I accidentally bought some "quench oil" at an auction yesterday. ?'s

T

Trick

Joined
Mar 3, 2001
Messages
351
I was out of town at an auction of a closing down machine shop yesterday. They had a huge quench tank and no-one was bidding. I had my nissan and a truck topper so there was no way to get it so I didn't bid, not that I could use a tank that big anyway except maybe to make a parts cleaner. He took my bid anyway and I got it for $1.50. I went ahead and gave my number figuring I would just eat the money and not argue. I looked and the thing was full. I found one of the machinist and he said it had a pretty new 55 gallon barrel of quench oil in it. But he did not know a brand or anything. Only said he had worked there 15 years and it was good stuff and he used it all the time.

Would it be safe to use/try with such little knowledge about it? He put it back in the building and gave me his number so I could come back and get it in the next couple weeks. If it is worth a shot I will take a few empty 55 gallon barrels and get it all. If not I will just call him and tell him I will not be back. (I will probably get it anyway though)

I also bought a wrapped up piece of 44" x 2 1/2" x 1/4" of precision ground D-2 for $7 that he said he is pretty sure they paid $140 for. Also a 50# box of 304ss scrap for .30 a pound that would make good guards and stuff. A box of D2 scrap for $11.That was way earlier than the D2 bar and stuff was going higher or I wouldn't have bought it. A hand full of huge files for $4. Bunch of other stuff I can't think of now. I didn't have enough money to buy any of the big toys though. :( Most of the steel they sold (except mild) was A2 and 4540 or 4510 or something like that.
 
Wow, smok'n deals... :cool:

I would go back and get the oil. If you got it for $1.50, go get it, try it out and do some testing. You wouldn't have much to lose, except the time required to get it.

It's nice working with known quenchants... but if you've got 55 gallons at your fingertips, you might as well see how it works!!! :)
 
Hell Ya! Get it.
Thats about 2.5 cents per gallon. I will give you DOUBLE what you paid for 5 gallons of it! Im in Wisconsin, do you take paypal?
Thats a cool 12 1/2 cents profit for you!:D
 
if they were a descent shop it will be at least decent oil

snap it up for sure. the tank you can sell later or use it..




hey guys look we got spell check in the upper right corner :) that should make some guys happy:)
 
Great Deal! Please go back and wrestle it home. You will always regret it if you don't. :) I think there is a high probability that the oil would be just fine for oil quenched steel, and pre-heated, work just fine for all the "water hardening" steels. Plus, the steel tank will always be worth something, and something like that is H*** to make yourself. I have gotten pretty good at soldering up odd pans and small tanks out of sheet metal, but a REAL tank of plate is tops!
 
I would absolutely go for it. When you get it home take a short piece of 1095 (1095 works great for this because of its hardenability) and grind flat steps in it in varying thickness so that you start with 1/16" flat that steps up to 1/8" flat that steps up to 3/16" and then 1/4", while being entirely flat on the other side. Clean things up to a 220x finnish. Heat your oil to 150F and then heat your test piece to critical and quench into it.

The flat steps can now be put under a hardness tester and you can judge your oils ability by the hardness of the various sections. If you got above a 55 HRC in the 1/4" section, you have a very good and fast oil, if you reach a good hardness at 1/8" it will be a general purpose oil that can be used on 10XX series steels producing a hard edge with a nice natural temper line halfway up the blade.

You could also try it with 5160 to see how well it works on oil hardening but that just wouldn't be as critical. If you do not have a hardness tester, feel free to ship it to me and I will check it out for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top