Restoring Cast Iron via Electrolysis Bath

[Mr. Bones]

Zoinks!!! Jinkies!!! Jeepers!!!
Beautiful job, so far, brother!!!
This is shapin' up to be a Fabulous resto!!!!

[Spinaker]

Thanks Bones. She needs a few more rounds. That coil handle is being a real PITA.

[Mudkat]

She's looking great Spinaker ! The Griswold bottom designs are the best. It's part of the allure of their CI.

[Spinaker]

I know! I Love it!!!!

[Spinaker]

Should be making waffles by this weekend!

[Mudkat]

Nice. What kind? Anything special? Sous vide? Or hanging them from your PBC? 😁

[Jimmie Rhoden]

Very nice piece

[Spinaker]

Thanks Jimmie!

[snowswamp]

Electric bath is the best way! Great results Spinaker! I’ve been doing it for a few years as well. Garage sales are a treasure.

[Spinaker]

Yes sir!!!

[dahcopilot]

i picked up 8 skillets, a couple of dutch ovens, a griddle and a couple of pans last night, thrown in with a hobart slicer i bought. buddy has a body shop where i plan to sand blast them, then reseason. plan to gift them to family. let you know how they turn out and how long it takes

[Spinaker]

I look forward to seeing the results. Get some before and after pics!

[TPGuess]

Hi there... I'm a brand new member and this is one of the first posts I've read. Great tip and guide for this idea.... worth the price of membership... on day 2 :-) Thanks.

[Spinaker]

Glad you like it! Welcome to The Pit!

[Mudkat]

Welcome to the Pit TPGuess!

[Spinaker]

I just threw a newly acquired Griswold #6 (Block Letter 702a) in the E-bath. This one is a real gem, lots of surface rust, but that is all. No pitting and no spinning on the counter top. Looking forward to seeing this baby all seasoned up nice and returned to her former glory! Lotta "projects" going on today!

[Mudkat]

I'm looking forward to it too!

[Ricorocks]

Trying now "peracetic acid" using No bubbling or color change. From Amazon

[Ricorocks]

After an hour bubbling & color change. I let it set for 5 hrs. IMO this solution is too weak too strip like other methods. After rinsing & drying. I used a putty knife to remove allot baked on black stuff, time consuming & allot of elbow grease. Then 70 grit sponge back sanding, followed by 220 grit sanding.

Next the hair drier then oven dry. Then Flax Seed oil.

Are "Flax oil", & Flax Seed Oil, the same oil? Also Tung oil, seems to be sold for wood, is that appropriate oil for CI


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Long ago I tried, the ovens "self cleaning" with CI in the oven. I was amazed, it was stripped clean, what I've spent hours scrapping & sanding. Was gone coming from the oven.

Has anyone else tried oven self clean to strip?

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Is sandblasting an option, for the strip?

[Larry Grover]

For heavy crud lye bath worked good for me then finish in e-bath. Soak it for a week, scrub then put it back in. Rinse & repeat until clean. It also doubles as a nice way to clean stainless steel grill grates, rib racks & flavorizer bars. Caustic stuff though so use caution. Lye does not clean rust...e-bath for that.

For light crud and/or rust straight to e-bath.

I prefer Crisco or Grape seed oil over flax. Shouldnt need to sandblast. Self clean oven is pretty effective but can mess up the finish of your oven racks. It can possibly emit toxic fumes so remove small pets and open all windows. It can also fry or shorten the life of internal oven components.

Lye bath: I use Home Depot 10 gallon plastic tote filled with 5 gal water & 1 container of 100% lye. Watch YouTube videos for safety and keep away from pets & kids. You can use it for a year then dispose in your pipes (it's basically just drain-o).

[Spinaker]

I am getting this fired back up again tonight. I found an awesome Konro Japanese Grill just laying on the ground on my buddies farm. Apparently it was discarded on in the bone yard of farm equipment and I now have it in my possession. She is in real bad shape, pitted, rust and in need of some real TLC. But this is gonna be a really fun and interesting restoration.

This is just a stock image I found online but I will post some more pics when I get home. The one I have is in much worse shape......but not for long!

[efincoop]

Looking forward to following along and seeing how it comes out.

[Skip]

Let the fun begin!

[Spinaker]

This will be coming soon. Finally got my bath set back up and ready to rip. Right now I have the dutch oven below, and a Griswold pan to do. Then I am going to get to this grill. Can't wait!

[bbqLuv]

Stainless steel cast iron does not have that problem, although it is hard to find.

[smokenoob]

unobtanium?

[bbqLuv]

Unobtanium of the highest quality.

[Spinaker]

I ended up getting hung up at work last night. (More never ending importing nightmares in LA )

Needless to say, I did not get around to getting anything set up for the Korna Grill. I will post some before and after pics of this restoration. It is a really cool piece.

[Spinaker]

Firing this back up for a big Dutch oven I just picked up since Lodge no longer makes the 12QT. This was a solid find and will be put to use down at the sauna. We have been making a ton of campfire meals but we needed a bigger camping dutch.

I will post the restoration once I get it going.

[bmillin]

I did the same recently. Set the pot in the tank - drilled a 1/4" hole in a piece of angle iron - used some nuts to fit a camp chef flame tamer onto a piece of 1/4" allthread and dangled it inside the pot for the anode. I do believe that this process is pretty much "line of sight" and try to keep that when doing the inside of a pot or dutch. Seems to be working.

For general use I welded up a cage out of rebar that cleans up the outside of things.

[Spinaker]

Finally getting around to this one........see below.

[bbqLuv]

Good job, interesting and useful.
Time for a PBR.