Fixing a "warped" skillet...

[Troy_Hockensmith]

This sounds like Woodstock! I'll bring my chuckwagons.

[tjzebra]

I believe you can get it back to shape , but from my understanding you would have to get the entire pan cherryed and then do your deed . and then stress relieve it ( cool down ) at controlled setting's, so that one part of the pan did'nt cool faster than the other .

[Rich]

Hey Mike.  I've been waiting for you to jump in here...

So now all we need is a heat-treat furnace.  

Greg, you gonna "spring" for one... ?   ;D

[Jenny Schwartz]

Alot of the antique tractor shows we attend have blacksmith demonstrations, I wonder if they could do anything ?  

[tjzebra]

I have'nt been around for a while , due to a livestock problem. I lost a calf, thinking it was a pack of cross breed ceyote's I went back into the wood's a bit baited them , sat in a tree stand , with my trusty 22. only to find out it was a damn big kitty-cat. so Ive been spending alot of time trying to tract it down with my 30-30, and I dont even feel safe walking around out here on the ranch with out my 45 on my side. shame it could'nt have just been wild dog's :P

[Rich]

Mike,

Good luck with the cat.  Tough situation.  Lots of critters being pushed out their territory by urban sprawl and end up causing problems.

[Steve_Stephens]

No cherry red, blacksmith, or heat treating oven is going to move that warped iron.  CAST iron is not like the regular irons and steels that blacksmiths work with and, once shaped it may move a little (warp) but it won't move back without reheating to the molten, or possibly the plastic, stage.   Dull cherry red is not plastic for cast iron.  Show me I'm wrong so I can learn something.

Mike,
Bad luck with the cat.  Sorry, but I am a cat lover, both domestic and wild, and the cat that got your calf was here long before man and deserves a place to live in peace.  Hope you can find some other way to deal with your losses than killing.  If I were in your shoes I might feel differently-can't really know not having been there.
Steve

[tjzebra]

My thought's were that doing it the way I described would be the only way to get away from cracking it. I really did'nt do much research on the matter, I just thought it could be something else for richard to try.

As far as the cat, I like to see them too. I have a little over 200 acres, and only fence 20 of them. I know that they are out in the rest of property, and so long as they stay there and do what big cats do , I dont have any problem with them being there. But when a large predator loses his fear of people , thats just no good for anyone, sure you could trap it and release it in a state park , but what happens to some poor family thats out for a nature walk ( with no firearm ) and they run into this thing. its happened all too often before .

I also have small grandchildren , and would'nt want to chance it. a normal cat , see's you or hears you and runs away. this one could care less, even if there is a adult standing there. So yes it will be dealt with , and nope I cant really think of a better way. so sorry to all the cat lovers , but this one has to go.

[Paul Beer]

Mike, I presume you are talking about a cougar as I know that last summer up on Vancouver Island they had several couger attacks on people and many on livestock...I was practically a witness to one on an island off Johstone Strait where a  cougar came right in to the camp of some Kayakers and attacked an 8 year old girl and started dragging her off until the adults finally scared it off and then it went and sat in a tree next to the camp....fortunatley one of the parents was a doctor and we got a fast boat right there and got her to a hospital and she recovered from puncture wounds in her neck...we dispatched the cougar with the blessing of the authorities....that cougar had been harrassing several of the islands in that area ...so I agree when they get to those kind of habits there is not much else you can do....We have pumas here in Arizona which is basically the same animal and have periodic problems the same way....Having owned several ranches I know exactly what you face...Paul

[Troy_Hockensmith]

This is really the wrong topic for this forum but didn't California stop cat hunting for whatever reason and then after a few years people started getting mauled so they reopened a season? Being an advid sportsman and prefering the ways of old I'm sorry to say you have to do what you have to do. Kinda like a bear that poeple feed in the park. Once they loose the fear of man they can be very dangerous.  Good luck with it.

[Jenny Schwartz]

We have a big coyote and deer problem here.  With urban sprawl there is no place else for them to go and their only real predator is man.  The deer population has decreased slightly because the state has been shooting them because of chronic wasting disease.

It is interesting to see all the topics stem from a discussion about fixing a warped skillet.

[Paul Beer]

Yeah, I don't  know how Greg is going to fit a topic to Mountain lions...But it seems we like to talk about lots of things other than cast iron sometimes...Paul

[Greg Stahl]

Meow!!  I'll pass on a board for big kitties.

[Rich]

Troy,

California didn't lift the ban on hunting.  It was put to a vote, but the people that have to deal with them were outnumbered by city folk.  Never got passed.

Now, about that heat-treat furnace...  ::)  

[tjzebra]

I was thinking about this whole warping thing alot yesterday, and remembered that when I used to work for kaiser alum we built a forge and used mapp gas with it . it allways worked really well and we never had any problems getting anything up to temp, so Im looking to build one , to start trying new thing's with old cast. as far as the cooling process goe's I remembered seeing a old potery kiln for sale localy , I dont know if it can get hot enough but its worth a try. I'll have to keep everyone posted on the progress. ;)

[Rich]

Steve talks about skillets getting a scale on 'em when heated to cherry red, which ruins the skillet.

Wouldn't a controled cool down eliminate that?   In a vacuum oven where no oxygen is involved?

[tjzebra]

Yes, a controlled cool down does eliminate scale, and you also have a much better chance of anything cracking.

now all we have to do is find the right temps and process , to get it back into shape. I kinda figure like you , that if it warped one way , there should be a way to get it back the other way.

[Rich]

I'm thinking when a skillet warps, it's due to the bottom expanding from excess heat.  The sides don't give  enough so it buckles.   How you undo that is beyond me.

You're right about the proper cool down cycle, as it would probably be critical.

If you gear up to give it a shot, I'll toss this #8 skillet in a box and send it your way.  I'm out of ideas.

[John_Myers]

   Mike do you have a recipe for cougar, some oldtimers claimed they were good.
  If you find a way to fix a warped skillet, I think you will have found a new job. It seems if it will warp one way you should be able to coax it back.  Good luck I hope you figure it out.   John

[Paul Baker]

back to the subject of alum. skillets  you can take the warp out of the bottom of a skillet by putting it on a flat surface  like a2/10  heavy board
 jim hickling did a demostration at his house 4/5 years ago  it came out ok