I'm very stupid and need some advice.
I have been gifted a cast iron waffle maker that's been sitting in a garage for at least 30 years and I'd like to restore it to working order. I sanded off most of the rust with steel wool and vinegar but now I realize its painted and also the seasoning is thicker than I thought.
Im thinking of using oven cleaner to remove the paint and the seasoning in one go, will that work?
Advice and suggestions please.
This is the waffle iron as it is now.
The seasoning is kinda rancid so I'm going to strip it bare and reseason the whole thing
This is how it looked before I started working on it
It's unlikely that it's the seasoning that's rancid; probably whoever used it last coated it with oil and that's what's gone rancid. You could just wash that off and make some waffles.
Possibly, but the paranoid part of me doesn't trust 30 year old seasoning and I'd rather start it over from scratch.
Lye is smart, didn't think of that. I'll have to get some heavy duty gloves.
Might try this too but I'd wait until the winter and do it on my propane burner outside.
>do it on my propane burner outside.
Not gonna do it. Just build a campfire and throw it in there. It'll be spotless.
Depends on burner. I'm lazy so I'd hit it with cup-shaped knotted wire wheel on my angle grinder and be done in minutes.
I don't overthink shit there being no point.
I have a 65,000 BTU burner i use for beer brewing, but if that wont cut it yeah i guess I can make a charcoal fire in my grill and just burry it in there.
You don't need to get the lye too strong probably. I often touch lye solution without feeling anything other than slipperiness and it's good enough for dissolving oils and organic resins from containers i want to clean. Of course it might be different for hard seasoning.
I don't think that's paint, just crud.
You can use oven cleaner but if you have a drill and a wire brush (and eye protection) that's much better.
Sadly I have no power tools and must do everything with elbow grease
Go on ebay and buy a used drill for 10$ and a chink wire brush
There is no excuse for not onwing a drill
Xylene will strip it to bare metal quickly.
wont need much with proper chemicals
If you can get lye it is better then using oven cleaner imo. I have restored a bunch of cast iron and I just do a lye bath in a 5 gallon bucket to strip them. Waffle irons and annoying to get fully cleaned and seasoned since they have so many little crevices
Burn it till all the crud is gone, you're not gonna hurt it
You can just pour oil on it to get complete coverage then let it drip off before each round of seasoning.
Only thing I can add is that flax oil is the best oil for seasoning
wrong you dumb boomer
lard is the best
I've heard ammonia works good for removing glaze from pans, but I've never tried it myself
I've seen some dude stripping a cast iron pan with electrolysis. Can't recall if fully, but he somehow jacked it up to a car battery and put it in a bucket with acid or something. Might only help against the rust, I'm not sure, but may be worth a quick Google search. But damn these pans looked like brand new afterwards.
I read using a car battery is a way to get around the smart chargers. I expect it'd only help with rust, but if it's between the parent metal and seasoning/grime, then it should clean up nicely.
I have a nice large pan I don't use because of the sear ridges. I want to get the milled off, but would hate to jack up the flatness.
This is a little outside of my wheelhouse, but if it was made in the last 60 years, the exterior coating is most likely a PTFE, or Teflon.
The inner part looks like "pre-seasoned" stuff like camping gear, where it's just a drying oil baked on in the factory, or possibly Teflon. Something like a waffle iron isn't used often, so a teflon surface for easy cleaning and no need for seasoning sounds right.
If the exterior is teflon, or if it's older and a form of japanning, then mechanical is the only way it's coming off. You can get spray teflon to respray it when you're done. I'd leave the interior alone until you know for sure what the surface is.
cast iron cooking aficionado here, put it in the oven and put it on cleaning cycle. then proceed to brush off the ashes. piece of cake and less of a pain. only wire brush them if very rusty
Anyone have experience with cast iron tubs? So far it seems I should just go at it with an angle grinder + brush disc.
Dip it in a bigger tub full coke©. Then let it sit for a little then it'll be easy least to scrub off the rust.
why not leave it rusty in the first place.
could also buy a sandblaster gun and go at it with regular sand if you got that laying around. its a big mess anyway
I just assumed I needed to get rid of the rust to keep it usable/long lasting. If I can just leave the rust without problems, I guess I can just do that for now.
mate, a cast piece this thick will need centuries to deteriorate.
Make sure there is a drainage hole at the bottom
I've restored similar by filling with vinegar and putting in over at 200f. The heat accelllerates cleaning and leaves raw cast iron ready for reseasoning.