Making things in the oven
I’ve been reading in Tubal Cain’s book on heat treatment and he suggests that a domestic fire can be used for hardening and an electric oven can be used for tempering. I have seen some “portable pizza” ovens that could be used for tempering. The key thing is to be able to control the temperature accurately +/-10DegC
I’ve also got my blowlamp for small parts (to be used indirectly) and the furnace if I need get something very hot for a long time so that can be used for annealing. The one thing I’m currently missing is some appropriate quenching oil for bluing of the steel which should protect it from rusting.
Award winning Australian scientist Nicole Kuepper has a novel use for her oven, to make solar cells, I might have a hard time getting that passed my head chef…
Posted in: Heat Treatment
Tags: Steel
Metal sculpture in brass, mounted on an 1800s French Coin
A quick email chat with a knife making expert has lead to the idea of using ground nut (peanut) oil for quenching. It produces almost as good results as professional mineral oil but can be bought in much smaller quantities, which is ideal for model engineering requirements. One drawback is that it goes off more quickly, a bonus (for some) is the mild smell of peanuts.
I did find Voluta Mineral Oil and Voluta W1820 (water soluble) for sale at James Lister & Sons but only in 209Litre drums.