

Pretty sweet piece of kit

[@ElectricalExistence]

Fill them with water to bend them instead of sand. Water cant be compressed. Make it long enough to sacrifice maybe an inch on each end. Crimp a side, fill with water, crimp the other side. Its a lot harder to get sand out than it is to get water out.

[@RedBeardOps]

Yeah this is awesome....

[@opendstudio7141]

Lots of possibilities with induction. Using a crucible and holder- small scale casting can be done more economically. Also, heat shrinking and some bearing removals take minutes because of the surface induction.

[@VincentMcmanus.]

man, that beeping is reminding me very much of a heart monitor at a hospital along with some really bad memories.

[@SpookyGroovyPolitoCatMum]

So that was amazing! That's going to change blade forging for sure and Artisan forging definitely. Even larger forging problems are solved easily with this thing. This Alec Steele know about this? And about it being quiet.. yeah that's kind of a groovy perk but your Hammer still going to go a bang a bang a bang LOL

[@Tugmun11]

very very kool, awesome Edit as well

[@Zach-ku6eu]

For knife makers in garages, or larger production handmade shops, I would hope this becomes prevalent!

[@Petch85]

Looks like it could benefit from having some support tools that could help hold the metal in the right position and making it easy to handle the hot metals. They same way as you have tools for your gas forge. Also, induction heating is just always super impressive.

[@TheRealTiburon]

I was thinking the same, they must make some sorta slide table you can mount it

[@johnostambaugh8638]

I believe this process is used with rifle barrels in some way and with much longer coils and vertical.

[@marton_horvath]

A power button that works both ways! What a time to be alive!

[@georgedunkelberg5004]

OLD NAVY RADAR SCHOOL TEST DAY MANTRA: (R.T.F.Q!) READ THE FU-ING QUESTION! I= A COMPLETE CIRCUIT! O= INCOMPLETE, OR OPEN! CIRCUIT duh?

[@d.r.bladeworks9025]

I’ve wanted one of these for a while that would make everything so much quicker

[@Wtlukd]

Needs a jig holder clamp thingamajig for larger thicker pieces, makes life easier I think

[@jetshadowcrow]

It would make heating up only the end tang for putting on pommel and butt caps. Or addressing a warp, or putting a bend in a particular part for blacksmithing.

[@wallyschmidt77]

I appreciate that you honor the old technologies and embrace the new.

[@madmax52]

First video that Ive seen in a while. Will looks jacked. Not some skinny little kid anymore.

[@mikebroom1866]

I'm in Muncie, would love a meet and greet in Anderson.

[@WillStelterbladesmith]

They do a do a lot of classes, and hammer in each December 🔥

[@michaellippett794]

They are called edy currents...plus to minues so fast they heat up the steel. Same as a bearing heater

[@SunnnyDay]

Shaping copper tube requires a spring bender, don't need sand at all.

[@jwaterous224]

Does holding the workpiece in the correct spot become the challenge when using the induction coils? Free handing a workpiece would be easier with a nice arm rest to allow your focus to be on exact positioning of heat effect.

[@timmayer8041]

This might be a stupid question, are you more likely to get cold stunts with the induction heater? There seems to be a sharp drop off in heat, from what's in the coil and what is not. Where a coal or gas furnace seem to bring the entire piece up in temp preventing an extreme temperature variance

[@gazebodp]

That's awesome. I would be curious on the cost difference. Where I am, it's about 17 cents per KWH, so 1 hour of run time would be about $4 to $5. How much is an hour of run time on your forge?

[@Volti-Vagra]

saw another comment that pretty much answers your question @F0XD1E 27 minutes ago Average electricity rates in Montana looks to be about 13 cents per kWh. If he's running this on full blast, that's $3.25 per hour of up time. If the first heat takes 2 minute and subsequent heats would take like 30 seconds or less, he could do at least 100 heats for $3.25. I suspect that's significantly cheaper than running the gas. idk how accurate that is or anything but it sure seemed pertinent to the question

[@ConorMakes]

wootz, wootz you said that (how ever its spelt) yes sir looking forward to seeing that. Slan go foill Conor

[@patchinthebox]

That's super cool!

