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Revere Ware Parts :: 2019

Archive | 2019

Small business sales tax update

By on December 30, 2019 in Sales tax

Until a Wall Street Journal article today, we haven’t seen any interesting news on the plight of small businesses amid the state push for collection of sales taxes.

Consider how some business far larger than ours are struggling to adapt:

Nicole Snow, chief executive of Darn Good Yarn Inc. in Clifton Park, N.Y., hired a part-time chief financial officer and purchased new sales-tax software in response to the court ruling. Darn Good Yarn plans to spend about $25,000 this year to collect and remit about $90,000 in taxes on $5.4 million in sales to buyers in 34 states.

“It’s quite a big lift for us,” said Ms. Snow, whose company has 21 employees. “There is a lot of complexity for a small company.”

and

JM Bullion Inc., an online seller of precious-metal bars and coins, created a custom sales-tax collection system after determining the big tax-software vendors didn’t understand the intricacies of its industry. That turned out to be a three-month job for the company’s 10-person software-development team.

“It was a huge resource drain on our organization,” said Michael Wittmeyer, CEO of the 50-person company, which has about $600 million in revenue.

The complexity of the cutoff system causes problems too:

Still, business owners have struggled to determine whether they exceed the state cutoffs and how to comply. Joe Wood, owner of TechWholesale.com, which sells two-way radios in all 50 states, said it took more than a week to determine that his one-person company didn’t trip any state sales-tax requirements, though it came close in a handful of states.

“It’s the biggest single moment of anxiety I’ve had businesswise in the last 10 years,” said Mr. Wood, who runs his business from the bedroom of his Covington, Ky., home. “We would have had to bring on an accountant, and I can’t fit one in my bedroom.”

And here is the thing that really gives makes me nervous, states going after small sellers whether or not they are sure the businesses should be collecting taxes:

The growth of internet sales has created an additional tax challenge. The $6.5 million retailer is being audited by Washington state, which says it has a physical presence in the state because products the tape company shipped to an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey were then transshipped by Amazon to a fulfillment center in Washington state.

From our perspective, while the landscape has improved with some of the recent progress (read about them here, here, here, and here), it is still not safe for small businesses like ours.

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Thrift stores are alive and well part 2

By on December 22, 2019 in Thrift stores

Last week we visited Big Bear, CA, and found a thrift store there that had lots of Revere Ware lids.  This week, it was Santa Maria, CA and a thrift store that had a nice 12 inch vintage skillet with lid for a whopping $4.99.

Thrift store finds are great, because they are generally cheaper than eBay, there is no shipping cost, they typically help a good cause, and the include the fun of the hunt.

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Thrift stores are alive and well

By on December 16, 2019 in Tips

On a recent trip to Big Bear, we happened to stop at one of the (surprisingly many) local thrift stores there.  They had quite a selection of Revere Ware lids.

Just a reminder that thrifts stores can still be a great option for replacing a damaged item

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Rare 3 quart kettle handle in eBay

By on December 2, 2019 in Ebay, Parts

We make replacement handles, caps, and triggers for the common 2 1/3 quart Revere Ware kettle.

The less common, but still iconic 3 quart kettle is harder to find parts for.

Our cap is said to work on this model by some customers, but we haven’t tried it.  The trigger can be replaced with a 3D printed version we designed.  But for the handle, you are out of luck.  Except a brand new, new-old-stock version just popped up on eBay.

Get it while you can; these are pretty rare.

 

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Stainless steel stains and spots

By on December 1, 2019 in Care, Tips

A customer asks:

One of the pans has black spots and fuzzy grey ones in the interior (silver toned) pan. What are those spots and how do I get rid of them?

Last year we wrote an article on removal of hard water stains; the grey spots are likely hard water stains.

The black spots are likely burnt on food that gets stuck in pits that are formed when cooking with acidic foods, like tomato sauce.  I’ve seen some cookware pieces with pretty prominent pits, and it isn’t hard to imaging food getting burn on in those pits and resisting removal by scrubbing.  Here is a picture we found from an article on stainless steel stains:

To remove the hard water stains, adding some vinegar and scrubbing with a Scotch-Brite pad, or balled up aluminum foil works quite well.

To remove the black spots, you can try adding vinegar and then some baking soda, and letting it soak, then scrubbing well with a Scotch-Brite pad.

