Care & maintenance of cast iron glue pot

W

weshighfill

Member
Over the past few years, I have purchased a few cast iron glue pots for cooking hide glue (double boiler type, just to be clear).  To date, when I get a new-to-me pot, I just wipe anything loose out of the inner pot and put them right to use cooking glue.  I read somewhere about tinning and got to wondering if there is proper care and maintenance of the glue pot that I'm missing.  I've been unable to find anything on the internet.  Stephen Shepherd's book references tinning the pot, but his description is not clear to me.  I thought I'd ping the brain trust of SAPFM to see what others do (if anything).  I'm curious about three aspects:

1. Should the inner pot be tinned/enameled/treated in some way?  If so, how does one do it?

2. Should the interior of the outer pot be cared for in any way?  The inside of every pot I use gets NASTY with rust and scale.  Is this just par for the course, or am I killing my pots?

3. I have at least one pot (outer pot) that has a crack in the bottom that seeps water when on the hot plate.  I'd like to know if anybody can shed light on repairing something like that.  I've used JB Weld on the interior and exterior.  It is an improvement over having done nothing, but it's not a perfect fix. 

Any insight is well appreciated.
 
Wes,

My glue pot is copper.  While it is necessary that copper cooking utensils for preparing food be tinned I doubt that it is necessary for glue.  Also, I have never seen nor heard of a tinned copper glue pot until now. As to cast iron, I have never heard of tinning any iron pot for any purpose.  Yes, some iron glue pots are enameled.  I assume that this is to aid in cleaning the pot because only the inner pot is enameled.  Given all the glue pots I have seen that have no interior treatment, I think you are safe continuing as you have done.

I believe that the rust issue is the result of the basic oxidizing chemical reaction that occurs when you bring iron in contact with water.  The heat may help speed it up.  Of course, there may be other elements in the water that are making things worse.  Do you live in Flint, Michigan? :)  I think it is par for the course and there is not much you can do about it beside emptying the outer pot and drying it every time you stop using it, don't allow water to stand in the pot.

Fixing a crack in cast iron requires welding, and it is not an easy job.  It really does require an experienced professional.

Hope this helps.  PSP 
 
Wes,

Like yourself I own several cast iron pots, and aluminum cast pots. It's recommend to clean the the inside of the pot to remove all rust. I abrade the inners with a green pad or red depending on how bad the surface is. I than boil the pot in hot water. I wipe the pot dry and than spray krylan high temp black enamel. Link; http://www.mscdirect.com/browse/tnpla/84251834?src=pla&cid=PLA-Google-PLA+-+Test&CS_003=7867724&CS_010=84251834.  The enamel fills any stress cracks and strongly protects the pot.

FR
 
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