Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cast Griddle Breaks

I have A cast Griswold Griddle, was cooking some Sausage this morning and heard a Large Pop, I fig a bird had with one of the windows! but went to flip the patties and saw a large crack going thru the bottom of the Griddle! never had known of this Happening! it was a made in the USA Griddle! has this happened to anyone else? Kinda Bummed me out!

Holy schit!


Did you spell "happanding" for reals?

Bet it had an existing fracture that finally found the right conditions to crack.

Might be a bit hard to replace too...

Not while cooking. My neighbor was distracted and put cold water in a hot DO once.

Same result.

I have a cast griddle, a good one, not sure of the make as it is 630 miles away. It broke years ago, I brazed it on the bottom side. It gets used at times.

Something wrong with cast iron? Has to be fake news!

I have an old Wagner griddle that has a hairline crack about 3" - 4" long running from the outside edge on the bottom side inward toward the center. The crack is not visible at all on the cooking surface. It was my mom's griddle and no telling how long and often she cooked with it. It's obviously been cooked with quite a bit as the cooking surface is smooth and well "seasoned" looking. No idea when or what caused the crack. Never have tried to cook anything on it myself yet.

Yup, at sometime in its life in probably got dropped on a hard surface or tossed over too hot a fire.

Heat it up....weld with low hydrogen and peen the ever living hell outta it.

Getting it real hot in one area, while much cooler in another can do that to bigger cast grills.

Big Jim know how to weld.

DC reverse polarity??

That's a tragedy for sure. I've got 2 old round Wagner's that are still going strong.

I’ve welded a couple, but used a nickel rod. I’ve never tried low hydrogen on cast iron.

Other than brazing, a high nickel content rod is all I ever use on cast iron.
Just by it's nature, most all cast iron is under a lot of stress to begin with. That's why sudden changes in temperature create such havoc on it, much like glass.

Several years ago, my good wife bought me a 14" el-cheapo cast pan from Cabelas. The cooking surface was rough as gravel and hard not to get food from sticking to it and on the bottom there was a huge casted embossed Cabelas logo which caused the pan to rock back and forth all over the stove. This went on for a few months until I got sick of it and down into the basement it went. I took a 5" grinder and cut off the stupid logo making the bottom flat as it should have been and polished the cooking surface very smooth. with a 5" flapper disk. Got it seasoned up and now it is now second to none for cooking, but I'm quite anal about looking after it. Not bad for a cheap pan made in china.

It pays to rub it with chalk to find the true end of the crack and drill a 1/4 inch hole off the end of it to relieve stress. If it’s very thick, I like to gouge both sides of the crack with 3/32 6010 on dc neg at about 150 or 160 amps...that also pre heats for you. Then weld it with nickel rod, alternating sides, about an inch at a time toward that hole, not heating it too much but not letting it cool either. Peen the bead when done and cover it with something so it doesn’t cool too soon. Pain in the ass, but usually works.

Hmmmm.....what ever the welder was set to from the last time!


I think you are correct though.



We never bother with any of that nickle crap.

We seem to off of griddles, and on to welding cast of all types. Carry on.

Ya, they crack, good news is you can find another at a decent price.

https://castironguys.com/product-category/type/