Repurposing a cast iron door stop to ...

[ruckin]

After posting on the acquisition thread I was encouraged to post pictures and solicit advice on cleaning and converting this door stop (that is what is was being used for...) into a functioning pan.

I am starting with this:

There is quite a bit of grunge on the bottom of the pan that I need to remove. Not sure what the best way to do that yet. But I look forward to eventually being able to use it as a pan.

Ruckin.

 

[Brompton]

Steel wool, soap and water, and a lot of scrubbing should be all you need. Then you can re-season it.

There are a million tips if you google "cast iron pan".

 

[Brompton]

Your pan is actually not that bad either.

 

[Brompton]

Some people will get a little worked up about how to take care of them.

xkcd: Cast Iron Pan

 

[mglindo]

That's not bad. Looks well used. Little elbow grease, re-season and go!


Mike

 

[DoctorShavegood]

If you want to get it down to bare metal, spray on a thick coat of heavy duty Easy-off, place inside of heavy-duty garbage bag and put it out in the garage for 3 or 4 days. Reapply once a day if needed to remove hard grime and seasoning. Then wash with vinegar.

 

[DCRIII]

If you have a self cleaning oven, throw it in there an turn on the cleaning feature. Once done, just give it a quick wash with soap and water, then start seasoning it.

 

[paintflinger]

Bit of scrubbing with steel wool on the inside of the pan and then reseason. Not sure I would recommend fully stripping it.

Surface rust on the outside isn't really a concern, but light scrubbing and then reseasoning will fix it right up.

 

[Mick]

Are you afraid of the food that was cooked in it?

I've never understood the reasoning behind why someone would want to remove decades of seasoning to replace it with a squirt of oil.

I've never "cleaned" any of my iron and some have been in my family for over a century.

 

[ruckin]

The reason for the wanting to remove the grunge is the person I got it from mentioned that they didn't know to what extent it had been used in the shop filled with motor oil or solvents, rebuilding carbs, etc.

I would like to get it to a "known" state prior to cooking food in it. If it had come straight from the kitchen I would probably washed it with a bit of soap/water and then cooked something with it. Although I must admit that prior to looking at the xkcd article I didn't realize I had been doing it wrong by not going to the poles to get the 24h of sunlight (I was thinking that sending it into orbit should be good enough - sheesh)

Compared with Mick my cookware collection is quite minimal. I have a no-name import modern (gritty) CI skillet and a carbon steel skillet I picked up awhile ago. I look forward to having a smallish one available.

Ruckin

 

[simon1]

This is my favorite, and least labor intensive, way to clean one. You need to have someplace outside though.

Wagner and Griswold Society

I've stripped more than one down to bare metal using that, then I re-season like this.

Wagner and Griswold Society

I've only put a cast iron dutch oven in the regular oven on the self cleaning cycle once. It didn't clean it very well, but I didn't have any problems. I've "heard" that doing that "can" crack the iron though. YMMV.

 

[simon1]

Oh, and you need a battery charger that has a manual operation mode. I've heard that a fully automatic charger will tell itself that the "battery" is fully charged and shut itself off.

The reason for the wanting to remove the grunge is the person I got it from mentioned that they didn't know to what extent it had been used in the shop filled with motor oil or solvents, rebuilding carbs, etc.

Yup, I'd strip that puppy down to bare metal too.

 

[Bebe]

 

[Mick]

This is my favorite, and least labor intensive, way to clean one. You need to have someplace outside though.

Wagner and Griswold Society

I've stripped more than one down to bare metal using that, then I re-season like this.

Wagner and Griswold Society

I've only put a cast iron dutch oven in the regular oven on the self cleaning cycle once. It didn't clean it very well, but I didn't have any problems. I've "heard" that doing that "can" crack the iron though. YMMV.

Use the electrolysis method described in this post if you believe toxic chemicals were used in the pan.

 

[ajkel64]

Nice "door stop". It should clean up well and still be usuable. I can't add any more then you have a great SCORE!

 

[simon1]

Here's the first one I did with the battery charger.

Yuuuck

That battery charger would take a day or two to strip one down to the grey, bare metal. The charger has since died, and this is the one I have now but haven't used it yet. The 40 amp setting on that one should strip things down quicker than the old 12 amp one.

 

[Macfrommichigan]

First, is the pan level? Does it rock? If fairly flat, you have a nice one, sir.

 

[ruckin]

Thank you for the advice! Wow I was all set to set up an electrolysis bath but for some dumb reason all of my battery chargers are auto... I am somewhat impatient and I had some oven cleaner, a rubber glove and a trash bag... so I tried the easy off approach. About lunch time I took the bag and dumped the pan into a bucket of water. I got out my green scrubbie sponge and rubbed off quite a bit of the gunk that was there. It looks like I need another pass but it is quite a bit better than it looked before...

I set the pan on the wood pile to dry in the sun and went to get another trash bag. I am going to try a second round. But tomorrow is likely to be a very busy day so it might be 48 hours before I can get to it.

Sorry I forgot to check for flatness/non-rocking. I will try to remember to do that next time it comes out of the bag. I assume that if it doesn't rock on a flat glass tile that is good enough and I don't need set it up on a flat table and get out the indicator. I only ask because some get very serious about their cast iron.

Ruckin.

.ps someday I will probably set up an electrolysis bath but will probably use an old surplus PC power supply I have laying around. The one thing that bothers me with this process is that the liquid becomes toxic and I want to make sure I have a safe way to dispose of it. Being on my own well and septic makes me a bit cautious.

 

[ruckin]

In the off chance anyone is following this or finds it a zillion years later in search....

I did a couple a rounds with the oven cleaner and got a really clean pan. It would flash rust so I washed it in white vinegar, then soap and water.... they towel dried it and put in on the gas bbq at 300 or so. Once it was visual dry I rubbed a thin layer of bacon grease on it and let it sit on the bbq (indirect heat) for a while.

Looks like it came out okay. From a historical perspective... I found out that this pan belonged to my step dad. After he died my mom didn't want it around any more and gave it a friend. She had an electric stove and didn't know what to do with it. It just so happened when my biological dad escaped the hospital and needed a place to stay it was the same place... It is all cleaned up now and has been used to saute some mushrooms. I will need to work it into my rotation of pans to work on getting a solid seasoning. So far my impressions are that there are times when a 12" CI pan is too big and a 9" is just right.

Personally I don't really care if this pan is worth $1 or $100 the fact that I know the story of how it came to me and how I am connected with it makes it priceless to me.

Ruckin (having a good day).

 

[Mick]

Nice story to have while you are cooking. Looks like an unbranded Wagner.

Bring the pan to heat slowly and try to not heat it empty.

Iron is not fast. If it is flat, bringing it to heat slowly will help keep it that way.

Some even recommend putting iron in a cold oven and turning it on to 350 to heat it slowly before taking to burner to cook.