Cast iron corn sheller

Recently bought a Black Hawk model 1903-A corn sheller at a flea market. Not particularly rare since they were widely sold as late as the 50s. Better ones on Ebay for less. Well, more when you include shipping... Actually want a working corn sheller so drilled out all the corroded bolts and plan to have the cast parts sand blasted. Only light surface rust in contrast to the hardware. Guessing some kind of galvanic corrosion?

Unless someone here has a better idea, plan to 'season' it like a skillet. Three or four rounds of vegetable oil / bake at 350 degrees F while the wife is baking potatoes should be enough. Do not want to paint it and will keep it in doors.

Have sourced most of the replacement hardware except the spring and wooden handle. May end up making a handle though will keep looking for something with a 5/16 through hole. No luck with a spring locally, found some on-line that will work but sold in sets of ten:( Not tried McMaster or MSC yet since I do not have an account with either. Which one is easiest to buy from as an individual?

Should I mask off the tapered spindle and bore? Already has some wear, thinking that smooth lightly rusted surfaces will wear less than rough freshly blasted ones. Has an oil hole but may try Vaseline since it is food safe and less likely to drip or sling out.

Trivia I found researching my new acquisition. Do not try to eat an entire mincemeat pie! Apparently it is what killed the inventor A H Patch.

Reply to
William Bagwell
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  Linseed oil , and try electrolysis to remove the rust instead of sandblasting . Takes off less of what you want to keep .
Reply to
Terry Coombs

Bake or just let dry? Think I have some linseed oil somewhere... My son played around with electrolysis a few years ago, will ask if he still has all the stuff. If not will stop in and see the sand blast guy on the way home from work.

Reply to
William Bagwell

  Wipe on a good coat , let it sit for a few then wipe off excess . Baking can't hurt , just keep the temps fairly low - you want the oil to polymerize , not burn off . See if you can find true boiled linseed oil , a lot of what's out there is chemically treated and not actually boiled . Has something to do with the above mentioned polymerizing . FWIW , even veggie oil will polymerize , that's what forms that nonstick surface in cast iron pans .
Reply to
Terry Coombs

Hobby store "music wire" is good for winding custom springs, preferably on a back-geared lathe. Flat spring stock can be obtained from tape measures and small engine recoil starters. Stainless steel TIG rod also works and withstands corrosive conditions although its yield point is lower so you can't just copy the old spring. I use it to restore higher-quality garden hose spray nozzles.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

And make sure you read the safety instructions about disposing of any rag you use to rub it on with, not everyone is aware the stuff can self ignite under the right circumstances.

Reply to
David Billington

The fire danger is specific to certain "polyunsaturated" vegetable oils, the ones used to finish wood and make oil paint and linoleum. Animal oils are more"saturated" and less susceptible to oxidation, and the chemically different mineral oils aren't; they do fine in a hot engine. I had to explain this to my concerned boss when I was assigned to manage a machine shop with an enclosed hazardous waste container.

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

A couple of small points: The steel bolts rust more because the rust on steel is not self-protective. Cast iron -- the cheaper, softer, and weaker the better -- has a small self-protecting effect because the remaining graphite granules bind pretty tightly with the rust and minimize further oxidation.

Sand-blasting cast iron is not always a good plan. It tends to smear over the rust that is in the pores. Indoors, it probably won't be a problem.

The "equipment" for electrolytic de-rusting is a bucket, a battery charger, some unplated steel sheet or rebar, and some washing soda. I do it all the time -- I have a ton of inhereted tools, and a lot of rust. I prefer it over almost everything else. I do use hydrochloric (muriatic) acid in certain cases, but the steel *can* rust like crazy if you don't protect it afterwards. Cliff Hubrich, former member and chemistry guy, said that it left a salt in any pores, including the textured surface left after you de-rust a very rusty piece. For some reason, this doesn't seem to be true on EMT for which you used the hydrochloric to remove the galvanizing, before brazing or welding. Don't ask me why, but maybe because it's smooth and didn't have any rust to begin with.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

The trend these days is to season with flax seed oil, which is what linseed oil is. The difference is that the flax seed oil, bought from a food supplier, is edible. Boiled linseed oil is not. It is in fact poisonous. It contains metallic dryers that help with the polymerization of the linseed oil. Health food stores sell linseed oil and if applied in very thin layers and then baked so that it polymerizes quickly you should be able to get a pretty good several layer finish in a fairly short time. Eric

Reply to
etpm

You beat me to it. Yup, on all counts. "Boiled" linseed oil is not boiled at all. Flax seed oil, applied in baked layers as you suggest, will make your cast-iron cookware as slippery as it gets.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

We should point out though, unless you plan to lick the corn sheller, ordinary "boiled" linseed should work just fine. d8-)

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Memory is starting to click! Cliff said it was trying to *neutralize* the surface after the acid bath, by using washing soda or baking soda, that produced the salt. In fact, I tried that with an ancient pair of pliers, and they started rusting again in two days.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

  True boiled linseed oil is NON toxic - refer to my post where I mention chemicals used in some linseed oils .
Reply to
Terry Coombs

You are correct, what you call true boiled linseed oil, which is truly just boiled linseed oil, is commonly called "Stand Oil", and is non-toxic. And though a common additive is not that common is stores. Where do you get yours? Eric

Reply to
etpm

Have personally witnessed the beginning stages, rags were smoldering but not yet on fire when I noticed. Forget exactly which oil was involved.

Reply to
William Bagwell

Sadly lacking in back-geared lathes. Did toy with the idea of turning an extension spring into a compression. Ace hardware had one with the correct ID, OD and wire diameter. Think it *might* work just way to much trouble to do safely.

Reply to
William Bagwell

Ah, makes a bit more sense than galvanic.

If we can still find washing soda locally will give this a try first. Have a battery charger and can scrounge the rest. Not going to try the muriatic unless other options fail or are too expensive.

Reply to
William Bagwell

There are many explanations of it online, William. It's worth looking at a few. For example, some will tell you that you can control the amperage (low, preferably) by varying the amount of washing soda (sodium carbonate). You don't need much. I sometimes use the 6-Volt setting on my charger, and sometimes the 12. I like to just get a few bubles coming off of the steel or iron.

Good luck with it! Oh, BTW, it first converts red rust to black rust. You usually can brush the black rust off with a steel brush. One reason I like to take it slow, and let it run for a day or more, is that almost all of the black rust disappears.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

  I'd have to look at the can I got 20 years ago to see if it's got additives - I'm not even sure where I put it but know I have some here somewhere . I was going to use some on some hard maple cutting boards , but I was told that vegetable oil is the proper treatment for them . It did do a fine job on the walnut pieces I've built for my wife over the years (vanity & bench seat , jewelry chest and other small items) .
Reply to
Terry Coombs

  I'm pretty sure my wife buys it at Walmart . She makes our laundry detergent and it's one of the ingredients . Arm & Hammer in a yellow box .
Reply to
Terry Coombs

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