[@bc65925]

I used one there the day we were at Coal and Iron together for the first time. Quite odd when you are used to coal. But I will say my first forging in it was welding a rein on a tong bit.

[@PaulG.x]

To get "scientifical" the alternating magnetic field from the coil induces eddy currents in the material and those currents heat the material due to it's electrical resistance. It works just like a transformer but a transformer's core is specifically designed not to heat up. They do that by making the core from laminations that limit eddy currents.

[@jbergenudd]

Make a toolrest with a reciprocating arm that moves a knife slowly back and forth to evenly heat a whole knife blade

[@robert.brokaw3829]

Cool machine Will. Does the end you're holding get hot/warm while heating the bar? Stay safe young man.

[@lady_draguliana784]

if you're working with small stuff, this, imo, is the way to go. there's a particular sized over which traditional forges become far more efficient, but for little things like chef's knife-sized things? I like a good induction forge. ...now if only I had one in my shop! 🤣 ...also had a shop! 🤣... 😭

[@JesseCohen]

I think the first time I saw an induction forge was on a video of Bob Kramer. Granted he used it to heat up a meteorite and smoke some fish with it, but it works, and cooking with forge tools feels familiar somehow. “Handmade with Anthony Bourdain”, and it was sponsored by Balvenie, if memory serves. The potential was evident, and is immense with a good supporting setup. Have fun with iterating your flow around it, let us know how it goes, and thanks for sharing! Edit: It was called “Raw Craft” not Handmade. Memory served up about 75%, but that’s little surprise these days, if I’m honest. Which I am. 😬

[@Mounty621]

Great tool!!

[@Mr.Potato420]

instead of sand use soap and water Heavy on the soap and freeze it. that's how brass instruments are bent.

[@Torskel]

Clad them in furnace plaster

[@Vikingwerk]

I’d say make an adjustable stand, with some 2” angle iron on the top in a V position, so you can rest your work piece on it and keep it in the center if the coil. I imagine arcing on the coil will eventually burn holes in it, so having a stock rest will save on coil damage. Bet this tool does hilarious things to your power bill this month! 😂

[@F0XD1E]

Average electricity rates in Montana looks to be about 13 cents per kWh. If he's running this on full blast, that's $3.25 per hour of up time. If the first heat takes 2 minute and subsequent heats would take like 30 seconds or less, he could do at least 100 heats for $3.25. I suspect that's significantly cheaper than running the gas.

[@fzr400rr100]

Cool tool.

[@ronsimpson143]

fill the copper pipe with water with a little liquid dish soap and freeze it. They do that to make musical instruments. It keeps the tube from collapsing when you bend it.

[@jimcorbett3764]

That is so cool. And pretty freakin' scary. And what is dripping from those coils?

[@hardwareful]

ADHD-friendly forge, sweet :) And one of the key advantages is that you can measure the surface temperature exactly as you heat it.

[@OmnieStar]

could you make a really long coil "like 0000000" and put a whole knife in it? Edit: Or is there a limit to how many loops.

[@Moheeheeko]

I did a lot of Soldering with a similar device, its neat!

[@Little_River_Forge]

I wonder with the speed of heat in the material how it would affect the grain structure for heat treating and thermal cycles??? We need an experiment for science

[@johnsmith-rp5bg]

The only downside is it sucks for heat teeats. You cant get the edge hot enough to harden properly. Everything else about them is amazing

[@TandD1w]

As steel heats up it will lose magnetism. Does that imply there is a critical temperature the induction coil can not heat beyond?

[@TwinShards]

2:41 correction, and ferro magnetic. Yes you can heat up copper using induction heating however the efficiency drop significantly compared to ferro magnetic metals. Induction heating work best on ferro metal because when the magnetic field colapse in the metal, it create magnetic friction while in copper, the magnetic field colapse without friction, only edy current will heat up the copper.

[@dalesmit7869]

Will, have you tried to quench the heated stock straight from induction?

[@I_Infinity]

I wonder if the electromagnet would work with a tungsten rod? That's about $250 for the materials alone, but it would not melt easily...

