Quench Tank

K

Knifemaker.ca

Dealer - Purveyor
Terry Monteith has been working with me over the last couple weeks to build the quench tank I wanted, but couldn't find. Here's what he brought over tonight.

tankside1.jpg

11" steel pipe -
1/4" wall -
30+" deep -
angle for ergonomic fit going from kiln to quench tank.
1/4" steel lid, to keep out shop dust and humidity AND hinged for quick flip to snuff flash fire
Hydraulic pump and filter for agitation (with ball valve for control)
casters for roll out for use or away for storage
Drain
Drip tray - removable for cleaning
Holds about 10 gallons

It fits my 5 gallon drum heater just fine, but right now, the shop is heated and P50 works best at room temperature.

Top View

tank1.jpg

Thanks Terry! Nice work!
 
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Very well thought out and the construction looks very good. I like the idea of that angle and Will use it when I build a smaller version. Thanks for the ideasw. ...Teddy
 
I was bugging Terry for pictures on Friday.

That is a well thought out and built unit. So I take it Canadian Knifemaking supply is going to be heat treating oil quench blades now. Have I got a project for you (where is the evil grin smiley)

Terry can certainly come up with some cool stuff.
 
Brad Lilly said:
.... So I take it Canadian Knifemaking supply is going to be heat treating oil quench blades now. Have I got a project for you (where is the evil grin smiley)

.....
Click to expand...

Hey Brad

We've been doing oil quench blades for years now, but this should solve some of the challenges and limitations. That 3/16" 1095 may be easier now - and we now have the depth for those longer blades. Not swords, but longer than before....
 
What is your length limit? I have a guy who wants me to price out making long knife around 24" blade length (5160 steel). With my limited equipment 10" is the longest blade I can do. Terry has been telling me about hanging out with you and Jim Clow. I'm starting to think I live in the wrong part of Canada.
 
Brad Lilly said:
What is your length limit? I have a guy who wants me to price out making long knife around 24" blade length (5160 steel). With my limited equipment 10" is the longest blade I can do. Terry has been telling me about hanging out with you and Jim Clow. I'm starting to think I live in the wrong part of Canada.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... well, the quench tank is no longer the limiting factor. My longest kiln right now is 22.5" - but I suppose if I put old whats-his-name's theorem to work, I could run a long blade along that diagonal hippopotamus line and still keep a gap from the coils in the back corner. I could probably do a 23 1/2 blade. I'd still need to cut your friends 24 knife into two pieces. Sorry! :les:


Hey, maybe that storm will pick up you and your house - and your little dog - and swirl you round around and you'll land hard on top of an evil witch - in Alberta - and that will solve a lot of our political problems in this province.:s11779:
 
Darrin Sanders said:
Very nice. I'd like to know more about the pump, filter, & ball valve set-up.
Click to expand...

Thoughts still developing on those Darrin. The motor is adequate but just. (360 GPH) and I'm thinking of upgrading to a different one at 1450 GPH (for about the same price.) The filter is just a standard hydraulic filter - pretty cheap to replace as required. The valve is just a 1/2" ballcock, but I'm thinking it needs one at the bottom too for easier oil draining and for shutting off oil when changing the filter. Still tweakin' things a bit.
 
You win the quench tank competition! Cool tank, nice work.
 
quench tank revision 2 epic fail tonight for want of 2 reducer bushings, should be finished by lunch time tomorow.
 
OK, Terry (Permafrost) declared version 2 as an epic fail, which I think was a bit of an exaggeration since it was just missing a couple small pieces. There has been the original concept - still in place - with a fairly major set of mods - and two small tweaks - so this is Version 1.2.02 :les:

tank1.2.01.jpg

AS you can see, we've replaced much of the steel pipe with clear tubing. There were far too many 90 degree elbows, each of which creates pressure drop. The clear hose also allows us to easily see any entrainment of air which could encourage fire with theses fast quench oils, not to mention slowing quench.

The other big change here is the motor. The old one was just too small to get adequate agitation. This one is more powerful, with four times the flow rate - for the same price. I think it's made by Wayne pumps, but it is available at Home Depot under the RIGID brand.

Small tweaks.

We used to pump the oil through the sidewall near the bottom of the tank. We now pump it in from the bottom.

The oil is drawn out of the tank near the top and we were getting a bit of a vortex which would suck air into the system. We just added an elbow and 3" piece of pipe to the inside of the intake and that fixed that problem.

So now the system has a capable motor - less resistance without all those elbows - it blows from the bottom and sucks near the top, so agitation is just awesome as you can see in the short video I posted above.

Oh yes - I mentioned in the first post, this holds about 9 1/2 gallons of oil. Some of you may have wondered why we didn't make it to hold a full two pails. Note the absorbent on the floor around the tank. We made it 9.5 gallon on purpose - didn't we Terry. :3:

Rob!
 
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