In both cases, a good polish with Bar Keepers Friend will help get rid of any remaining residue.

The pits may not fully disappear, as that would require significant refinishing of the inside of the pan, but you can minimize the appearance by regularly cleaning in this way.

 

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It’s nice to be wanted

By on November 24, 2019 in RevereWareParts.com

Every once in a while, someone contacts us with a comment like this:

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for having these parts available to us . I’m able to save Moms set of Revere Ware. Love it and now I passing them down to her Grand son Chef/Teacher of Culinary Arts.

It goes a long way towards making up for the hassles involved in running a small business like this, like the latest issues with collecting sales tax.  As we work towards doing a manufacturing run for the next 10 years worth of replacement parts, It is grateful customers that keep us committed to this endeavor.

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If you love Revere Ware, consider cast iron

By on November 18, 2019 in History

We are probably one of the most enthusiastic fans of Revere Ware cookware, so much so, that we decided to start supplying replacement parts that were no longer available (hence this site and store).

But our enthusiasm for vintage cookware extends beyond Revere Ware, with a nice collection of Pyrex bowls, Corning Ware, and many well made vintage utensils.

What we like about the vintage stuff is that is made so much better than the most of what is available today, and it is relatively cheap.  Given the choice between modern aluminum and non-stick cookware or some beautiful vintage Revere Ware at the same price, we would take the Revere Ware every day.  Modern Pyrex is made of cheaper glass that breaks more frequently than the old stuff.

Along these lines, some of our favorite cookware pieces are our cast iron pans.  We picked these up from thrift stores more than ten years ago, seasoned them well, and have been using them almost daily since.  They have a permanent spot on our stove top, a large one and a medium one.

To be sure, cast iron is definitely in these days, with small boutique makers charging hundreds of dollars for pieces made by artisans in small batches.  But that just smacks of trendy nonsense to us.  We are perfectly happy with our ten dollar thrift store finds.  In our experience, almost every thrift store has some cast iron pans (just like we’ve found them to be a great source for Revere Ware lids).

However, an article I recently came across has me pining for some vintage cast iron to add a little more history to our stove.  As it turns out, cast iron has quite a history, with cast iron vessels being use for over 2,000 years.  The flat cast-iron skillet was introduced in the late 19th century and was really popular through middle part of the 20th century; most households had one.  And restoring an old cast iron pan and re-seasoning it, they seem to work quite well.

Incidentally, one of our favorite ways to use our cast-iron pan is for low-carb cheesy skillet bread.

So here’s to putting more history on our stove as I start searching for my Wagner Ware skillet.

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Removing a stuck on knob

By on November 10, 2019 in Repairs

It is very common for there to be issues when removing a knob from a Revere Ware lid.  In some cases, the knob itself is solid, but is simply stuck (rusted) onto the lid screw.  Trying to unscrew it can risk pulling the screw right off the lid, as the rust sometimes gets under the weld plate of the screw.  Take a look at this picture from our guide on what to do when this happens:

You can see how there is some rust under the screw weld plate (on the lid) and around the weld plate itself.

And sometimes, the Bakelite deteriorates from water and gunk getting up under the knob for prolonged periods, and when you twist the knob to get it off, you are left with a Bakelite covered nub that is the nut insert that was inside the knob.  That looks like this:

Blog reader Rick offers this excellent suggestion for removing a stuck on knob or nut insert:

I’ve found a method to remove the knob from the lid if it appears that it will twist off the weld stud because of corrosion between the stud and knob insert. I’d say that if the corrosion has reached this point, the knob needs replacing anyway, but beware that this method sacrifices the knob. If the knob has already broken away from the insert, and the threads in the insert are too corroded to remove from the stud, you can to to step 2.

1) Using a hacksaw, carefully cut right down the center of the knob until you reach the insert. Do a second cut at right angles to the first. Using two flat bladed screw drivers at opposite sides of a cut line, pry the knob and it will crack and fall away from the insert. Not very much pressure is required.

2) Again with the hacksaw, carefully cut a slot in the center of the insert until you reach a void spot in the center of the insert. The void is there because the stud does not go all the way to the end of the threaded portion of the insert. Spray or drip in some penetrating oil, and let sit for a few hours. Try removing the insert with a pair of vice grips. This has worked perfectly a number of times for me.

 

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