electro question

[castironsasquatch]

When I clean cast iron with electro, I have some pieces that come out with a mottled appearance  :-/. No matter how much I scrub, it can't get rid of it. I can make it less visible, but usually it can still be seen. What causes this? Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? If left in the electro for a much longer time, will it eventually come off? An info would be a great help.

ET

[Sandy Glenn]

Eric, I've not had this problem.  Could you post a picture?  

I have cleaned a few no-namers where the color wasn't as uniform as I would have liked, but I attributed that to the casting.

[gt]

It's been a while but when I've had that I don't think more electro did much good.  As I remember it doesn't show when seasoned good.

Gary

[Steve_Stephens]

Eric, are you sitting your piece to be cleaned on some kind of basket or something that has openings and close areas?  If so that could be the problem where the closed areas aren't giving those parts of your piece a direct view to the anode metal.

After I clean with electrolysis I always wire brush the piece for further cleaning/burnishing and that helps.  Heating the piece in an oven to 450 deg. also will darken and smooth out the color.

Steve

[castironsasquatch]

Sandy, here's one I did yesterday.

[castironsasquatch]

Sorry for the pic. Some day I'll get the hang of it,but I think you can see what I'm refering to. There is no crud left on the pan, but it has a darker appearance on some areas. Gary, it does help to season, but I can usually still see it. Maybe if I season more it will help. Steve, I'm using a 55 gal. stainless barrel. I suspend my pieces down from the top from a plus shaped piece I made which lays across the top of the barrel. This allows me to clean 4 pieces at a time, unless there are really big pieces. I read a post quite a while back stating you shouldn't clean more than one at a time, because if the pieces touch they can "arc" between each other or something like that, and cause discoloration. Could this be part of the problem? I know that many times I have pieces touching each other or almost so, and they have come out just fine. The mottling seems to appears from underneath heavy carbon buildup, but maybe there more to it than that.

ET

[C. B. Williams]

Touching or almost touching should not be a problem. All the pieces being cleaned has a negative charge. The only time arcing could occur would be when a piece being cleaned would touch the positive, which in your case is the barrel itself. I don't think adding pieces to be cleaned is a big help on time or energy used. It's kinda like microwaving, the bigger the batch, the slower the cooking.

[Steve_Stephens]

Eric, I would say to wire brush your pieces and/or heat in an oven to 450 deg which should do a lot to even out the color.  If you don't want your pieces to darken don't put them in the oven at that temp.

Steve

[gt]

Eric, Are you talking about the black along the top and right edge?  If so that looks like it was once rust and I think more electro and wire brushing will help.

Gary

[gt]

I'm the one that had trouble cleaning more than one piece at a time.  I didn't record the details or take pictures at the time but here is the etched skillet I'm talking about.

I cleaned this skillet along with a couple of other pieces that were very close together (maybe touching) and when I took them out of the electro bath this one had rust on it in the light etched area near the top.  After I scrubbed and wire brushed it this etched area was left.

It must not happen often because no one else has had it occur but it did in this case.  I believe there must have been a small potential (voltage difference) between the pieces and a small current flowed between the pieces where they were very close together.  In this case, this piece would have been more positive than the near by piece.

[MD]

Does anyone use a wire wheel on a 4" grinder and/or a 1/2" drill?  Ya'll don't mention that much. As I mentioned before I'm not really a collector, I'm a user.  That wire brush on a 4" grinder cleans right down to bare metal and leaves no marks or swirls. So is this permissable?

[Ed Allspaugh]

. The mottling seems to appears from underneath heavy carbon buildup, but maybe there more to it than that.ET

  I have come across this. My thought is that acidic food has been trapped under the build up for years causing the iron to slightly deteriorate, giving it the etched look. I have had pieces touch in the barrel no problems, just don't let the iron come in contact with the pos lead- (Anode).
   I'm confused with CBs post  (i must have missed something) is your barrel set up to be your negative lead and the iron is the positive lead?   Black lead to the black iron.

