Sand or bead blasting cast iron to clean.

[ironman]

i've read many of the posts about cleaning the cast iron with lye, but has anyone tried sand blasting?
i am still in the process of cleaning this old griswold skillet c1892, and several people have offered to sand blast it for me.
seems the sand method would be cleaner instead of using the lye bath.
At least in disposal of the cleaning media, and lye on the cookware itself.
I don't know about cheaper as a container of drain opener and 25 gallon rubbermaid is probably much less than a high volume compressor, sprayer and silica sand.
But if someone already has these tools, would sand blasting be recommended?

[Roger Barfield]

Jeff sandblasting will leave the piece altered as it removes some of the iron.  Collectors won't buy pieces like that as they never look right again.  I've heard of using walnut hulls and glass beads as well, but the walnut hulls are the only ones I've seen results from that didn't look blasted.  The lye is the best bet as it won't hurt the iron, no matter how long it stays in it, even years.  You can also spray the piece down with oven cleaner, the kind with lye in it, and put them in a sealed up trash bag.  Leave it in the sun for a few days and that will work also.  The only thing lye won't remove is rust.  Click on our clean and restore button up above and it has different ways to go about it.

[C. Perry Rapier]

Hello Jeff, NEVER sand blast a piece of cast iron, or one that you care anything about, I'll put it that way. Sandblasting causes permanent damage. A true collector will not buy a piece that has been sandblasted. Lye or the electro units that we talk about on here do not cause any damage at all. Your friends who are offering to do this for you are not doing your cast iron a favor. I have seen pieces that have been blasted with soft material like plastic beads, and the pieces look good, but with the lye and electro doing the great jobs that they do, why go the other routes. And also there are many threads on here about lye and how to dispose of it. It is not as bad as one might think. BUT, please don't sandblast your cast iron. Friends don't let friends sandblast cast iron. AND, don't put it in the fire as some uninformed people may tell you what to do. Don't get me wrong though, its yours and you can do with it as you may. These are just my opinions and so many others as well.  :)

[C. B. Williams]

Jeff: Please listen to the posts above.

[Sandy Glenn]

Jeff, I echo the above posts and urge you to follow the advice they gave.  I will only add that I tried to season a skillet that had been bead blasted (no, I didn't have it done) and it never seasoned to my satisfaction.

[Duke Gilleland]

Blastin' one or "Burnin' one" would be my LAST CHOICE for cleaning methods. Both are just as bad as GRINDING on a piece >:( [smiley=kaioken.gif] [smiley=thumbdown.gif] [smiley=vader1.gif]

[Tom Neitzel]

Just want to be clear on terms.

Sand blasting - using a carbide or aluminum oxide abrasive (hard abrasive) should never be done.  As said it does remove metal and alters the piece.

Bead blasting - bead blasting most commonly means using glass beads.  They are a little softer than carbide or aluminum, but harder than iron or aluminum.  Glass beads should never be used.  Bead blasting can also mean using plastic beads.  It is less common to find this equipment since it is a bit more specialized and plastic beads tend to require 50 pound quantities to purchase (like a 50 gallon drum size).  Plastic beads are soft and won't remove metal.  They can be be used to clean iron and aluminum without altering it.

Walnut shell blasting - using ground walnut shells as the abrasive.  The shells are softer than cast iron and aluminum.  They can be safely used to clean iron and aluminum.  I've used it on aluminum without even dulling a polished surface.  They're really messy to use, a fine powder will leak out and settle on everything around.

The bottom line is that if you know what you are doing, the abrasives you are using, and have the equipment, "sand" blasting can be used safely.  If you don't know don't even think about trying.

As a lesson in knowing what you are doing, I dissolved an aluminum waffle iron in a lye solution some time back.  I still have the handles to remind me.  Believe it or not, you can clean aluminum in a lye solution, but you measure the time in minutes.  I put it in intending to take it out, got distracted and forgot it for 2 days.  Lesson learned.

