Quench plates

B

buckaroo2219

Joined
Feb 13, 2013
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I recently built a HT oven and will be using some air quench steels. I have been looking at aluminum quench plates but was wondering if water cooled platens would work as well. Has any one built a water jacketed quench table.
 
I will try to take some and post. Took some 1" plates and milled paths in them for the water to travel in then mated a piece of 1/2" to the top and drilled and counter sunk for 1/4 20 allen heads around the perimeter. Used silicon for a sealant between the plates. Water is fed by a fountain pump. The bottom set I drilled and tapped and installed a couple pieces of 1/2 round stock with threaded ends and then drilled matching 9/16 holes in the top for alignment. Move the top piece up and it will hang on the 1/2 steel dowels. Stick in the packet press and slide down. Then place a weight on top. The bottom set also has 4 legs that hold it up off the table and give it clearance for the water lines. A bucket of ice water (snow water now)and away you go. Do one blade and then set up for another and by the time you stick in #2 plates are freezing cold again. Kinda modeled them after Nathans excellent platen chillers. Just got done using on some D2 last week.
 
SteelSlaver said:
I will try to take some and post. Took some 1" plates and milled paths in them for the water to travel in then mated a piece of 1/2" to the top and drilled and counter sunk for 1/4 20 allen heads around the perimeter. Used silicon for a sealant between the plates. Water is fed by a fountain pump. The bottom set I drilled and tapped and installed a couple pieces of 1/2 round stock with threaded ends and then drilled matching 9/16 holes in the top for alignment. Move the top piece up and it will hang on the 1/2 steel dowels. Stick in the packet press and slide down. Then place a weight on top. The bottom set also has 4 legs that hold it up off the table and give it clearance for the water lines. A bucket of ice water (snow water now)and away you go. Do one blade and then set up for another and by the time you stick in #2 plates are freezing cold again. Kinda modeled them after Nathans excellent platen chillers. Just got done using on some D2 last week.
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Sounds interesting. Looking forward to a few photos. Just another reason that a mill is needed.
 
Is there a reason that speeding up the quench on air hardening steels is done. Would speeding it up more with water cooled aluminium be desirable?
 
JM, I am no expert but I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with the actual quenching of one blade as much as giving you the ability to quench many blades in a shorter amount of time.
 
There are plenty of steels that are "air or oil" quench that benefit from a more rapid quench than air. HSS, stainless steel, D2 etc all have reduced RA, increased hardness and more free chrome if quenched quickly. Cold quench plates are still not as fast as oil, but they're faster than hot quench plates. Also, if you're running refrigerated coolant it may be possible to quench to colder than room temperature, which depending on the steel can reduce RA.

Some oil quench steels, such as O1 might be candidates for plate quenching if they're thin enough and your plate quench setup has good contact. I know Butch was doing some experiments with that.
 
Nathan, you've been all around the block with D2- any thoughts on oil quenching vs. plate?

The reason I ask is, I have a run of hunting knives almost ready for HT that are tapered distally and in the tang, and not likely to get good contact with plates.

BTW, LOVE my 36" platen, it's bumped my game up by a good solid notch, thank you!
 
elementfe said:
any thoughts on oil quenching vs. plate?

!
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You can oil quench D2 in a slow oil (it responds very well to an oil quench) but you have to leave it thicker and do more grinding after HT otherwise you'll get warping and a wavy edge. You need to pull it out after about 9-10 seconds when it is about 500 deg to straighten out any kinks before it sets up.
 
Main reason I did it was to be able to do 1 blade after the other and not use every big piece of flat metal in the shop. The fact that the plates are colder is also a plus.
 
Here is a poor photo of my set up.
1" plates have a water course milled into them and the 8x12" 1/2" plates are bolted to holes tapped in 6"x12" 1" plates. High temp silicon for gasket. Long rods are threaded and tapped into oversized portion of the bottom piece of 1/2". Holes in top plate are slightly larger than the rods and the hang down causes the top plates to hang up until pressed down. Water is run by fountain pump from a 5 gallon bucket you can add ice or this time of year snow too. I just did a long kitchen knife from 154 for a brother's Christmas gift and had to leave the tang stick out as plates are only 12" long. I might have a softer tang, which is fine. Once I drop the top plate I stick a lead weight on it. It might not be pretty, but it works



Oh I made some legs out of 3/8 bolts to hold it up off the table so the pipe and hoses clear.

And yea, I know that chunk of table is a mess. I clean it up and it becomes a mess again and again. LOL
 
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Get a mister setup for it that sprays an air and coolant mixture if you plan on milling aluminum. Dry milling aluminum will cause it to ball up on the cutter bad. You use a spray bottle to make it happen, but a sprayer from Grizzly is like $60 and makes it easy if you have and air compressor.
 
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