The present paper is constituted of two parts. First the set up of a vertical quench furnace is described with special focus on technical details such as the location of the volume in which the temperature reaches its maximum and it is steadier (the hot zone). In the second part some applications in mineralogic and petrologic researches, in which the use of the furnace is crucial are presented; they belong to on-course projects on phase relationships of hawaiitic lava under surface conditions, homogenisation of melt inclusions hosted in olivine and preparation of starting materials for high pressure-temperature experiments.