Lye Bath and safety?

Treat any caustic chemical with extreme caution.

I learned to be extra cautious when working in a machine shop where we had a vapor degreaser.

It was a huge tank with a screen about 6 inches above the bottom, in case we dropped a part there would be no splashing. 1 inch of liquid degreaser was in the bottom and it was heated until it became a fog. A cold water jacket ran around the top so the vapor would cool and not get out of the tank.

We had to take grease covered parts and lower them into the fog and the grease just liquefied and ran off. We wore very thick stiff rubber gloves for this.

I made the mistake of dipping a piece in a bit too far and my glove top dipped below the top of the vapor. My glove immediately filled with degreasing vapor, and it felt like someone had lit my arm on fire.

Dropped the part, turned around and submerged my whole arm in the rinse tank full of cold water.

Stayed like that for about 10 minutes until the burning totally subsided.

Arm looked like it had been exposed on the beach with no sunscreen for about three days. Very bad first degree burns.

With a lot of chemicals, the damage is occurring long before any pain is registered.
 
Once I splashed some lye onto the back of my arm above my elbow and it went unnoticed for a while. It left a nasty burn that took two weeks to heal. It was ugly. :-(
 
Ingredients:
3# 100% Lye
15 gallons water
12"x14" 1/4" plate steel, untreated
2amp batt charger
1.5 hours
a few minutes of scrubbing with brass brush

I have a late-model Lodge pan that got gunked up. I baked it in the over, and it got clean, but then it sat and rusted.

Put it into the above and it came out as it was cast. BTW those Lodge pans are SUPER rough castings.

When compared to a Favorite Piqua I have, it is just a shame what has happened to cast iron.

I would gladly pay what I paid for my last All Clad set (which I sold off to go back to cast iron) for a finely cast and finished set of cast iron.

I think Lodge should start a "Lexus" off shoot brand!
 
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