Having to use both electrolysis and oven cleaner an badly gunked pans?

[Shane Lewis]

 In the last few weeks I have bought a badly caked #6 and #5 Wagner.
 I usually use cheap oven cleaner over the period of a week and light scraping to clean my new finds, but the #6 was not giving in after two weeks.
 I decided to make an electrolysis tank and within a day or two, the pan was spotless.
 Now, I put the #5 straight into a new electolysis bath with clean anodes, and within two days it was 75% clean.
 I kept clean the anodes scraping, even changed the bath, but the pan is only 90% clean after a week.
 The pan is now in a bag with oven cleaner in an attempt to remove the little bit of carbon left.
 Why won't the elecrto take that little bit off?

[Cheryl Watson]

Possibly painted?

Or the electro is not functioning properly.

Would need pictures of the electro showing anodes and battery charger to determine..... :)

[Cheryl Watson]

A common misconception I am seeing out in INTERNET land, is that you can use itty bitty pieces of steel for anodes (i.e. rebar, etc) and/or an automatic battery charger/or low amp charger.  These types of setups may appear to work for a while,,,,,, but,,,,, are usually not up to the task for efficient cleaning over time.

There is no substitute over time for the value of a lye bath for nice long soaks of difficult pieces, and even lye will not touch certain types of paint.

[Shane Lewis]

No pics of setup or after cleaning as it is still in a bag with oven cleaner, but here are before pics.

[Greg Stahl]

 Why won't the elecrto take that little bit off?

I have had pieces like that and need to use a sharp item to etch the carbon in order for the electro to remove the carbon (I had one Griswold spider like that).  Once etched, it will come off, but you may need to repeat as needed.  From what I can figure out is that the wash soda needs to get under the carbon in order for the electro to remove the buildup of carbon.  Whether that is true or not, I just know etching the carbon worked.  I used an old knife that keep sharpening.

[Mark Zizzi]

I've never tried the oven cleaner method, but if those were mine they'd be going in a lye bath first, then electro for any rust. If you're going to be cleaning more iron down the road, you really need to set up a lye bath, Shane. Much cheaper in the long run and saves wear and tear on your charger, and electric bill too. Once set up, it will clean many many pieces..for about 10 bucks investment.  ;)

[Duke Gilleland]

Bad or WEAK connection on the skillet :-/

[Jeff Friend]

If you are getting bubbles and foam coming from the pan, the electro is working.  If the bubbles are coming just from the submerged conductor at the connection, the connection is bad, like Duke suggested.  You will need to clean the handle enough to get a good connection.  Remember, you are trying to get 10 or 20 amps to flow through this connection at only 12 volts.