Quenchant questions

[gnique]

Kevin Cashen has written a lot about quenchants, their speeds, types, preheat temperatures etc. He has also mentioned that the quenchant information is based on the quenchant having been properly maintained, not warn out, still good, untrashed (I really don't remember his exact words: "not FUBARED" maybe?). How can one know if his / her quenchant is bad? How do you take proper care of it? Is it OK to leave pieces of anti scale compound in the quenchant after it falls during the quench? How many blades will a container of quenchant last? Should quenchant be thrown out after a certain time? Is there a test for still good quenchant? For whom does the bell toll? What is the sound of one hand clapping? Nicholas

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

A good oil should last for years at the rate we use them, as compared to the industrial applications they were designed for. When they get out of whack there are any number of symptoms that can arise, cooling can slow or accelerate, depending on the problem, parts will begin to stain or scale, or the cooling will become uneven, which would defeat many of the benefits of the investment in a proper quenchant. If the anti-scale deposits are inert with the oil then all you really have to do is clean them out of the bottom periodically. What you really do not want is particles that can become suspended in the oil and affect the quench dynamics, this is why flaming the oils is particularly bad, it will suspend sooty particles and turn you nice oil into sludge, as well as heavily oxidizing it. Above all the worst contaminate is moisture, many quenchants will pick up water and this will throw all of the heat transfer characteristics out of whack. The reason all of these other quenchants were developed was to get away from all the quirky problems of water, introducing water back into things only takes us back to that mess.

 

[gnique]

Thank you, Kevin. You are very generous with your time and knowledge. Time and knowledge are the things that life is made of. There are many people who are better off having known you.