Quench plates

melsdad

melsdad

Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
522
I was looking in the scrap bin at work. I have a few pieces of 6061 Al that are 10" in diameter about 2.150" thick saw cut. If I faced these off would these make good quench plates? Is it better to have more surface area, or more mass for a quench plate?
 
My understanding is that more mass absorbes more heat and greater surface area dissapates more heat. I would face them flat and cut some grooves in the back sides for cooling fins. Maybe a fan blowing across them would work as well. But at that thickness you could make water cooled quench plates. Use a small pond pump in a 5 gallon bucket.


-Xander
 
Water cooled quench plates!!! I like how you think! That sounds like a fun project. I could gundrill a series of holes and make a zig zag pattern in the plates for maximum cooling. I would machine the parts I have into rectangles first though.

Great idea!!
 
Don't worry little mac a 10" and an 8" contact wheel are in the near future. I already have a few pieces set aside for those parts.
 
The more mass the better.

You don't need cooling fins.

Keep the AL plates in the freezer until needed.

You would be surprised how fast AL plates from the freezer will cool down a hot blade.
 
I read a lot of ideas about making the plates faster. Water cooling, refrigerant cooled plates, freezing them, etc. All sound neat, and get the machinist brain thinking. But why??????????

The main purpose of aluminum quench plates on air hardening steel is to prevent warp and somewhat speed up the drop to being able to handle the blade. Unless you were doing a factory size batch, I can't see any reason that room temperature plates won't be faster than air....which is fast enough by itself. I do maybe six blades at a session, and have no problems.
 
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