"AG" wrote in message
...
It's a great weekend for smoking!
The only problem is I just found out that my smoker grates are rusty. I
have
access to a sandblaster normally but it takes a few days for the guy to
get
them done and back to me.

What ways do you folks use to get the rust off? Is navel jelly safe around
food?

These are new grates and I have not had time to season them properly. I
guess I need to get some lard and have a brush fire once I get them clean
;-)

ag

Naval Jelly and food don't mix well. Scrub the rust off with a wire brush
or some steel wool, grease your racks up with some fat (or spray 'em with
plenty of Pam) and go back to cookin'. Always worked for me until I got
stainless grates g

Jack Curry

Naval Jelly and food don't mix well. Scrub the rust off with a wire brush
or some steel wool, grease your racks up with some fat (or spray 'em with
plenty of Pam) and go back to cookin'. Always worked for me until I got
stainless grates g

Jack Curry



Thanks Jack
I didn't figure navel jelly was a good idea but I don't have any on hand to
look at.
I was leaning towards elbow grease and a wire brush but was hoping that
there might be some magical easy way out there.
My grandmother used to season her iron skillets on a brush fire with lard.
She claims that no other fire gets hot enough to properly season iron. I
never saw her skillets get rusty and they had a surface like a non-stick
pan. I figure if it worked for skillets it ought to work for my grates. I
just got in too much of a hurry and didn't do it before I started using
them.
BTW these grates are made from the same stuff that you see welded to the
sides of towers and placed over holes as walking grates so I am not worried
about damaging them

ag

"AG" wrote in message
news

Naval Jelly and food don't mix well. Scrub the rust off with a wire
brush
or some steel wool, grease your racks up with some fat (or spray 'em
with
plenty of Pam) and go back to cookin'. Always worked for me until I got
stainless grates g

Jack Curry



Thanks Jack
I didn't figure navel jelly was a good idea but I don't have any on hand
to
look at.
I was leaning towards elbow grease and a wire brush but was hoping that
there might be some magical easy way out there.
My grandmother used to season her iron skillets on a brush fire with lard.
She claims that no other fire gets hot enough to properly season iron. I
never saw her skillets get rusty and they had a surface like a non-stick
pan. I figure if it worked for skillets it ought to work for my grates. I
just got in too much of a hurry and didn't do it before I started using
them.
BTW these grates are made from the same stuff that you see welded to the
sides of towers and placed over holes as walking grates so I am not
worried
about damaging them

ag

Jack's right...just brush 'em off and spray 'em with pam ...let 'em soak a
bit then fire it up and cook on'em.
Jack

On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 18:39:00 -0500, "AG"
wrote:

snip

Something pretty close to magical is electrolysis. Here is a page
(http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp) that describes how to do it.
You just need a small battery charger, some washing soda and a
container big enough to submerge the grates in -- say one of those
plastic swimming pools for kids. The good thing about this technique,
apart from not involving the elbow greese, is that it will get rid of
the rust in all those hard-to-reach places that the wire brush might
miss. I'd think it would take maybe a couple of hours in the solution.

Something pretty close to magical is electrolysis. Here is a page
(http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp) that describes how to do it.
You just need a small battery charger, some washing soda and a
container big enough to submerge the grates in -- say one of those
plastic swimming pools for kids. The good thing about this technique,
apart from not involving the elbow greese, is that it will get rid of
the rust in all those hard-to-reach places that the wire brush might
miss. I'd think it would take maybe a couple of hours in the solution.

A very easy to remove rust from the grates is to place them in a bath of
WEAK muriatic acid. This acid is available at most home remodeling stores
(Home Depot) Dilute the acid 50% and use rubber gloves. The acid will
dissolve the rust off COMPLETELY. Be sure to rinse the grates VERY GOOD.
After they are relatively dry, put some cooking oil over ALL SURFACES.

On 13-Mar-2004, Michael Bohl wrote:
snip
A very easy to remove rust from the grates is to place them in a bath of
WEAK muriatic acid. This acid is available at most home remodeling stores
(Home Depot) Dilute the acid 50% and use rubber gloves.
snip

You local pool supply store will also have an abundant supply of muriatic
acid.

--
M&M ("The problem is that no matter what you do, there's
Sombody that won' t like it much") Tom Clancy

Naval Jelly, muriatic acid and stomach acid are all hydrochloric
acid. Not very tastey, but not toxic when diluted

Dr. John

"AG" wrote in message
...
It's a great weekend for smoking!
The only problem is I just found out that my smoker grates are rusty. I
have
access to a sandblaster normally but it takes a few days for the guy to
get
them done and back to me.

What ways do you folks use to get the rust off? Is navel jelly safe around
food?

