cast iron skillets

[juiceclone]

I'm NO expert on this, but it would seem that the melting points of iron and lead are such that any lead would have been vaporized rather than staying in a crucible of iron, regardless of the feed source of the iron ??

 

[rowbare]

I'm NO expert on this, but it would seem that the melting points of iron and lead are such that any lead would have been vaporized rather than staying in a crucible of iron, regardless of the feed source of the iron ??

If that were the case, many of our free machining alloys wouldn't exist: 12L14, free machining brass etc...

bob

 

[caster]

I'm NO expert on this, but it would seem that the melting points of iron and lead are such that any lead would have been vaporized rather than staying in a crucible of iron, regardless of the feed source of the iron ??

When you make alloys you mix two or more materials, usually metals. Its not intuitive but one metal can be dissolved in another, like salt in water and change it's melting/freezing property (there is snow and ice on the ground outside). Think of soda pop where you have gaseous carbon dioxide dissolved in water to produce the fizz.

Lastly the L in 12L14 stands for Lead and its made of Iron, Lead, Carbon, Manganese, Phosphorus and Sulfur. You can alter the composition of a material to produce new properties, like nice machine-ability.

Caster

 

[eugene13]

Lodge has an outlet store in South Pittsburgh Tennessee, near Chattanouga, and another near Atlanta, good prices, friendly people, and factory seconds. my wife and I bought a lot of nice cookware, i should have driven the pickup. there are also a lot of old creepy buildings, I picked up some wood stove grates for my brother-in-law at this one place, we went down into the celler on and old creaky elevator, there were hundred of pallets of stove grates, you could hear animals scurrying around as my guide turned on the lights as led me to the pallet containing the parts. and turned them off as we returned to the elevator, it was a real adventure. would have been a good place for a horror movie.

 

[RJSakowski]

Lead is the aftermath of radioactive isotope decay, so I have to assume that if it's lead it's not radioactive anymore? Not quite sure on that, I'll do some research.

Lead has 16 different isotopes of which three are stable (206, 207, & 208). They comprise virtually the entire composition of lead. Of the remaining, 202 and 210 are the only isotopes with half lives in years. The remaining isotopes decay in a few minutes to hours. They are the product of radioactive decay as you state and unlikely to be found outside of a reactor or accelerator.

 

[machinistmarty]

Being from the south, It would be sacralege to fry chicken in anything other than cast iron! 'nough said!!!

 

[oldhank60]

perhaps I can slide and post this here even though not strickly machinist stuff but since most of you are metal experts, I thought it might do no harm to ask.

I've had bad luck over the years with those non-stick pans (for food cooking) having the stuff flake off so I've been replacing with stainless and cast iron. Wife likes stainless but I've fondness for cast iron.

Talking to my neighbor, he uses stainless only for cooking b/c he's afraid chinese made cast might have lead or other poisonous stuff mixed in it and didn't want to chance it

any comments appreciated

xxxxxxxx

(I do have a tiny cast iron crucible I use outside to mix/melt lead/solder, but of course that crucible is not for eating)

I suggest finding old cast iron skillets, the newer are course cast and do not cook things as well, the older cast irons will have very smooth surface and help to keep things from sticking, if you do a search on cast iron skillets you should find what are the best to use. even if you find old skillet that looks to rusty, bead blast it, it will still be better than what is sold on today's market,
I collect old cast iron and have been given skilets that looked like scrape iron, they cleaned up to look better than new. and I do cook with them daily

Newbie
Hank

 

[oldhank60]

I believe you can heat a iron skillet and bang it on ground to get lead out of pores in skillet. read hot heat will clean it best. I have used old skillets that were once used to melt lead in. I heated them red hot beat against hard surface. bead blasted and still cook with it. For safety I guess you would need to send sample of cooked item for lead content. I did not and I am still here but I suggest having it tested. Lead hurts the younger people more than us old rough barked seniors.