Quench tank for welding students

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I am looking for some designs for a quenching tank for my high school welding students. If you have some pictures of you design that would be great. It will be used to cool their welds that they are working on. My students will be drawing the design in AutoCad and cutting the parts out on our CNC plasma cutter. Thanks for your help.
Reply:The ones I've seen/use weren't real fancy. The one tech schools is simply a rectangular steel box. The other school just uses the bottom 1/3 of a 55 gal drum.One thing that I have found helpful is having some sort of "grate" in the bottom that lets you retrieve dropped pieces without having to reach down into the tank to hunt for them by hand. The rectangular box one had a grate sort of like a french fryer basket, but the 55 drum doesn't. After a while the drum tends to fill up with chunks the students drop in, but don't bother to fish out.Neither of them had  a drain though, and if I was building one, I'd set it up so that you could attach a hose to drain the tank on occasion. I'd probably build some sort of inset "box" in the side for the drain so the drain knob didn't stick out the side and tempt students or make it too easy to bump the valve and make a mess on the floor.  If it was set up on a stand, you could also do a bottom drain. It wouldn't really need to dump 100% of the water, but if it was a design project, I'd think about setting it up so the bottom of the tank slopped down to the drain on a taper so all the water would reach the tap.The steel box tank also had some pipe pieces welded to the side to store the tongs the school used to dip the coupons as well. They were set low enough so that they didn't stick above the top of the tank..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:The quench tank I have in my shop is just a 55 gallon drum on castors.  DSW's suggestion for a grate to catch parts and ease retrieval is a good one.The larger quench tanks I saw in trade school drains with a ball valve, piped to a floor drain.  The also had running water with a built in overflow drain that allowed a slow flush of the tank.  If you have a large number of people quenching welds in the same tank, the water can get hot, dangerously so.  A trickle of cold water will keep the quench tank cool enough that someone reaching in or being accidentally splashed won't get scalded.Benson's Mobile Welding - Dayton, OH metro area - AWS Certified Welding Inspector
Reply:The one we have is a 3/16 thick rectangle with legs on casters. It has a pipe with a valve on the bottom to drain. I really don't care for it much because it only holds about 5 gallons and gets about 180 degrees by the end of class. Go with at least 20 gallons
Reply:I didn't think the welding students were supposed to get so hot that they needed quenching. Keeping the girls and boys separated might help with them getting too hot.  LOL Getting them hot does create a lot more problems than just appearance of welds.
Reply:If you make the tank taper down to the bottom of the tank wouldn't the inevitable sediment from mill scale slag flux and all the other particulate clog up the valve? In my mind I would have it about an inch up from the bottom of the tank but inset as dsw suggested to keep it safe from being broken or clogged....I do like the grate idea
Reply:Thank you for the help. If you have a design in your shop could you send a picture of the design.
Reply:When I started teaching welding at my school 3 years ago, they had no quench tank! The kids just quenched in the sink, needless to say we had to build a quench tank and clean the trap on the sink. I made a plumbing lesson and the kids learned about domestic waste water drainage, then we focused on the tank.Now we have a good quench tank and an unclogged sink.Made from 3/8" wall 16" pipe with 3/8" A36 plate end caps that was all picked up used from a local scrap yard. We made it 30" tall using 1 1/4" square tube legs and 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" angle for a base; it holds about 10 gal. The only thing I would chage would be to use 1 1/2" pipe on the drain rather that 3/4", but it works.I had the kids weld it with 1/8" 6010 for the root and finish cap it with 3/32" jet-LH Last edited by moparman68; 03-12-2013 at 11:26 AM.Some blue machinesSome red machineslots of heavy steel
Reply:my highschool shop just had a galvanized elongated flower pot. I've also seen galvanized livestock water basin's used.There are no problems. There are only solutions. It's your duty to determine the right one.Hobart Handler 210Airco 225 Amp MSM Stinger
Reply:my high school shop teacher learned more about setting a torch and welding from me than he ever knew, I wish I had some of you guys in school  as teachers.
Reply:I should add, I have the kids change the water every other friday, just to keep the stagnant factor down and keep sediment to a minimum.Some blue machinesSome red machineslots of heavy steel
Reply:30 gallon drum full of water and your done! Next! I hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Reply:Here's a 100-gallon for $90 with a drain plug:http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/stor...0-gal-capacity
Reply:We need to remember that I am working with high school student. A a 100 gallon water tub might just end up with a student being quenched.
Reply:The one we had in the welding school I went to was basically a rectangular box with a ramp at one end so any pieces that fell in could be scooped out with a metal rake.The whole thing was mounted to steel pipes for legs then attached to castors.Ours also had some grating on the side opposite the ramp as well that a stand sits on so we can lay welded plate against it and gouge off backing plates. Attached Images
Reply:The one we used at school was just a section of 30" or so diameter pipe with one end welded to a flat sheet for a base. This tank was pretty heavy. Another smaller diameter pipe section had a perforated bottom and a couple of handles welded to it and served as a strainer. It fit inside the tank. I think maybe 25-30 gallons of water which can get pretty hot, hence the handles to lift out the strainer with the parts. When the water got too cruddy, it was just dumped out in the parking lot outside the doorway where it sat.XMT304 (school)SP125+ (home)HF 4x6 BandsawGood judgement comes from experience and much of that comes from bad judgement.
Reply:Originally Posted by fairview1We need to remember that I am working with high school student. A a 100 gallon water tub might just end up with a student being quenched.
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWThe ones I've seen/use weren't real fancy. The one tech schools is simply a rectangular steel box. The other school just uses the bottom 1/3 of a 55 gal drum.
Reply:I thought I saw something before that quenching weakens the weld. Is that true?
Reply:Originally Posted by Florida SurveyorI thought I saw something before that quenching weakens the weld. Is that true?
Reply:That makes sense.