by Doug Coulter » Thu Apr 17, 2014 3:51 pm
Welcome! At this point I'm somewhat of a "recovering finance addict" myself - I'm all in cash, as things just got too crazy vs the reality I see around me. Yes, I know cash is getting worthless fast - but that's not the only asset I manage.
An induction furnace might not work out that well for glass, the "thing" you heat needs to be conductive at the skin. I've heated up pyrex with very strong fields at 2.4 ghz where it's pretty lossy stuff, but a regular induction furnace (in the kHz) would have no effect on it at all. I use a torch I made along with others, propane and either air or oxygen for glass and quartz here. We have a sometimes-working oxygen generator (medical) but just in case, I keep a tank of it as well. I can also go up to around 1000c in my heat treat furnace, which I usually use at lower temps for annealing glass and metals (or the first heat treat hardening of metals). I've done some low temperature clay stuff in there too...it won't quite reach the "cone" level for normal higher temperature clays.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.