In some operations case-hardened work is quenched from the box by dumping the whole contents into the quenching tank. It is common practice to leave a sieve or wire basket to catch the work, allowing the carburizing material to fall to the bottom of the tank where it can be recovered later and used again as a part of a new mixture. For best results, however, the steel is allowed to cool down slowly in the box after which it is removed and hardened by heating and quenching the same as carbon steel of the same grade. It has absorbed sufficient carbon so that, in the outer portions at least, it is a high-carbon steel. THE QUENCHING TANK The quenching tank is an important feature of apparatus in case-hardening--possibly more so than in ordinary tempering. One reason for this is because of the large quantities of pieces usually dumped into the tank at a time. One cannot take time to separate the articles themselves from the case-hardening mixture, and the whole content of the box is droped into the bath in short order, as exposure to air of the heated work is fatal to results. Unless it is split up, it is likely to go to the bottom as a solid mass, in which case very few of the pieces are properly hardened. [Illustration: FIG. 38.--Combination cooling tank for case-hardening.] A combination cooling tank is shown in Fig. 38. Water inlet and outlet pipes are shown and also a drain plug that enables the tank to be emptied when it is desired to clean out the spent carburizing material from the bottom. A wire-bottomed tray, framed with angle iron, is arranged to slide into this tank from the top and rests upon angle irons screwed to the tank sides. Its function is to catch the pieces and prevent them from settling to the tank bottom, and it also makes it easy to remove a batch of work. A bottomless box of sheet steel is shown at _C_. This fits into the wire-bottomed tray and has a number of rods or wires running across it, their purpose being to break up the mass of material as it comes from the carbonizing box. Below the wire-bottomed tray is a perforated cross-pipe that is connected with a compressed-air line. This is used when case-hardening for colors. The shop that has no air compressor may rig up a satisfactory equivalent in the shape of a low-pressure hand-operated air pump and a receiver tank, for it is not necessary to use high-pressure air for this purpose. When colors are desired on case-hardened work, the treatment in quenching is exactly the same as that previously described except that air is pumped through this pipe and keeps the water agitated. The addition of a slight amount of powdered cyanide of potassium to the packing material used for carburizing will produce stronger colors, and where this is the sole object, it is best to maintain the box at a dull-red heat. [Illustration: FIG. 39.--Why heat treatment of case-hardened work is necessary.]