Aluminum Paint Removal

[Gerald Melsheimer]

Dummy that I am, I have volunteered to clean and preserve the cast iron at our living history museum.  Some of the items are painted  with some type of black paint-easily removed with electro. However the cooking surface has been painted, probably with aluminum paint.  No idea whether it is high temp or not.  Electro seens to have practically no effect.  I heated on waffle iron plate until the aluminum paint started to get a purplish color, then cooled down, electro and no effect.

Anyone have any suggestions on removing this coating?  
\Thanks       Jerry

[Mike Bohannon]

Gerald I don't know the best anwser to your question but will pass on my experience(there is a post on here somewhere).  I bought a Gris 11 W/I that was painted since I had electro'd a couple of painted pieces I thought no problem.  The black paint came off quickly in the electro but there was a primer that the electro wasn't even touching.  The only thing that would even soften it was a strong paint remover, rinse, and then wire brush--then repeat and repeat and repeat------- many $$$$ of paint remover and time!!!! As I remember others have had problems with some primers. Never tried to clean one with alum. paint so not sure if your problem is the same.  Maybe others can add better advice.

I'm very leery of painted stuff now ;)  Mike

Here's a link to my paint problems :'(  Mike

http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1151972631

[Steve_Stephens]

 I heated on waffle iron plate until the aluminum paint started to get a purplish color, then cooled down, electro and no effect.

That sounds like chrome or nickel plating to me.  I don't think paint turns purplish with high temperatures but plating sure does.

Steve

[Gerald Melsheimer]

Steve.  I don't think that it is plated.  It is only on the cooking surface.  There are several pieces that are painted black on the outside surfaces and a silver/aluminum appearing finish on the cooking surface.  Some of this finish was over some carbonized fat/butter/bacon grease.  Another reason that I think eliminates plating.

 I tried a hand held wire brush and it appeared to slightly remove some of the paint , but not enough to indicate that it would be a reasonable, quick method of removing the paint.

I have not tried a commercial paint remover yet because the one's that I have looked at say to use a scraper to remove the blistered paint and you all know the problem in trying to do that with waffle irons and all of the ti..(protrusions)

Jerry

[Steve_Stephens]

Gerald, it might be more or less work but you can try using wet-or-dry sandpaper (wet) 80 grit on the cooking surface.  Won't hurt it a bit though will make the pan shiny.  They just heat in oven to 450 deg. and it will darken.

Steve

[Mike Bohannon]

Gerald, have you checked with you neighbor about the "oakite" you talked about on my 1st post?  Looks like this might be the time to check into it more.  If you decide to try let us know.  Mike

[maloney108]

I have not tried a commercial paint remover yet because the one's that I have looked at say to use a scraper to remove the blistered paint and you all know the problem in trying to do that with waffle irons and all of the ti..(protrusions)

Jerrry

Jerry, once the paint is blistered you can remove it with a power washer or other strong stream of water (think hose and thumb ! ) I haven't done this on cast iron, but it worked like a charm on my steel radiator covers.  I think the chemical paint stripper is going to be the easiest and best way to solve your problem.  I used the orange citrus kind of stripper mainly because it's water washable, but the old standard kind with 'methylene chloride' as the main ingredient is probably the strongest - it also is very harsh on skin and has a very strong smell - use it as a last resort.

To get into the nooks and crannies, I also got a package of the cheap steel wire brushes with plastic handles from my hardware store (about $3.00 for a pack of 5).  They are soft steel and don't scratch cast iron.

[Gerald Melsheimer]

Update and thanks for all of the suggestions.

Used a citrus paint remover followed by electro and eventually removed all of the alum/silver paint.  However the cooking surface still had, to me, a shiney appearance-possibly sand blasted at some time?  To be sure that all of the paint had been removed, I decided to see if the surface would rust, since I knew that could be removed.  It looked liked the entire cooking surface did rust, so another electro and seasoned with mineral oil since it was for display purposes.

Started yesterday on a J. Savory wafer iron with aluminum/silver cooking surface.  Citrus remover on the plates.  The base is in electro and I think that all the black paint will be loosened today.

Also working on a #7 Savory long waffle iron and base.  Fortunately it had not been painted.

Again thanks for all the suggestions.      Jerry

[C. Perry Rapier]

Thanks for the update Gerald. It sounds like you are cleaning some nice pieces.  ;)

[Gerald Melsheimer]

I wish that they were mine.  They belong to the museum and living history center west of Auburn, AL

Jerry

[maloney108]

Hi Jerry,

Glad everything turned out OK.  That must be an interesting museum to have a nice display of "everyday" articles instead of only the stuff the rich folks could afford.