Wampus
somebody shut me the fark up.
BACK STORY:
So I have a small and large BGE that I'm sort of "foster parenting" for brother Dan Chambers.
A few weeks ago I got them home and did my best to scrape them out right off the bat. The small was in pretty good shape, but the large had been through quite a bit of use and needed some attention. I scraped as much as I could while it was cold. I removed the platesetter but the fire ring and fire box wouldn't BUDGE. Being clay, I didn't want to pry or anything for fear of breaking them, so I just didn't go any further.
SO, I just put the fire grate back in place and built a nice hot fire to clean it.
THE ISSUE:
Later that night after a few hours I noticed that there was some sort of wierd ring of what looked like soot around the exterior of the base, about 5-6" below the band that the hinge is connected to. The band of "soot" went all the way around the egg. My son also noticed it. The base was hot, of course, but when the "soot" wiped off. Under the soot, though, I noticed what looked to be very small, kind of spider cracks in that same area. In only one spot, the actual green finish on the egg was blistered. When wiping off the "soot", some of the green glazing/finish flaked off too. There's now a spot about 1.5" in diameter that has no green glaze, but the raw clay underneath.
There are many of these hairline cracks, but only in this one area was it flaking off.
My initial thought was, "OH CRAP. What did I do to this thing?" I thought perhaps that there was a lot of stuff between the fire ring and the body of the egg and that by heating it up the ring was trying to expand and somehow that caused the finish to crack. Later, though, when I was able to get the fire ring out and clean better, I noticed that there's plenty of room between the ring and the firebox and the body of the egg, so that's unlikely.
I cooked a couple of turkeys on it last week and it got up to as hot as 400 and there has been no "growth" of the flaking glaze, so there doesn't appear to be any issue with performance, but I was just wondering if anyone's had anything lke this happen? I'm also assuming that the glaze isn't in any way structural so that there's no real danger to keep using it?
Sorry, but I never did take photos of it. I can provide some later if you think it'll help?
Thanks in advance, you buncha eggheads. :biggrin1:
So I have a small and large BGE that I'm sort of "foster parenting" for brother Dan Chambers.
A few weeks ago I got them home and did my best to scrape them out right off the bat. The small was in pretty good shape, but the large had been through quite a bit of use and needed some attention. I scraped as much as I could while it was cold. I removed the platesetter but the fire ring and fire box wouldn't BUDGE. Being clay, I didn't want to pry or anything for fear of breaking them, so I just didn't go any further.
SO, I just put the fire grate back in place and built a nice hot fire to clean it.
THE ISSUE:
Later that night after a few hours I noticed that there was some sort of wierd ring of what looked like soot around the exterior of the base, about 5-6" below the band that the hinge is connected to. The band of "soot" went all the way around the egg. My son also noticed it. The base was hot, of course, but when the "soot" wiped off. Under the soot, though, I noticed what looked to be very small, kind of spider cracks in that same area. In only one spot, the actual green finish on the egg was blistered. When wiping off the "soot", some of the green glazing/finish flaked off too. There's now a spot about 1.5" in diameter that has no green glaze, but the raw clay underneath.
There are many of these hairline cracks, but only in this one area was it flaking off.
My initial thought was, "OH CRAP. What did I do to this thing?" I thought perhaps that there was a lot of stuff between the fire ring and the body of the egg and that by heating it up the ring was trying to expand and somehow that caused the finish to crack. Later, though, when I was able to get the fire ring out and clean better, I noticed that there's plenty of room between the ring and the firebox and the body of the egg, so that's unlikely.
I cooked a couple of turkeys on it last week and it got up to as hot as 400 and there has been no "growth" of the flaking glaze, so there doesn't appear to be any issue with performance, but I was just wondering if anyone's had anything lke this happen? I'm also assuming that the glaze isn't in any way structural so that there's no real danger to keep using it?
Sorry, but I never did take photos of it. I can provide some later if you think it'll help?
Thanks in advance, you buncha eggheads. :biggrin1:
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