What's it worth - Revisited

[ibby458]

I made a huge mistake! THe pans were sitting upside down on the arch, and looked bright & shiny (Except where there was soot on the bottom), and I ASSUMED stainless.

The owner delivered them today, and I saw the inside. RUSTY. Obviously NOT Stainless. A magnet sticks to it everywhere. Did Leader make a chrome plated tin evaporator?

It's not worth much, considering tin pans and broken arch. (THe rust isn't bad, so I'll use them this year at least)

I'll offer $500, (for the evaporator alone - plus reasonable prices on the rest of the stuff) but that's a mercy offer cuz he's a good guy.

After the season, I'll be haunting the used equipment ads!

[brookledge]

English tin was used by most until stainless became more popular. I had pans that were made from English tin and when there new they were shinny but over time they get surface rust especially when using abrasives to clean them. Magnets will even stick to some series of stainless.
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Could be like 430 stainless especially if it was made in the 80's. Were they making tin evaporators then. :?: Some of the other grades of stainless corroded pretty bad. If it shines on the bottom, I can't imagine it's English tin. Might be in bad shape stainless. 8O

[ibby458]

We started cleaning the pans yesterday, and once I got the soot off the labels, It says SS right on them, and a manufacture date of 1988. I guess it's just a poor grade. THey cleaned up right well, though. There's no pitting, just not shiny in the syrup pan anymore. I guess they'll do.

[Fred Henderson]

Irv, I have work a lot with ss as a welder. Some grades of ss are made with a base metal of steel and has a ss coating. That is why your magnet stuck to it. English tin is just that ,tin, but it has a nickel coating to keep the rusting to a miminum.

[ibby458]

We got some pan cleaner yesterday, and starting doing a good job on the pans. What I thought was rust was just burned on and dried out sugar. (THe light wasn't good in the sugar shack where I looked at them) Now that they're in the garage where it's warm and bright, they're coming out almost as nice as they looked new. It's not fun or easy work, though. I do admit to a certain satisfaction in bringing them back.

I bought the neutralizer to use after the pan cleaner. AS long as I rinse good with hot water after that, all the residue will be gone, won't it?

[sweetwoodmaple]

Stainless can be either magnetic or not. It is not a fool proof test. I think it is generally considered a more corrosion resistant stainless if it is non magnetic due to the amount of nickel.

http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae546.cfm

It is also not rust proof. If you break the chromium oxide layer with a scratch or deep abrasion, it can rust there if whatever you scratched it with leaves a deposit that doesn't allow the oxide layer to "heal".

Also, if you are mig welding stainless, the carbon tends to gather at the heat affected zone and makes it prone to rust and corrosion. Tig welding helps this process since the heat is less.

See some the pics posted of home made pans and you can see some discoloration at the welds. Most of the time, if you are not using low carbon stainless (i.e. 304L), you must passivate this area with acid to allow the chromium oxide layer to reform and get the rust resistance back. For a sugarmaker, I believe this also comes into effect if you scorch a pan.

We weld stainless water tanks where I work and have learned some of these lessons the hard way.

[ibby458]

I'm scrubbing with a Stainless Steel scrub pad I got from the Maple dealer. I'm hoping that's the best thing to use. I'm using just hot water, pan cleaner, neutralizer and elbow grease. It ain't easy, but it's working good.

I do see a lot of faint scratches in the pan from the scrubber. Based on what you said, I hope they'll heal and everything will be good to go.

Bet you don't have to go far to get a SS sap tank, do you?

[sweetwoodmaple]

Don't get me wrong, stainless is very rust resistant.

As long as you use a stainless scrubber, you'll always be fine. If you use a steel brush, sometimes you can put the carbon from the steel in the surface and it will rust.

Actually, I do have the guys at work do a few things, but they are used to welding 11 gage (1/8" thk) for tanks, and that is expensive. Better to find a farm auction if I want stainless tanks.

Brian