My new toy- KitchenAid K4-B

[Maytagmom]

Recently was given this old mixer. Works great. Wondering if there is a way to find out exact date of machine. Besides, the patent numbers on the side, which date it between 1944-1962, is there any other way to find out by serial number? Can't seem to find anything online.
Also, the bowl has darkened alot. Is it made out of stainless steel, and is there anything out there on the market that will clean it up nice n shiny? What is the best product to use to clean it up. Or does it have to be retinned? (Saw that somewhere on the internet) Buying a new bowl is not an option. Just want to spruce this baby up.
Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Any copper/stainless steel cleaner like Cameo will work. These products have an acid makeup and will remove the oxidation in a process called reduction (bad memory, chemistry class and redox equations). If you have a calcium-lime remover, that will work as will Barkeepers' Friend.

 

[Maytagmom]

What is this crud?

Well I have tried CLR, barkeepers friend, Comet, oven cleaner, and even a magic eraser, NOTHING is taking off this stuff...NO amount of elbow grease is taking this off...I'm getting rather "pissy" with it now!
Maybe I will sandblast it off....hahaha.
There HAS to be SOMETHING out there that will take this off...I might even try to sand it with fine grit paper.
Funny, none of my other SS that is old in the house looks like this...but then again, you would of had to seen the house it came out of.

 

[tomturbomatic]

What are you meaning by "darkened?" Does it look like it has been through a fire? Does the bowl look like it was some place where greasy cooking fumes coated it with years of film that is now sort of a golden colored shellac? Does it have food soil baked on? Does it need to have oven cleaner applied? If so, take a black plastic trash bag outside on a sunny day. Open the bag and place the bowl just inside. Then spray it with the EasyOff with Sodium hydroxide, not the weak stuff, and cover all of the surfaces. Slip the bowl into the bag far enough that it can be closed and let the sun cook it a while. After an hour or two, check to see if any of the crud is soft and slippery. I use this method to start cleaning oven racks from stoves I start working on and have had great success with it.

I can't imagine what would make a stainless steel mixer bowl look like what you say that you are facing.
Best of luck.

 

[maytagbear]

If this is the model I think it might be,

it isn't stainless steel at all.

Contemporary KitchenAid mixers have a depression in the base for mounting the bowl. If this is the one I think it is, it will have a protrusion from the base, and that the bowl is not stainless steel at all, but cast aluminum. It should be fine, because acid mixtures are not generally made, and if they are, the contact is not long at all, unlike slow simmering.

If it is stainless steel, it may be a satin finish.

Try a wonderful degreaser called "Dawn Power Dissolver."

Or, call KitchenAid, and get a new bowl.

Good luck!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[maytagbear]

Furthermore-

Retinning is for copper cookware. A tin coating is comparatively fragile, and would not withstand a mixer, especially a KitchenAid. Solid copper cookware needs to be lined, either with tin or stainless steel (my preference) or sterling silver.

Copper oxide is poisonous.

If the inside of the bowl is fine, might I gently suggest moving on?

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[tomturbomatic]

If acids like are in calcium-lime removers have not done anything, the bowl is not the copper one for beating egg whites because acid would remove the tarnish from the copper. Actually acid can brighten aluminum that has been exposed to caustic cleaners. Have you tried a Brillo or SOS pad? I have never seen or heard of an aluminum KA mixer bowl, but I guess such a thing was possible. I also have not seen KA mixers that did not have a way of anchoring the bowl, whether by the quarter turn into the socket on the mixer base or on the two posts of the cradle. One final suggestion is to look in your yellow pages for a metal plating service, not to get the bowl plated, but maybe someone who has a knowledge of metals can examine the bowl & give you an idea of what you have. Without pictures or holding it to get an idea of the heft of the bowl, it is sort of futile to keep guessing.