Need Advice guys. I am attempting to repair the rusted radiator support in my truck It is 3 layers of steel laminated and spot welded together. I have gotten it apart now. The rusted out part that I need to replace measures out as 18 gauge. I can find 16 ga. sheet metal locally, but am not sure if my home made metal brake can bend it in the 34" lengths I will need. I can find 18 ga. at the HVAC supply houses, but it is galvanized. Would I be OK to try to spot weld in the galvanized or should I try the heavier 16ga stock? Thanks for any helpful advice!
Do you have a steel house close by? They would sell you the correct stuff. If you're going to buy something you may as well buy the right something. And sometimes they even sell rem-stock of sheet metal, so you can just buy what you need. Welding on galvanized is evil! I wouldn't recommend it.
isnt the fumes from welding galavanized toxic? but then breathing exxhaust fumes is the same thing ! lol
Serious, dont breath the vapors/fumes while you are welding the galvanized, just in case you didnt know already. And for my fellow HAMBers that need a refresher, NEVER EVER use brake clean and then weld, that will scramble your brain and can kill you dead.
Big Bad Dad, The galvanized coatings will vaporize from the heat of welding. The amount of fumes is greatly increased and "if" you breathe that shit it will make you wish you would have been more careful. It's always a good idea to avoid choking on the fumes while you're working. The benefit of the coating will be lost wherever you weld so you will have to clean the area and paint or coat the area to prevent rust. I'm not saying that the fumes smell like roses but the zinc oxides aren't as nasty as I use to believe. That a look at this PDF: http://www.sperkoengineering.com/html/articles/WeldingGalvanized.pdf Good luck with your project
Muriatic acid will take the zinc off of galvanized metal. Just make sure to do it outside, and don't breathe the fumes.
Damn, I wish I knew that welding of Galvanized was bad for you . I worked at Armco Steel for 5 years in the 70's making Galvanized wire mats they sell for Corral panels. We were on top of the machine where the welding took place for 8 hours a night,the smoke would just surround you, boy I wish I'd been an accountant or something else!
Galvanized will spot weld just fine. I do it every day in my HVAC business. Nasty stuff to weld , wear a respirator.
You will want to get that coating off so you can paint it properly. The PDF that Billet posted was interesting. Sadly I can no longer blame by bonehead mistakes on Zinc poisoning.
The galvanized welding is what has been scaring me about this. I used an O/A torch to cut some chiller piping off the roof of a mall building many years ago and I remember breathing the green smoke and getting sick as a dog afterwards! Thanks for the PDF which covers it and pretty much describes the symptoms I had at the time... I am thinking of just going ahead and buying the non galv. 16 ga. and see if it breaks my home made brake! LOL
I can't comment on the welding of galvanized sheet metal, but like the rest here, I've heard the stories. The other day, I too, needed a sheet metal brake, of course, I don't have one. So, out to the street in front of the house to the curbside sewer runoff grates. Let's see, slip the sheet metal into the gap to the right distance, a little encouragement with the hammer, and what do you know; just the angle I need. Butch/56sedandelivery.
welding galvanized sucks ass. Not only are the fumes "bad for you", but your nostrils are gonna burn, and your gonna wreak of BO for a week. Dont waste your time, go pick up a 4x8 sheet of 20ga at your local steel shop for $30 and be done with it.
It is probably true that in most cases the zinc fumes won't be a problem, but if you have other health issues it can be a killer. See here for a real world example: http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/tutor/safety3/index.htm
Clamp a heavy piece of angle to the folding leaf on the brake if it doesn't already have a bolt on angle bar or stop by a local sheet metal HVAC shop they will probably have a piece of metal for you cheap and will bend it for you. I bend stuff for nothing or a cup of coffee all the time for local guys
If you do inhale a large dose of zinc you will get zinc poisoning, I've had this a few times and I'm not dead, however, I'm not a rocket scientist and can't say it won't kill a few cells. If you get zinc poisoned you will run a fever and get very jittery, I think it messes with your central nervous system, 20 years ago they told you to drink a lot of milk.All that seems to do is make you piss a lot. Most of your painter styles respirators will do little to stop zinc fumes, I personally attest to this, the zinc can also be absorbed through your skin, right through your clothes, the sweatier you are the faster. My advice is to stay away from this shit, its not worth feeling like you have the flu for 4 days and I think your brain is getting its ass kicked.