Tom

[ironman]

I definitely will not be sand blasting any cast iron.
thanks for the warning before i may have made an error.
definitely going the lye bath method.
the people who were offering to help me out, are car guy's, whom use sandblasting for engine blocks and other auto parts.
probably none of the parts c1892 though!
will let everyone know how it works out.
thing is I have been hitting it with the oven cleaner and leaving it in a plastic bag repeatedly, but there are many stubborn areas that just are not coming off.

[Jesse and Kim Dunfee]

I have had great success in the past with the oven cleaner method. Some really really bad pieces came out very clean in 24 hrs. You have to use the good name brand stuff IMO. I have tried the cheeper ones and they just don't do it. Easy Off with the yellow cap. Warm the pan first, spray liberally,place in plastic bag and wait for approx 24 hrs. I then remove the piece scrub with one on these curly wirey scrubbies and rinse GOOD in hot water. Dry with towel then heat on stove till completely dry. Light coat of crisco till you season it. This has always worked very well for me.

Before I found this Org. and these great gals and guys I ruined a few pieces in the sand blaster. Not so much the outside of the pan but on nice old milled Griswold interiors the blasting destroys it.  :(

[Duke Gilleland]

Use black plastic bags and set in the sun during the day. The sun's heat will make it work better.

[TROUT]

I've been lurking and reading for awhile now and this really interests me. It has been said that sandblasting "alters" the iron. I'll buy that. But, how much it does should be directly related to the grit used. Grit is available that is almost like powder it is so fine. Seems like that, followed by sandpaper, that others reccomend useing, might yield good results. Tom seems to take a very open minded look at blasting and different media without really comitting for or against.
It seems as "altering" the iron is pretty sacreligious, yet, Lodge, in not altering the iron, is chastised for that, yet old iron like Wagner and Griswold are praised for doing just that?!?  And it was done in the very worst way according to Duke, by "grinding" the surface smooth. If grinding (altering) the iron is so bad, then why aren't all the old, ground, pieces just junk now, after all, they have been ground you know! :-?
 If it is all just about the "look", then I can understand about keeping it original and all, but if it actually makes the iron useless, how so? And be specific if you know! I have a streak of a 'doubtingThomas' in me! :-/
Thanks for giving this a look!
Educate me!

Kelly

[Dwayne Henson]

The grinding Duke is speaking of, is when an unknowing person uses a grinder to clean up a skillet, usually the outside of the skillet. This results in grinding SCARS where the grinder not only removed the built up crud but areas of  iron as well. The grinding you are asking about that was done at the foundry was entirely different. They were smoothing out the cooking surface of the skillet. The older skillets all have an almost polished cooking surface due to this grinding. Lodge also used to do this as well years ago. Two different processes. One process improved the skillet, the other mutilates it.

With such better alternatives such as lye, or electrolysis, sandblasting is a waste. Right up there with throwing an old skillet in a roaring fire. Now if you want to use plastic beads, or crushed walnut shells, that is different.

[Jesse and Kim Dunfee]

Any Blasting media harder then the Cast Iron will give the surface a rough texture. Very fine powder like media will give a very fine powder like rough surface. I can believe other blasting media softer then the Iron would be OK.
  As Mr. C. Perry Rapier stated above, Why Blast when the Lye or Electro work so well.

[C. B. Williams]

This question about why not sand blast is not worth a comment. Anyone who doesn't understand why not to, needs to just go on and do it.

[maloney108]

Jeff,

Once I had a pan that refused to come clean in the lye bath.  I ran it through a self cleaning oven cycle and it got the last bits of carbon off.  All the rest of the time, the lye bath did the trick.  By the way, in your original post, you were worried about lye remaining on the pan (if I read it right) - Lye is VERY soluble in water and any thorough rinsing will remove it - even in cold water.  You can tell if any lye is still on a surface by feeling it - if it feels soapy, the lye is still there - if so, just rinse again.

