Travis
I believe youre over thinking it the set-up at least.
Everything Ive read; and Ive got a pretty substantial library of pre 1920s books on the heat treatment of steel, all note that for case hardening with colors you need to introduce air.
As stated, before I believe that the air enhances the colors, and provides water circulation.
Now with that said, Ive seen pictures of both Winchesters and Marlins Pre 1920s Case hardening processes. They quenched parts in a large tank, about midway between waist and chest height. They had a fountain of water coming out of the center, my guess a 4-6-inch main water line.
They did things a lot differently than we can, they case hardened in mass, Marlin did about half a dozen receivers at a time, reading old notes from the Winchester plant, they case hardened 250 hammers at a time., that should give an idea of volume.
As to the recirculation set-up that you brought up, Ive tried it. Using a pump off a 33,000-gallon pool. The biggest issue is the charcoal plugging up filters and the pump. Its really hard to filter that much charcoal out of the water without clogging things up. You would have to use a two-station filtration system, similar to a septic system, where a second tank would catch most of the char.
Cooling the water would be another issue, the pump I have puts out 15-20 GPM, not enough surface area to cool that kind of flow with just an ice bath.
Respectfullly
Mike