yeah francisco i heard about the milk thing to, i heard if you didnt drink the milk you would get sores on your arms and such? not sure if thats true, but everyone thta plans on messing with this should take your advice and not find out
Just go to a steel supply company and get what you need ,if they don"t have it in stock they can probably get it in a couple of days.most old junk yards have pieces of steel laying around too.
Stay away from the galvanized stuff. Get the correct material from your local steel supply place, and do the job right. If there is a problem with breaking it, they can probably do that too. Most larger suppliers can.
i just went through this the other day, i was working on a guys floor and sent him for some 18ga, i said no coatings, he came back with satin coat, also called diamond coat, USS calls it "Galvannealed Sheet" heres some info http://www.precisionsteel.com/coated-metals/galvannealed-sheet i sent the stuff back and the guy who sold it got all upset saying everyone uses it now, bla bla bla, it's still galvannized, you dont want to be welding it.
Wouldnt it be nice if we had like a local source directory for stuff like this on the HAMB, like a little mini DEX directory or metal suppliers and paint sources and such, I bet Ryan could make a nice profit for the effort as well. If you saw the fees for that DEX you could be sure that he could get a lot of little local mom and pops interested with an audience of 110,000 active fabricating maniacs like us. Never got blisters from zinc poisoning. I will tell you what: When I first got my tig welder I thought I could weld in naked arms like those jackasses on TV, about fifteen minutes along I start smelling chicken, it smells like some one was grilling chicken, At first I thought it smelled good, well I lift my helmet and go to wipe my face on my T shirt sleeve and Son Of A bitch, thats not chicken thats me, it was the stink of the pink, now I wear a cotton shirt and a necker cheif to keep those rays from kickin me, I saw a guy tig welding with #5,s like cool ray glasses, I guess he wants a tan for the ladies, not me, skin cancer is a bitch, they start cuttin quarter sized chunks out of you. Yikes.
Hey Pat you're a young guy, you cant be 30, you gotta take care of yourself, a little bit a this and a little bit of that and next thing you cant find your keys, and then after that you get so bad you cant find your tinkler, I will warn you about metals, they get in your brain, they will make a stupid slobbering pathetic mess of you, you are not immortal, theres a lot to this life, a lot you will want to see, 50 aint old, not when youre 50, wear your masks and dont breathe this shit, I want to die in a horrible high speed drag racing accident in which no one is hurt but me and I die in an instant at the ripe old age of 95, but its more likely that I will die at 67 in a home with drool running down my chin and in a diaper, not even recognizing the poor dopes there worrying about me, stupid me.
welding that stuff sucks use the acid to clean it real good and youll be ok dont and youll hate yourself,been there done that.
holy shit, im glad i read this post. i know about the galvanized metal thing, but never heard anything on the brake cleaner. i thought it had no residue and completly evaporated. i ran out of acetone and have been using brake cleaner for the last 6 months. i just read a few articles. Thanks for posting!!!!
Not only is it a bad idea breath it in while you weld the stuff, but in addition to that, it is a bad thing to try to put most sealers, primer, filler, paint etc., over the top of it because they just weren't intended to adhere to galvanized. They need to go over regular old steel like they were designed to.
As usual you all are very much over reacting. Welding galvanized steel has been done as long as theres been galvanized steel. First of all there are basically two kinds 1. Dipped common on pipe and pipe fittings. 2. Electro plaited common on nuts and bolts and sheet metal. The dipped stuff is thicker = lots of gas off and splatter The plaited stuff is thin = less gas off and less spatter easily sanded off were you want to weld. Anybody doing any kind of welding should have some circulation of the air going in the first place. (plug in a fan) Obviously not the right material for building car parts but can be welded.
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