Water cooled quench plates

[REK Knives]

Does anyone make these? Has anyone custom made some? Would love to hear thoughts /experiences.

I'm thinking about designing/making some based off of @Nathan the Machinist chiller platen design.

I think I saw where grimsmo made some and they run antifreeze through it.

Ideally I want to set up a custom made pneumatic press with water cooled quench plates. I could really pump out some blades this way I think with the dewar being the limiting factor (a couple wide mouths may be perfect).

 

[REK Knives]

Something like this

 

[JTknives]

I think in the long run a dewar is not the limiting factor till you get more then one set of plates and vises. I have found with a lot of plate quench steels it’s not how fast you cool them that matters it’s how long thy stay clamped between the plates. AEBL especially loves to spend more time in the plates then most.

We have 3 sets of vises and plates and the dewar is now becoming a bottle neck for us. We tried to solve this by buying a liquid bath cryo machine but it’s just not big enough for our volume needs. We are planning on adding 3 more quench vises and currently building 6 sets of liquid cooled plates. Plates will be around 3-4” wide and 22” long or there about. To solve our bottle neck problem with the dewar we have invested in a ultra cold freezer. Not only are dewars limited in the size thy can except but also the quantity of blades.

We have found a sporadic trend of bowing with blades that need cold treatment. These blades usually will enter the dewar straight and come out with a mild bow. I have chocked this up to blades sitting to close to each other in the dewar which prevents even cooling. Steel like AEBL is CRAZY picky and looks for any excuse to bow so a -122° freezer where thy can hang freely and slowly cool was our only option.

but back to your question, I don’t know if getting set up for liquid cooling plates would be worth the time and money invested. In all practicality how many blades do you process at any one time. We usually have hundreds in the works at any one time. But if I was just doing a handful I think I would skip the liquid cooling and just invest the few hundred bucks into adding another one or two sets of plates and vises to go with them.

 

[scott kozub]

I think in the long run a dewar is not the limiting factor till you get more then one set of plates and vises. I have found with a lot of plate quench steels it’s not how fast you cool them that matters it’s how long thy stay clamped between the plates. AEBL especially loves to spend more time in the plates then most.

JT, do you notice a difference by having long soaks in the cryo? Alpha says they just need to get to -95 no soak is required.

I only have 1 set of 1" quench plates and they do warm up after just one blade. My process is this:

First blade comes out of the oven and the next goes in. The first blade goes into the plates. While I'm blowing air on the plated blade I watching the temperature on the oven. When it has recovered I start the timer. After a minute or so of compressed air, the first blade is cool enough to handle and it goes into the LN. I then take my plates and put them in a bucket of water to draw the heat out. This keeps the plates cool between blades and circumvents the need for water-cooled plates. When the next blade goes into cryo the first comes out.

I'm wondering though if the 7-8 minutes in cryo is not enough and if I should have multiple blades in there? I used to do this and used to have more warping issues so I think you are onto something. The only reason I went to cryo is beacuse its easier to have on hand. Dry ice is a pain to get in Canada.

 

[REK Knives]

I think in the long run a dewar is not the limiting factor till you get more then one set of plates and vises. I have found with a lot of plate quench steels it’s not how fast you cool them that matters it’s how long thy stay clamped between the plates. AEBL especially loves to spend more time in the plates then most.

We have 3 sets of vises and plates and the dewar is now becoming a bottle neck for us. We tried to solve this by buying a liquid bath cryo machine but it’s just not big enough for our volume needs. We are planning on adding 3 more quench vises and currently building 6 sets of liquid cooled plates. Plates will be around 3-4” wide and 22” long or there about. To solve our bottle neck problem with the dewar we have invested in a ultra cold freezer. Not only are dewars limited in the size thy can except but also the quantity of blades.

We have found a sporadic trend of bowing with blades that need cold treatment. These blades usually will enter the dewar straight and come out with a mild bow. I have chocked this up to blades sitting to close to each other in the dewar which prevents even cooling. Steel like AEBL is CRAZY picky and looks for any excuse to bow so a -122° freezer where thy can hang freely and slowly cool was our only option.

but back to your question, I don’t know if getting set up for liquid cooling plates would be worth the time and money invested. In all practicality how many blades do you process at any one time. We usually have hundreds in the works at any one time. But if I was just doing a handful I think I would skip the liquid cooling and just invest the few hundred bucks into adding another one or two sets of plates and vises to go with them.

Good info!! Thanks for chiming in... I may be wrong on this but have you considered doing a batch of these? may be worth seeing if there is interest... As scott kozub says, it doesn't take too long for it to warm up the quench plates. I'm wanting to be able to do 30-40 blades a day and don't want to have to fool with removing from the vise and cooling off. I want a plug and play option.

I like how Grimsmo (in vid above) has a 'surface plate' attached to the quench plate so they can re-surface as needed. Smart thinking!

 

[PEU]

I made a set of water cooled quench plates and I really enjoy them, here are a couple of photos.

I run water, for carbon steel the oil takes the bulk of the heat so a 10 liter tank never gets warm. Stainless after a couple of dozens gets past warm, so my solution is to make a pause, dump the heated water, replace it and continue.
For running the water I use a submersed fish tank pump, yes, the plastic ones that are cheap.

Pablo