Tried quenching in used motor oil on a whim

I ran out of my usual canola oil last weekend and had a jug of old 10W-30 sitting in the garage from my truck's last change. Figured why not try it on a small railroad spike knife I was messing around with. The stuff caught fire almost instantly when I dipped it and filled my whole shop with smoke for 20 minutes. Learned my lesson the hard way that not all oils are the same for heat treating. Has anyone else had a weird quenching experiment go sideways?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver71924d ago

Man I used to think any oil was basically the same for quenching, just whatever you had on hand would work. But then I tried kerosene once because I ran out of everything else and that was a disaster. Your motor oil story totally changed my mind though. I mean, the fire risk alone is enough to make me stick with vegetable oil now, no matter how tempting that old jug of 5W-30 looks. It's just not worth filling your shop with smoke and maybe burning the place down just to save a few bucks.

cameron42624d ago

It's wild how this same mindset shows up everywhere. People cheap out on something small, then spend ten times more fixing the mess. I've seen guys use old cooking oil for chainsaw bar lube. Works fine till it goes rancid and gums everything up. Or using dollar store glue on a $200 project. Always ends in regret. We all want to save a buck, but some things you just don't cut corners on. Fire safety, tool maintenance, stuff that can hurt you or wreck your gear. That's where you spend the extra.