Author Topic: Your greatest cleaning victories (Read 3600 times)

Lewis Downey · « **on:** May 13, 2015, 01:28:00 PM »

Hi. I am curious if anyone would be willing and able to show off pieces that might have looked terrible before cleaning but turned out stunningly well?

Pics would be great (especially before and after) as would the description of any unexpected techniques or processes.

Thanks in advance!

Roger Barfield · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2015, 03:56:25 PM »

Here is a skillet I bought years ago that cleaned up nice.

Roger Barfield · « **Reply #2 on:** May 14, 2015, 03:56:53 PM »

not a bad $5

Robert Hynes · « **Reply #3 on:** May 15, 2015, 12:19:41 AM »

First waffle iron, cleaned with oven cleaner. Swore I would never buy another, then the gf bought me a griswold.

C. Perry Rapier · « **Reply #4 on:** May 15, 2015, 12:44:16 AM »

Robert I was just gonna say wait till you clean a waffle iron. Some of them with a great big grid cooking surface are a real bear to clean. And some of the muffin pans are not any better, at all. Especially the GF Filley muffin pans. Some of them are rougher than a cob anyway. But everybody ought to clean at least a few waffle irons. When I first started out I'd buy anything and whether it was dirty and needed cleaned did not matter. Now I go by the 'cleaning factor'. Lets see, do I want to put three hours of work in a plain old common piece? I might do it if its something I want to give to a friend, but for me, no way.

And here is an example of what I am talking about. This piece has a lot of nooks and crannies to clean.

Cheryl Watson · « **Reply #5 on:** May 15, 2015, 12:48:40 AM »

The first $3 Crud is You Bud WI....

Cheryl Watson · « **Reply #6 on:** May 15, 2015, 12:49:26 AM »

And the hopeless... The before pics were partially cleaned...

Cheryl Watson · « **Reply #7 on:** May 15, 2015, 12:56:22 AM »

Psst.. Robert... Pleez upload pics directly, or in the near future you posts will become dead when the pics disappear off of "gutbucket" aka photo bucket... I just pulled in your last photo and uploaded directly to our directory... :)

http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1383802487

Robert Hynes · « **Reply #8 on:** May 15, 2015, 12:58:23 AM »

That's alot of waffle iron Perry, need the patience of Job to clean that. I have 7 irons now, much better with the lye bath.

Robert Hynes · « **Reply #9 on:** May 17, 2015, 12:22:17 PM »

Quote

Psst.. Robert... Pleez upload pics directly, or in the near future you posts will become dead when the pics disappear off of "gutbucket" aka photo bucket... I just pulled in your last photo and uploaded directly to our directory... :)

http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1383802487

Sorry, brain fart.

Terry Wharton · « **Reply #10 on:** May 17, 2015, 11:22:00 PM »

Here's a #12 Griswold EPU.

Terry Wharton · « **Reply #11 on:** May 17, 2015, 11:27:16 PM »

#9 arc-logo WAPAK. Before:

Terry Wharton · « **Reply #12 on:** May 17, 2015, 11:29:35 PM »

#9 arc-logo WAPAK. After:

C. Perry Rapier · « **Reply #13 on:** May 20, 2015, 12:14:48 PM »

Hello Terry. You did a fantastic job of cleaning those two pieces. Thank you for posting this. Pretty amazing stuff. :o :o

Claudia Killebrew · « **Reply #14 on:** May 20, 2015, 01:24:46 PM »

I don't have a before pic, but this was covered in about a 1/4 inch of burned on crud. Cleaned with the EZ Off method.
A #9 Wapak Z.

C. Perry Rapier · « **Reply #15 on:** May 20, 2015, 06:41:13 PM »

Very nice Claudia. That lye does a fantastic job. I say this, 'in the end carbon is your friend'. If you have a piece with a lot of carbon on it that protects the piece just like a cocoon. But now if some idiot got it hot and warped it has cleaned it by sandblasting or somebody has let it get all pitted and then let it get carboned up, then you're in trouble. You can't fix stupid.

Terry Wharton · « **Reply #16 on:** May 21, 2015, 08:13:26 AM »

Thank you Perry and you're welcome.

When one joins WAGS, learns the correct methodology for cleaning & seasoning, and sees the fantastic before/after results of other members, it makes you want to likewise preserve these pieces of our rich manufacturing history.

These two were simply placed in the lye bath, ss scrubbied, and returned to the dip a couple times until the stubborns were gone, then seasoned with canola oil. It's ironic that the correct approach is relatively easy (though disciplined), while irrevocably wrecking a piece is almost always comparatively labor intensive. It's like Strother Martin's character says in Cool Hand Luke: "Some folks you just can't reach . . ."

Mark R. Smith · « **Reply #17 on:** May 22, 2015, 03:10:54 PM »

It may not be the greatest, but it turned out great

Russell Ware · « **Reply #18 on:** June 06, 2015, 02:02:02 PM »

This is a 2 gal English pot (it actually only holds 7 quarts). I posted a photo showing how I used a piece of rebar to de-rust the inside; since it was pitted from a potted plant. Here is the finished pot that I seasoned with Crisco.

Jeff Friend · « **Reply #19 on:** June 07, 2015, 03:10:00 PM »

Here is a page from a back issue of our newsletter, The Casting Call, with two cleaning victories.

News:

Author Topic: Your greatest cleaning victories (Read 3600 times)