"Singing" bluing tank???

[jimmyraythomason]

I have my bluing tank heating up a fresh salt solution. It is around 255-260 degrees as of right now (headed to 294 degrees). As I went to stir it, harmonics set up and it began to "sing". It sounds like a one note saxophone! The "music" stops when I stir the solution but returns as soon as I stop. This is Brownell's Oxynate 7 mixed 10:1 salts/water. It is in a 6x6x40 black iron tank heated by a propane double row burner. I have been using this same set up since the late 1970s and have NEVER experienced this. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

 

[BBBBill]

Lol! Does it stop when you touch something to the side of the tank? Touch it with a piece of wood somewhere on the outside. I bet it's just an odd harmonic vibration of the tank caused by heating of the metal and the solution.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Yup

Do you see corresponding surface "waves"?

Mine would do this after it had been moved and not securely set on all four legs and against the wall.

Something else did it as well... heated parts washer I think.

Thought I had a damn potergeist in the shop as they started at the same time after a major seasonal cleaning!

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Touching the tank directly didn't stop it, only when I stirred the solution. I know what is causing it but I have never experienced it before, as I said I've used this exact same set up for four decades. I just thought it strange that it would start doing it now.

 

[velocette]

Jimmyray;
Be very careful if you begin to hear dueling banjos along with the singing

 

[JDBoardman]

Actually it is the NSA bugging device reporting back to Eric Holder on how effective his "Choke Point" program has been. Brownells is now required to include the bugs in the bulk salts containers by the BATFE.

 

[rcmodel]

Check around the shop for any stray Lobsters too!

They always start that singing business when you drop then in the boiling pot.

I Hate When They Do That!! :banghead:

rc

 

[Kp321]

The noise is from a phenomena called incipient boiling. As the liquid approaches the boiling temperature, small steam bubbles form at the heated surface of the tank. As they leave the heated surface, they cool below the boiling temperature and collapse. The collapse of these tiny steam bubbles causes the singing noise. As the bulk of the liquid reaches boiling temperature, the steam bubbles rise to the surface rather than collapsing.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

The noise is from a phenomena called incipient boiling

I like the poltergeist theory better......

 

[Kp321]

Hey, I answered the question you asked and tired to keep it simpler than graduate level thermodynamics. If you don't like the simple answer, you sure won't like the detailed one.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

I answered the question you asked

Just for clarification..I asked if anyone else had experienced it not what caused it. Just to be clear