[@Powerviolenc3]

What if the metal touches the sides?

[@Bigfootz2004]

This reminds me of the game Operation!

[@JakeSmith-ps4vr]

If you stood on an insulated base, would it still arc if you touched the coil with your steel?

[@freew67]

I haven't seen a Will Stelter video in a while but when did you get all jacked? :)

[@ThePirateGod]

100amp 250v required. Damn!!

[@Rick_TheBrick]

I highly recommend building a resting bench for your arm that way you can steadily and repeatably hold the piece inside the coil.

[@hassenfepher]

OK, Will, hear me out. Attachments for that induction heater. Make a long flexible wand with a coil at the end. Something you can reach the twist machine with. Then as you twist things you can use that wand to heat certain parts of the metal to add more twist in certain areas. That is all. Thank you.

[@packetjanitor]

Will this also work to normalize the steel before heat treatment?

[@toddellner5283]

I'm sure this is at least comparable to the ones that have been for sale for a few years. In fact, it looks like exactly like them give or take the words on the case. I can get the imported item with the TIG cooler for half the price of this item. Is there a compelling reason to get the more expensive model? Are the components materially different?

[@theallseeingmaster]

You can use it to find those microscopic slivers that find their way into your fingers. The ones that cannot be pulled out by any means, with any tool; It works great, I did it a few times myself.

[@Volti-Vagra]

that sounds like a horribly painful, yet ingenious way to find where the slivers are ...any tips on getting pieces of glass out from under your skin? drawing salve did nothing but bleach the skin p a l e white for a few days

[@theallseeingmaster]

@@Volti-Vagra I don't know anything about glass slivers. As for the steel slivers I got at a job; it did not hurt badly at all. You do it very quickly; the sliver turns red; you get a blister, and it pops out. This was fifty years ago, and I imagine it still works the same.

[@opendstudio7141]

Being a machinist for a number of decades, I carried a shockingly long metal splinter in a finger joint for quiet a long time before the body finally discovered it.

[@theallseeingmaster]

@@opendstudio7141 OUCH!

[@zenmark42]

:/ my makerspace has a 15kw and I really like it but I want the 25kw so bad. That lil bit of extra power makes a much more useful forging machine. I also need a press or power hammer....

[@bassplayer137]

For those wanting to know how this works (and correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while since I went to college): the magnetic field produced by the machine affects the metal (obviously). If you have a field that doesn't change (pulses like an induction stove works), you have to move the material to produce eddy currents inside the metal which will heat it up. Because the magnetic field wants the field not to change, the metal itself will become a sort of magnet itself with opposite poles to the coils. The change and movement of the field inside the metal is what heats it up. Pretty neat stuff indeed

[@pikap8649]

I like your magic space cowboy

[@lady_draguliana784]

If you had the gumption to prevent O2 exposure, you can rig up a plastic basin (just get a clear couple tubs from Walmart for $5/ea or w/e) that is the smaller, inner basin where your coil sits and that is filled with welding Argon, and the larger, outer one is just air, to catch any argon you "splash" out of the inner one just poke holes and seal as appropriate.

[@algoormay8430]

Had a lot at my old work .Forging,brazing carbide inserts and heat treatment.Heats up steel very quickly.

[@tankerboysabot]

Curious for anyone that knows, if you add or subtract coils does it increase/decrease the effectiveness of the heat?

[@LunkovichTromofski]

Not to mention you were able to hold the bar with your bare hands

[@LunkovichTromofski]

Ok that kinda sucks, got a notification Will replied to this comment saying I won a give away, but then when I clicked on the notification it shows no reply at all. "@WillStelterbladesmit replied: "The segments from KZbin were related with the giveaway. You ended up being the victor"

[@LinChio]

@@LunkovichTromofski me too my friend so is a kind of bug I suppose there was no giveaway...I think!

[@darylfortney8081]

how is this dude holding a thousand degree rod of steel with his bare hands

[@TheSuperdave311]

Could you build a coil to heat say the edge of a blade for differential hardening?