Advice Requested

C

Casey H.

New member
http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee377/excalibur3000/Mobile%20Uploads/37D939E3-0568-4E44-B98E-5BDAF8233BAB_zpsda438xd5.jpg
37D939E3-0568-4E44-B98E-5BDAF8233BAB_zpsda438xd5.jpg


Hello all. I picked up a 14" pie slice Logo'd Wagner. Really scuzzy when I got it. Soaked it in a garbage bag with Easy Off, cleaned up then electrolysis @ 6 amp setting with graphite rod anodes for about 27 hours. This is what is left in cooking surface area. Can anyone tell me what is going on here? Heat damage? Very pesky residual carbon? Actual physical damage? Shiny spots in pic are ver smooth and maybe 1/32 to 1/64" above duller areas that look like bare metal.
 
Can we get a shot of the entire bottom, handle and all? Closeups are sometimes less useful than it would seem.
 
Some kind of acid erosion on the cooking surface. Which is a shame, because if otherwise undamaged, it would be a very nice, and quite rare and valuable collectible piece of CI.
 
Casey, I'm going to SWAG and say somebody tried to put a teflon/silicone coating, or something in there as you say it sticks up above the iron. There is evidence a metal spatula was scratching some of it off which is good.

I'd try hitting it with 400 grit wet sandpaper in a circular motion and see how it does. If necessary, I would get more aggressive but it WOULD be all CI when I was done and ready for seasoning.

Hilditch
 
One would think 27 hours of electrolysis would remove anything non-ferrous from the surface.
 
I have one more pic that I was going to post, but I am having trouble getting Photobucket to upload it....anyhow, it shows multiple scrapes by something with fine serrations - along the lines of a butter knife.

I too would have thought the electrolysis would have pulled anything off the surface. I wanted to check in here before I took any kind of abrasive or mechanical means to it.

If collector value is ruined, what the heck - I would like to at least take a shot at making it a functional piece. We camp a lot in the summer and a 14" skillet is worth its weight in gold. On the other hand, if it wasn't shot as a collector piece I didn't want to be the idiot that did it in...

My electrolysis setup was two graphite rods - one on each side of pan connected with 8 gauge wire. I was considering re -rigging my setup before I went down the abrading route. Since the rest of the piece is very clean, I considered setting both rods up right in front of the cooking surface to try to maximize the electrolysis effects.

---------- Post added at 12:20 AM ---------- Previous post was Yesterday at 11:45 PM ----------

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee377/excalibur3000/Mobile%20Uploads/8F772F44-BB17-492A-8520-4D8903EABBD3_zpszbwso3xy.jpg

Finally got it to load...
 
Ah so. That stuff will come off. Warming it may help. I've been having issues with PhotoBucket too, so it isn't just you. Very slow. I might even start with a putty knife or spatula.

Hilditch

Let us know.
 
Last edited:
An eTank might not lift a coating that is chemically bound to the surface. Now rust and carbon would come right off. Before you sand it, you might want to try either or both a stripper or acetone. These would be less evasive and should come out of the metal with washing and heat. Season afterwards. There might even be something else you could try out there so take a look first. I too think it's a coating of some kind and not etched because I can see the milling marks underneath. Way cool piece too!

Scott
 
An update on this project. I re-established all of my connections and reset the piece in my e-tank. I was able to achieve a little better amperage this time. Bottom line is that some of what we were seeing seemed to be carbonaceous and was removed. The bad news is there is also some physical damage - similar to Doug's initial assessment. I spent a while this afternoon attempting to smooth it out with a 60 grit sanding block. I worked until the sanding block was dull enough it wasn't cutting much any more. The pic below was after that effort. It is much smoother than when I started, but it still has a long way to go. It is still ugly, and I am not sure anything I am going to do is going to change that. I am just working toward usable at this point. My plan at this point is another one or two 60 grit sanding blocks to attept to level it as well as I can before I start working through the finer grit scale to remove rough sanding marks and finish polishing.

As always any further input on what I am doing or where I may be screwing up is very welcome.

Casey


http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums...1-C3FF-40E0-B26C-35351EAAAABA_zps97qm4en0.jpg
 
Casey, at this point I'd be out of patience and put a 60, or a 40 disc on the end of my drill. It is a coating, so all the iron will be left when it is gone.

Hilditch
 
Guy's I might be wrong on this, but I have some experience in the hotrod community, and have seen many replateing jobs. This looks like a coat of nickel that was put over a "not clean" surface.
I am new to CI but bumpers!!!!! I KNOW bumpers
Tony
 
There was a thread awhile back about using a slurry of valve grinding compound and water with a spinning wire brush to strip off unwanted nickel plating. Would that work here?
 
Ty
That sounds like the best advice so far. If one must use mechanical means this should do the least harm.

Jack.
 
Ty L. said:
There was a thread awhile back about using a slurry of valve grinding compound and water with a spinning wire brush to strip off unwanted nickel plating. Would that work here?
Click to expand...

I was the one that posted that thread....I have done two more skillets that had splotchy nickel plating on the cooking surface and both have turned out just fine. I was going to suggest using the same slurry mix but last time I weighed in on a post I got scolded and decided it wasn't worth the hassle. I have another iron skillet that has minor pitting and thought about making a wooden disc (4" to 6") round and gluing some wet/dry fine grit paper to it which will give me a good flat surface for the slurry to work from. If I have the same success I may do another post for anyone interested in trying it.
 
MDFraley said:
I was the one that posted that thread....I have done two more skillets that had splotchy nickel plating on the cooking surface and both have turned out just fine. I was going to suggest using the same slurry mix but last time I weighed in on a post I got scolded and decided it wasn't worth the hassle. I have another iron skillet that has minor pitting and thought about making a wooden disc (4" to 6") round and gluing some wet/dry fine grit paper to it which will give me a good flat surface for the slurry to work from. If I have the same success I may do another post for anyone interested in trying it.
Click to expand...

I will be trying but havnt yet. Any more info outside of your other thread would be appreciated
 
It looks like a thick coating, like someone melted lead in it - but I would think that would come up very easily with 60-grit. Out of curiosity I mention this, but sometimes I find finer sandpapers remove faster than a heavier grit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top