[Paul Beer]

MD, I use a wire wheel on a 1/2 inch drill to polish them up after I take them out of the soup and wash them up..then wipe off again and season...the wheel does a great job of touching them up.
Yeah ED , I think CB got mixed up or it's a whole new process..

[C. B. Williams]

OOPS, thanks guys for looking out for me. I have corrected it. O well I didn't spill the wine.  :-/

[castironsasquatch]

Gary, Thanks for refreshing my memory. I knew I had read something about that. This appears to be something different than the other problem I was having. However, I also experienced this etching situation as you have described. I was helping my dad clean some iron a few weeks ago, and we left like five pieces in over night. One of them was a griswold scotch bowl, which in the morning, looked like hell >:(. There were several areas that had this etched effect. Quite rough feeling and shiny, as if some surface metal had been removed. Also the bail had become lumpy all over, like it had partially melted or something. I'll try to get a picture soon. Recently, I've also sometimes noticed when cleaning four pieces at once, that maybe 1 or 2 will be nicely cleaned, while the others have hardly cleaned at all, or may have red lumpy rust forming in places. That seems to clean off, but it don't seem right. I may have to reconsider cleaning multiple pieces at the same time.


Ed, I was wondering if that could be the cause of the darker areas. Seems logical to me. I may have to try the wire brush in my drill. Might help blend the discoloring. Always thought it might lighten the surface color too much, but it's worth a try

ET

[Mary_Beth]

I have had good luck using steel wool to even out the color. It seems to do a good job and I know I am to the right point when I get a nice luster and even gray color to the piece. Then sometimes I have to remind myself that it doesn't need to be perfect.

[Harry Riva]

I've wondered how cleaning multiple pieces at the same time in a stainless barrel would give good results. Electrolysis, as I understand it, works on a line of sight. That is, what the stainless barrel has a line of sight on it will clean. One pan is no problem since both inside, outside, and edges are in a sight line with the barrel. When you hang two pieces half of each piece is blocked from a clear line from the stainless and I would think results would show this. Hanging more than two pieces would have complete pieces with the inside and outside being blocked from the line of site of the barrel. At least if they are hung in a row. If they are hung side by side then I guess the tops and bottom would get a clear shot, but you need a pretty wide barrel. Or am I missing something really basic here?

Speaking of missing something basic in electrolysis let me ask this. I just started using the CPR stainless barrel (Perry, the one you sent me has a big hole in one end but I've come up with a work around) and hooked up a new charger from Sams Club. Charger is 6 and 12 volt and 20 and 40 Amps not counting the jump start settings. Setting the charger on 20 Amps and 12 volts really gets a good head of foam on the top of the water and it cleans well but when I check the readings they tell me that I am at 39 amps and 2.2 to 2.4 volts. Why are my amps so high at a 20 amp setting and my volts so low? Should I not be reading close to 20 amps and 12 volts if that's what the charger is set at? If I ramp up to the 40 amp at 12 volt setting I will show over 60 amps but still less than 3 volts. I've got about 6 lbs of PH plus in aprox. 50 - 50 gal of water. I guess I'm happy with the results I'm getting but if I can improve cleaning by improving volts (which I don't think is the case) I would want to get them volt guys up. And I would like to understand the high amp thing. Or should I accept the numbers and be happy?
Thanks, Harry

[moosejaw]

Eric,

When I have pieces that are a bit discolored, I do use the wire brush.  Then as Steve suggested, put it in the oven to darken it...... it seems to even out the color.

[C. B. Williams]

Harry: That sounds like a lot of electrolyte.

[gt]

I agree with CB on too much electrolyte.  I can't remember how much Washing Soda I used in my CPR barrel but I think it was like 2/3 of a 3lb 7oz. box.  Harry, don't you get a lot of white deposits on the piece your cleaning and around the water line on your barrel?

With your charger on the 20A setting, I would try diluting until you draw 10-12 amps with a #8 skillet hanging in the middle of the tank then see what your voltage and current readings are.

Eric,  Thanks for reporting on your rusting/etching with multiple pieces and I for one would like to see pictures if you can get them.  I was beginning to wonder if anyone else would ever see it.  

Gary