Low temp salt bath stirring mixer

[Dick Sexstone]

The temperature of the salt in my low temp salt bath striates…. By as much a 30 F degrees….which makes tempering a fools errand……

 

This is what I came up with ….. it equalizes the temp from bottom to top….. and now tempering is mindless…..

stainless 1” tubing ….. the holes are located below the top level of the salt bath 

How motor get mounted to the stainless tubing 

 

 

3/8” stainless rod…..

 

 

 

I forgot to take a shot of the propeller in the can….. the can is 2&1/4 inside dia

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shows the flow ….. it is slower in this bucket than it is in the 4” sq  tube the salt is in ….. I’ll take a video the next time I have the bath running…the holes are out of sight in the salt but there is movement detectable on the surface of the bath …… 

 

 

[Alan Longmire]

Pretty darned brilliant, Dick!  Will the bearings last long in the salts?

[Dick Sexstone]

you are too kind Alan… it was the mother of necessity that spurred me… The guide in the can is a loose fit and all of it is stainless and never gets above 500 F……..the top bearing does not get hot nor do fumes seem to bother it…. I give it a shot of WD40 every now and then when it begins to squeak……

 

The  temperature gradient was apparent after the first run of the low temp bath ….I cobbled a cheap paint mixer on to a connector directly to a motor and hung in  the bath…. It worked great at evening out  the temperature…. It also was extremely good at eating the end of a blade… LOL…..so the next step was to build this…  here is a couple photos of the propeller in place……

 

 

[Brian Dougherty]

Cool!  It is a bladesmith's stick blender

 

[Dick Sexstone]

Yeah American Test Kitchen’s got nothing on us. LOL

 

so here is a video of the stick blender in the salt….. the top holes are about 3 inches below the surface of the salt when it is being used and there is no visible action…. I raised it up so one of the holes is visible for the purpose of the video…