First Post and a Silly Question on Electrolysis

J

James_C

New member
Hiya All,
I just joined the forum as I've got the CI bug. So far, I'm really limited to purchasing stuff off Ebay as finding vintage stuff in my area is difficult. Anyway, I have a couple of pans that I got, one was beautiful until all the flaxseed seasoning started flaking off. Another one arrived unseasoned with a coat of "oil" on it. I don't know what the guy used but it was a sticky mess. So what better reason than now to construct an electrolysis setup?

My tank is built and seems to be working well. However, I have one really silly question. The container I used only allows me to do one pan at a time if I put the pan fully under the water. If I hang them with the handles sticking out a bit, I could probably do 3-4 at a time. So the question I have is if I leave the handles exposed as I've seen done, how do you get that portion of the handle cleaned up to match the rest of the pan?
Cheers and Thank you,
jc
 
Hey James, welcome to the site. My suggestion to you would be to buy another container. It will definitely be worth it in the long run. It is nearly impossible to get a part of the skillet sticking out of the tank to match the part that was cleaned. In my experience, it always leaves a line or shadow where the 2 meet. That doesn't matter if they are just for your own use, but not what you want if reselling. I use a tall, kitchen trash can for one of my tanks. It is much deeper and allows the skillet to stay off the bottom. The problem I had with it is that I can only fit a #9 skillet in it. So I also have a 27 gallon Rubbermaid tote, from Walmart, that I set up as a second tank. For this one, I cut apart 2 plastic milk crates and, using plastic zip ties, built a rectangular cage that would hold the cast iron without being hung from a hook, and without fear of touching my anodes. I made sure to make the cage big enough to hold dutch ovens and small kettles. This setup work well for me, but there are lots of ways to build an electrolysis tank. I know a lot of people who use a stainless steel washing machine drum inside a 55 gallon plastic drum. I've been very tempted to try this as well, since i think it would allow me to hang multiple pieces at once.
 
Thank you! You've confirmed my suspicions on getting the piece fully under water. I thought I had bought a big enough tub but apparently not big enough to do multiple pieces. I do like the idea of making some sort of "rack" as you described if for no other reason than to just make sure the pan isn't touching my anodes...gets kind of hard to tell in that murky water! I'm not in this to re-sell or even become a big collector so I'll probably just make do with what I've got but will look at making a rack. Thanks very much for responding.
Cheers,
jc
 
One caution about using my plastic cage. Electrolysis is a line-of-site process. The plastic cage can sometimes throw a shadow on the part. Again, for your own use, not a problem. I also use a large graphite sheet on the 2 long sides of my container, connected with a "jumper" wire, to clean my pieces from both sides at the same time.
 
Yep. I have 8 carbon rods as my electrodes so pretty well surrounds the items but I'm certain with a cage I may have some shadows.
Cheers.
 
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