Crockpot Quench tank

S

sdodson

Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
7
Before I try this I would like to know if it will work/is dangerous. Walmart has 7 and 8 quart crockpots on sale for $24. Dimension is about 15 long 6 wide and 6 deep. It would be real easy to warm the oil. I realize that this is not ideal, but really not interested in fabricating a hi-tech circulating tank 3 feet long.

Most all of my quenches are on O1 and 1084 and 8 inch or smaller blades. I plan on using Houghton Quench K (the fast one).
 
sdodson said:
Before I try this I would like to know if it will work/is dangerous. Walmart has 7 and 8 quart crockpots on sale for $24. Dimension is about 15 long 6 wide and 6 deep. It would be real easy to warm the oil. I realize that this is not ideal, but really not interested in fabricating a hi-tech circulating tank 3 feet long.

Most all of my quenches are on O1 and 1084 and 8 inch or smaller blades. I plan on using Houghton Quench K (the fast one).
Click to expand...

I dont see why it would not work.
 
It's very dangerous, but no more dangerous than any other bladesmithing, which really is safe if you take certain precautions. Anyways, seems like a pretty ingenuis idea to me. Just don't drop the blade pots with ceramic liners are tough on steel.
 
Just my take on it, but for less than $24 you can get a big 5 gallon metal pot, with a lid ,at the same Walmart. $24 at the scrap yard will buy you a big metal pot and a case of beer on the way home.

There are some issues with using any breakable material for quenching. The shock of the quench may shatter it, combining several quarts of hot oil, with very hot steel with electric wiring. I'll let you decide what the product of that equation could be.

Heating up the oil is really easy. Just heat a large bar of steel in the forge while it is coming up to heat, quenching the bar in the oil as many times as needed to warm it to 130F. A cheap HF thermometer will track the oil temp.

Also, with the crock pot partially full of oil you would only have 5-6 quarts of oil, not really a suitable amount for proper quenching. Two gallons is really the minimum. The thermal mass of the oil is an important part of the success of the quench.

Stacy
 
I use a huge crock pot for quenching. I got it as a wedding present and never used it for cooking because unless you wanted to cook a huge turkey it was just too big. It holds 2.5 gallons of tough quench, and I love being able to set the exact temperature that I want. My next project is an 18" long kukri which will easily fit in diagonally. My brother told me he spent about $25 on it at Wal-Mart. This was 5 years ago.
 
I dropped by a local makers place the other day and he was using a turkey roaster to quench in. It was a nice size (looked like about 4 gallon capacity) and has a metal lid with a thermostat control.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top