Quench tank design.

D

Dr.O

Joined
Nov 13, 2008
Messages
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So, I have a 5gal bucket of parks 50 inbound.

I would like to someday do a sword project, and am considering quench tank design.

I calculated that a tank with the dimensions of 2x13x44 inches would hold the 5 gallons, and would allow for a good bit of horizontal agitation with blades, and be long enough for a sword in the future.

Now, for the question....Is two inches wide enough?
 
NO.

Use a 6" pipe that is 44" long and you will fill it with 5 gallons to about 2" from the top.
 
No doubt that would suffice, but you would only be left with being able to "dip" vs. "Slice" thru the quenchant. That seems less than optimal use of the quenchant. Ill be doing far more knives than swords, but was considering the sword option in my design.

Being I'm making this from scratch....

What would be the "optimal" design for a 5 gallon quench tank?
 
If you're dead set on a horizontal tank, I'm confused as to why you figured your dimensions at only being 2 inches wide. A square tub that is 5x5 or 5x6x44 is nearly the same volume and I think it would more readily allow the oil to equalize temperature. You could also use the pipe method, using a 6 or 8 inch pipe, cap both ends and slot one side making your pipe a trough. I fear you won't be nearly as happy when it comes to storing your quench tank with the horizontal build. As for optimal, I would think the vertical 6" pipe is the answer(especially since Stacy recommended it).

Thus are the thoughts of a rank amateur, take them as you will.

Chris
 
Salolan said:
If you're dead set on a horizontal tank, I'm confused as to why you figured your dimensions at only being 2 inches wide.
Click to expand...

I had read the quenching thread by Kevin C, and he was explaining that being able to drag the blade thru to fresh quenchant or pumping the quench with a pump of some sort was an important part of the process. Letting is sit in one place is not as good, is the way I understood that.

My thought was that Longskinny would be better than deep.

2" wide would give me more depth and length. The blades are only gonna max out at .25", so an inch on either side seemed sufficient (while moving the blade from one end to the other).

Anyone see my reasoning? Why would a long skinny tank not be better? I very well could be missing something very important.....I'm new. ha ha.
 
I understand your wanting to be able to move the blade, but I would think being able to move it in 3 dimensions would be better than just 2. I think the major flaw with the 2 inch wide tank is that the quench fluid is spread too "thin". It is essentially cut off from itself thus reducing its ability to heat transfer to equalize temperature, allowing the temperature to be too high around the blade. My thoughts keep going back to reducing your tank length to say 20 inches if you are primarily doing knives.

Stacy would know for sure, but I also question whether 5 gallons is enough to quench a sword large enough to need a 44 inch tank. If doing swords maybe a 10 gallon tank is more realistic. I am not sure.

Chris
 
I want to know where you found Parks 50? I can't even find any.:grumpy:
 
I totally understand what you're shooting for here, but 2" is very narrow... How will you be holding the blades? Not many tongs would fit very far into a 2" wide tank.

If you hang the blades by a wire, you can raise and lower them in a vertical tank for agitation.

If you make a vertical tank that's 5" X 6" X 44" tall, 5 gallons would fill it up to around 40" If you move the blades "corner to corner," that gives you nearly 8" of area to move around in.

I have some that are pipe, and some that are square tubing.
 
If you want a trough tank for swords, make it bigger. 44" long will do most swords fine, but 10" deep by 6" wide would be the smallest size I would go with....for a dedicated sword horizontal tank.

I assume you are planning on quenching low alloy HC steel since you are using Parks #50.
I use a vertical tank filled with Parks #50 about 40" tall that has done just fine. I quench knives and swords in it.
One easy source for a large vertical, quench tank is cutting the top off an old 240CF oxygen/co2/helium/etc tank. The scrap yards are full of them for around $0.30 a pound. Smaller size tanks work well for regular knife quenching. As with all quench tanks, make a top that fits closely. Tall tanks should have a circular plate welded to the bottom , or some sort of stand, for stability.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I believe the answer to my question is to build two tanks.

one 4x20x 15"tall for any size "knife" I could ponder.

And another that holds 10 gallons for sword projects. That will be a future thing anyway.
 
I was down at a hunting store the other day and saw their collection of ammo cans for sale. One particularly caught my eye because it was, apparently, made for some kind of rocket or missiles. I think they were 120mm cans which are around 32" x 12"x 6", roughly. While I didn't catch the printing on the side to see what it held, I immediately thought it would make a great quench tank. Even has a flash-killer lid built right into it!

For 99% of the blades you'll make, that's plenty of volume in a ready-made tank.
 
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VaughnT said:
I was down at a hunting store the other day and saw their collection of ammo cans for sale. One particularly caught my eye because it was, apparently, made for some kind of rocket or missiles. I think they were 120mm cans which are around 32" x 12"x 6", roughly. While I didn't catch the printing on the side to see what it held, I immediately thought it would make a great quench tank. Even has a flash-killer lid built right into it!

For 99% of the blades you'll make, that's plenty of volume in a ready-made tank.
Click to expand...


I saw those at Blue Ridge I really need to grab one and they weren't that expensive... where in SC are you
 
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