WeldingWeb - Welding Community for pros and enthusiasts banner
Cancel
Create thread New Forums

Cooking and mild steel

Jump to Latest
1 - 17 of 17 Posts
J

jdh239

· Registered
Joined
·
1,130 Posts
Discussion starter · #1 ·
Just wondering about creating a grill out of mild steel. Is it safe to cook with? Have to season it somehow? Just kind of ignorant about cooking and mild steel. Please give me your input on it.

I assume I just take the mill scale off of it, oil it up, burn it off, and repeat a few times.... but want to double-check
 
#2 ·
Cooking on a grill made of mild steel is fine, provided there is no dangerous electro plated metal on it llike cadmium or a less poisonous metal, zinc. If it's unplated soft steel, you're fine.
To season the steel, get it as hot as possible to burn off any impurities on the steel, then get an paint brush or damp rag and slap the steel with crisco oil. Let it burn on really good and black. Allow the steel to cool and put more crisco on it until it turns good and black like a cast iron skillet.

....and like magic, your grill surface is now "seasoned."
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#7 ·
The grills that I've seen that have a coating are coated with some kind of ceramic glaze that turns into almost a form of glass.

I don't think the carbonized oil coating that we use on frying pans would hold up to the heat of a barbecue, and I'm not sure I'd want to eat anything that was cooked on paint, either.
 
#8 ·
I usually just wash it really good with soap and water to get rid of any oils, heat it up to dry it off, and wipe on some vegetable oil to keep it from rusting. Keep it oiled up after each time you cook on it
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#10 ·
I wouldn't really worry too much about mill scale. Propane tanks are used pretty often as the smoke chambers on smokers which can have all sorts of odors/coatings/etc...usually you just do as SuperArc said and burn the hottest fire you can burn in there for a good amount of time and it takes care of business.

ETA: Here is a good website/forum with ALL kinds of information related to cookers. www.thesmokering.com
 
#11 ·
Mill scale on mild steel is just a form of iron oxide that forms on the surface when the hot iron reacts with oxygen in the air during the hot roll process. Removing it would just expose the unreacted iron. I'd leave it on and not worry about it other than use some high temp vegetable oil to keep the surface seasoned, which is basically trying to keep air and water from the iron, so it doesn't rust, by filling the pores with oil.

Which reminds me, I need to make a new grill for my propane cooker.
 
#13 ·
Leave the mill scale on if you want something slightly less prone to rust.
Take it off if you want something more pretty and uniform looking.
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#14 ·
Mild steel is fine to use. I used expanded metal on my UDS, works fantastic.

See..................
 

Attachments

#15 ·
People used to cook on cast iron all of the time. You have to season your cookware. That means don't wash it with detergents and let the fatty oils build up some. The oils that come naturally from the food you cook will keep things from rusting.
 
#17 ·
Years ago almost every family I knew had an old cut in half 55 gal drum out back with some rebar rods across the top and a chunk of expanded metal for a grill in the backyard.
BTW
Powder Coat will burn just like paint!
 
1 - 17 of 17 Posts
About this Discussion
16 Replies
12 Participants
Last post:
drujinin
WeldingWeb - Welding Community for pros and enthusiasts
posts
1.8M
members
82K
Since
2003
Community Forum for Welding Professionals and Enthusiasts To Interact and Learn - Free
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
Welding Projects & Pictures General Welding Questions MIG, TIG, Stick, And Oxy/Fuel Welding Machines - Tools and Cutting Methods Lincoln