Induction smelter

[Goldenshuttle]

How easy it is to turn an induction cooker into an induction smelter ? Can it be done by replacing the output pancake coil with a spiral shape while modifying the frequency of the driver circuit?

 

[BradtheRad]

It might be worth a try to place a crucible on top of the cooker, and see whether you can melt metal.
Articles state magnetic metal needs to be present in the cookware. Therefore I'm not sure whether the crucible should be:

a) magnetic metal (similar to ordinary iron skillet which is stated to be ideal),
or...
b) ceramic since it could allow all the heating effect to reach material within, by creating eddy currents in the metal.

I'll bet this procedure isn't recommended in the operating manual but if induction cooking can boil a pot of water then it should melt a teaspoon of metal.

 

[Taihung]

Yes, it use only for ion metal only. With new coil has same inductance as old one. Base on magnetic effect.
Can not apply for other metal like: alu, copper, gold, silver , ... because these metal request other method to heat up - Foucault current with higher frequency. If metal like gold is under powder shape, it will require more high frequency.
Example: with sample size of coil and current, ion pot can generate 3300W @ 25kHz, Alu pot only generate 400W @40kHz.