Thought those $8 induction forge bricks were junk, then I ran 40 feet of rail spike in my garage
I kept seeing posts about induction forge bricks in a few groups and figured they were a gimmick for guys who didn't want to learn a real coal fire. Well, my coal supplier in Akron raised prices again in March and I got tired of fighting the smoke, so I grabbed a cheap 3 brick setup with a small controller for about $190. First run with a 3/4 inch spike, it went from cold to a soft orange in roughly 90 seconds and I didn't touch a single bag of coal. I was honestly mad at how fast it worked, sitting there like a fool with my old tuyere setup rusting in the corner. The heat is clean, almost no scale, and my neighbors quit giving me looks when I work evenings. The catch is you need a decent 220 outlet or it limps, and mine pops the breaker if I push two pieces at once. For small stuff like hooks, leaves, and bottle openers, it's legit. Anyone running a bigger coil on these to get more than one spike hot at a time, or am I asking too much from a cheap brick unit?