For Kelly:

The idea of cleaning a pan (for collectors) is to restore it to 'original' condition or as close as you can get.  The manufacturers ground the inside smooth, so that is an original condition.  Sand blasting goes beyond the original condition and removes more metal, which is not a good thing for 'restoration' purposes.  Also, it's not the size of the 'sand', rather the hardness - the ordinary sand used in blasting is harder than iron.  Something softer than iron, but harder than the gunk would be OK, but with lye and electro available, why bother doing this.
By the way, welcome to the forum and I'm glad you came out from lurking behind the bushes to join in!

[Tom Neitzel]

I actually just use the walnut shell blasting for aluminum pieces that I can't remove either steel or other metal parts from.  I normally clean both cast iron and aluminum in a self-cleaning oven then finish the iron with electro.  When there are are parts that would soften, discolor, or melt/burn in the oven, I go right to the electro for iron and walnuts for aluminum.  Lye and electro are not options for aluminum, in my opinion (OK, I will use lye for a few seconds or minutes, but it is not for the faint of heart to try.  Ammonia will cut organic crud too, again with times measured in minutes.  The piece will likely turn black, but that's easily reversed with a cream of tartar bath, although this is another story.)

tom

[fatfutures]

Sand blasting is like brain surgery  :-? In knowledgable hands it can be a great thing. The less knowledge, the more dangerous it becomes. Blasting isn't all bad, the most important factor is the medium that you use.

It is a lot more cost effective to go the lye or electro route. Unless you've already got a full blasting set up. If you already have a set up then you probably have a good working knowledge of the process.

Setting up a decent blasting station is EXPENSIVE! A little cheapy air compressor just isn't going to be able to keep up.

The lye and electro processes have another benefit, in my eyes.... they are both set it and forget it process. Chunk your pieces in and walk away.

But, as mentioned before... if  you doubt what sand blasting can go to a piece of cast iron, give it a shot. But, make sure you try it on a piece that you don't care about too much.

[TROUT]

Thank you for your replies!  :D

Dwayne, I never thought of grinding in that way. I was picturing using a sanding disc in a drill or such to work on the inside of the pan. Even that set-up would mess up the exterior surface though. Thanks for clarifying that!

Mr. Dunfee, You are right, even though it wouldn't be as glaringly obvious, even fine grit would alter the surface and you would be stuck with that on the exterior even if one could do a final sanding on the interior of the pan. A soft media would be a must to keep original finish.

Jim,I suspected it may all be about the 'look' that cannot be altered to keep a piece collectable. I'm learnin'!

Tom, sounds like you can picture just how a piece will come clean from the time you look at it! Experience in action!

Michelle, nice analogy! I'm no brain surgeon, but we do have a small blast cabinet at my machine shop and the media is fairly easy to change. We have been working with different media to match the original finish on hip surgery tools after we modify them for the doc's.

Thanks for helping me understand a lot more about blasting as all that I remember reading has been just 'don't do it' and not specifically WHY. I see some other questions asked that could be answered by doing a bare minimum of looking/reading on this great site. It must drive some of you all crazy! i.e "Blah blah blah... it's stamped Made in U.S.A., is it old and valuable?" HA! If this has been covered in the forums I have not seen it and I am sorry for sounding dumb too. Sometimes answers that just seem to say 'because I said so' and don't explain 'because...' don't edjucate as well.

Thanks for your welcoming words Jim and I will keep reading and learnin' and pipe in when I can!

Kelly

[Dwayne Henson]

Not a problem in asking things here Kelly, that's how we learned.  Most of the advice given here was learned the "hard way". Like lye on aluminum being a no-no. I ruined an aluminum waffle iron. Good hunting.

[Jesse and Kim Dunfee]

Might not look like there is anything wrong  :-?
top, electro ,bottom, super fine media blasted. Both 701s