These are new grates and I have not had time to season them properly. I
guess I need to get some lard and have a brush fire once I get them clean
;-)

ag





When my racks get rusted badly I just build a hot-ass fire under 'em then
scrape 'em off when I can get close to 'em.

Then cook something on them and quit cleaning after you cook. Clean before
you cook......with fire.

TFM®

"Radar" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 18:39:00 -0500, "AG"
wrote:

snip

Something pretty close to magical is electrolysis. Here is a page
(http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp) that describes how to do it.
You just need a small battery charger, some washing soda and a
container big enough to submerge the grates in -- say one of those
plastic swimming pools for kids. The good thing about this technique,
apart from not involving the elbow greese, is that it will get rid of
the rust in all those hard-to-reach places that the wire brush might
miss. I'd think it would take maybe a couple of hours in the solution.



That's a nifty website. I'm printing it now, and will use the info on some
parts in the future.

Thanks,
TFM®

and quit cleaning after you cook. Clean before
you cook......with fire.

TFM®


That's just it. I didn't clean 'em. left all the grease, grim and gunk on
the racks.
After further investigating, I have figured out that rain can enter into the
flues if it is windy out. The parts that got rusty did not have any gunk on
them and were in the path of the rain.
I am going to try the electrolysis thing ( it sounds cool) and then see what
happens.

"AG" wrote in message
...

and quit cleaning after you cook. Clean before
you cook......with fire.

TFM®


That's just it. I didn't clean 'em. left all the grease, grim and gunk on
the racks.
After further investigating, I have figured out that rain can enter into
the
flues if it is windy out. The parts that got rusty did not have any gunk
on
them and were in the path of the rain.
I am going to try the electrolysis thing ( it sounds cool) and then see
what
happens.




Hell yeah, it's cool! A big bucket of boiling, rusty water in your front
yard all hooked up to elctrodes and battery chargers!

TFM®

TFM® wrote:
"AG" wrote in message
...

and quit cleaning after you cook. Clean before
you cook......with fire.

TFM®


That's just it. I didn't clean 'em. left all the grease, grim and
gunk on the racks.
After further investigating, I have figured out that rain can enter
into the flues if it is windy out. The parts that got rusty did not
have any gunk on them and were in the path of the rain.
I am going to try the electrolysis thing ( it sounds cool) and then
see what happens.




Hell yeah, it's cool! A big bucket of boiling, rusty water in your
front yard all hooked up to elctrodes and battery chargers!

TFM®

OK, I gotta do it too. Sheeet, I got battery chargers out the yingyang and
plenny of rust. Should I alert the Fire Dept before or after the toxic
waste spill down the driveway?

Jack Curry

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 00:38:30 GMT, "Jack Curry" Jack-Curry deletethis
@cfl.rr.com wrote:

snip

OK, I gotta do it too. Sheeet, I got battery chargers out the yingyang and
plenny of rust. Should I alert the Fire Dept before or after the toxic
waste spill down the driveway?

Jack Curry


As that web page suggested, rebar is a good choice for the anode since
the resulting mess is just regular old iron oxide and water. I made a
mistake and used chrome-plated bolts the first time I did it and
really did create some sludge that didn't belong in the storm sewer.
It was time-consuming to seperate it out from the water and dispose of
it.

One other thing to keep in mind is that it does produce hydrogen gas.
You probably wouldn't want to do this next to, say, your water heater.

Whatever you clean this way needs to be dried quickly and then coated
with oil or something to inhibit rust or it will just start rusting
again, and fast.

It really does work like magic though. I had to see it to believe it.

TFM® wrote:
"AG" wrote in message
...
It's a great weekend for smoking!
The only problem is I just found out that my smoker grates are rusty. I have
access to a sandblaster normally but it takes a few days for the guy to get
them done and back to me.

What ways do you folks use to get the rust off? Is navel jelly safe around
food?

These are new grates and I have not had time to season them properly. I
guess I need to get some lard and have a brush fire once I get them clean
;-)

ag





When my racks get rusted badly I just build a hot-ass fire under 'em then
scrape 'em off when I can get close to 'em.

Then cook something on them and quit cleaning after you cook. Clean before
you cook......with fire.

TFM®

Fat prevents rust!

BOB

On 15-Mar-2004, "TFM®" wrote:
snip

When my racks get rusted badly I just build a hot-ass fire under 'em then
scrape 'em off when I can get close to 'em.

Then cook something on them and quit cleaning after you cook. Clean
before
you cook......with fire.

TFM®


Works for me. But then, I'm naturally lazy. Don't fix what ain't broke.
--
M&M ("The problem is that no matter what you do, there's
Sombody that won' t like it much") Tom Clancy