PID w/ TC for heating quench oil

Stromberg Knives

Stromberg Knives

strombergknives.com
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Jan 3, 2015
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I use a immersion heater for heating my quench oil. But the thermostat in it is pretty crappy so it's a lot of fiddling to get it where I want.

I was wondering if a standard type k thermocouple would work effectively in oil?

If so, would it be even better to attach it to a piece of aluminum for better heat spread?
 
We used a set up as you suggest with a "K" thermocouple wired through a pid controller, immersion heater system. It worked well and we could keep track of the temperature on the pid readout.

Then the immersion heater burned out and we changed gears. With designated oils like Parks 50 and AAA which work at just above room temp we have found that its more convenient to heat a single bar and raise the temp a little before quenching.
What we found with our 8 gallon set up is cooling is more worthy of our efforts than heating.

Fred
 
I have been a blacksmith for several years now but I have never tried blade smithing. I am very curious as to the types of oil used to quench with I was thinking about using 15 W 40 oil as we have quite a bit of it on the ranch but after reading some on this thread I'm that is not the best way to go any help or advice is greatly appreciated
 
Many of us start out with used transmission oil and the like but then progress to those oils made for specific steels or proven substitutes such as canola oil and some others.

Oils like Parks 50 and AAA are made for fast and medium speed steels so there is no guess work. For me, I don't want to put 40 hours into building a nice knife and then fail at the quench.
Fred
 
Fred.Rowe said:
We used a set up as you suggest with a "K" thermocouple wired through a pid controller, immersion heater system. It worked well and we could keep track of the temperature on the pid readout.
Click to expand...

Sounds promising. I think I will try this out. The cost is negligible.
 
For reading the temps of an oil tank, a type "J" TC will work fine. A low cost PID from ebay and a stainless clad type "J" or type "K" probe is what most folks use for their oil.
 
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