determine temp. of heated metals

J

john warren

Joined
Oct 7, 2005
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95
ive not seen any mention of this but a tang welding question popped it into my head.
how do you determine what temprature you've brought the metal too?
the easy way? hot melt sticks. they come in a variety of temprature ranges and can be purchased at welding supply stores. basicly a wax stick or crayon that will melt at a given heat range. very accurate, very inexpensive. any shop that workes with metal, tempering,welding should have a range of these handy devices.
also at ceramic stores you can purchase wax cones in different heat ranges to determine kiln or furnace temp.
 
John, do you know of a specific source for the whole range of Tempilstix? Most places don't seem to carry the high temps.

Here's a nice chart showing the wide temperature range available:

http://www.tempil.com/pdf/Tempilstik2.pdf

Also, have you used the cones? I bought a range of them, but the directions start talking about "interpreting" the results based on how much the cone slags down. It seems there is a "time at temp" component and they don't just melt all at once. Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks!:)
 
MSC seems to carry the high temp ones, I was just messing around there and they had 1 for 1500 degrees and one for 1800 degrees, i imagine the would have what you need
 
Dang, I checked their online catalog just before i posted this and found a listing up to about 500F! I obviously missed a second page or something.:rolleyes:

Thanks, cooks7, I'll check the print catalog. (edited to add: found the ones you spoke of: I had poor search string. Thanks!!)

I'd like to get some in the SS ranges (1850-2000F) also. Anyone else have a source, please respond. Thanks!
 
the welding supplier i use here in pontiac michigan always carries them so i guess i always assumed all welding stores did too. we do a lot of high tech metal work in this area so you may have to search, but any supply house can order them.
 
Thanks, John. I'll check to see if the local Airgas would be willing to order. They're not the most helpful people here in the local store. We had two foundries, a US Steel plant, Johns-Mannville, a VR/Wesson carbides plant and Fansteel here at one time and machine shops out the yingyang. We are what the whole rust-belt seems to be leaning towards; post-industrial wasteland. Nowadays everyone tries to make a living asking "do you want fries with that?" Everything's gone except for the pharma company Abbott...... :(

Mike, the exact reason I want them is to doublecheck the thermocouples! ;) 2 years ago I was tooling along with my furnace like always and the HT's weren't coming out right. I eventually tracked it to an apparently functioning thermocouple that had aged and was no longer accurate. Conversations with Omega verified the accuracy degrades with age/use, especially up at the high end of their rating. I always run a second thermocouple and separate meter nowadays. Still, I'd like to have a second occasional doublecheck with the marker stick.
 
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