muriatic + zinc+aluminum=?

[Trollhammer]

I just cleaned the coating of off a bit of wire rope. The ends had an aluminum(I think) clip to hold the ends in a loop. I put the wire in a bucket and added about 0.5 gallon of muriatic acid(31.45%). Everything went fine for about 10-15 minutes. It bubbled and fizzed and such. I went to check on it after it was in for roughly 20 minutes, and the bucket was fizzing over with white suds that turned a greenish-yellow. I dumped a box of baking soda all over the stuff that overflowed and into the bucket itself. I took the wire out and rinsed everything really well. The little aluminum clips were almost completely dissolved and the remaining mud puddle from the rinse has a film of whitish-yellow scum on top. What is this and is it a potential hazard? How do I get rid of it, or do I even need to? Thanks in advance,
Mickey

[steve sells]

Next time you try to clean some thing, start by actually cleaning off all of the foreign stuff you can see first, you will have better luck.

[LDW]

Click on search at the top of the screen and type in zinc chloride, this will bring up three threads where the stripping of zinc or galvanize, is discussed. It is normal for muriatic to turn green when it gets loaded with zinc, I think the whitish yellow film you are talking about is a residue of the aluminum. What are you going to make with the wire rope?

[Trollhammer]

Thanks everyone! I had read a bunch of the threads on here about using muriatic for cleaning off galvanizing, I just didn't recall it mentioning a greenish sludge that looked like something from a crappy horror movie. I'm going to attempt making a bit of 'cable damascus'. I probably won't actually mess with trying that for another couple of weeks; I'm still trying to forge weld to solid pieces together. I saw the cable at Lowe's, and it had a very strange braid pattern to it, and I thought it might make an interesting pattern for a damascus billet. I need to find someone in the area to show me in person how to forge weld. I've read a bunch of stuff on here, anvilfire, and in the few books I have, but I'm still not getting it. I'm starting to think that the brickpile isn't getting hot enough.
Mickey

[Glenn]

Build a fire in your forge. Insert a piece of steel. Turn up the air blast and wait. If you remove the piece of steel and find half of it GONE and the end in your hand looking like a 4th of July sparkler, then it is hot enough to forge weld. (grin)

[Trollhammer]

I'm currently using a 'brickpile' forge with propane...it's not the most effecient thing I've seen. Enough to get me started. I'll give it a go this afternoon with a little bit higher psi.

Out of curiosity, how do any of you guys get anything done? I've only been at this for a little bit, and I'm already planning/envisioning more projects, bigger/newer forge, etc. With the rate of my mind planning projects and me actually completing them, this hobby is begining to turn into a full-time job!
Mickey

[keykeeper]

Originally Posted by Trollhammer

this hobby is begining to turn into a full-time job! Mickey

Welcome to the MADNESS!

[Dodge]

Originally Posted by Trollhammer

I'm currently using a 'brickpile' forge with propane...it's not the most effecient thing I've seen. Enough to get me started. I'll give it a go this afternoon with a little bit higher psi.

What kind of burners are you using? and is the "brick pile" made of refractory insulating bricks? If you have decent burners and not tring to create too big of a chamber, welding should not be a problem. I use castable refractory and its too thick and not very effient as it a big heat sink, but I can weld in it. It just crank the reg up and count dollar signs LOL

[Trollhammer]

I'm using a 'Reil' Style burner with a 0.035" mig tip for the jet. The bricks are 2-1/2" thick and made from the homemade refractory recipe on Lionel Oliver's backyardmetalcasting.com. I couldn't justify paying almost as much in shipping as the actual product cost for something that I was just gonna scrap/rebuild in the very near future. I had originally started with fire bricks from a brick kiln that collapsed at Boral Bricks here in town. I've probably got close to 2 full truck loads of those bricks, but they started cracking due to heat...guess I'll build a BBQ in the backyard with 'em. Anyways, the chamber of the brickpile is 5-3/4" wide, 4-1/2" tall, and 8" deep. I guess volume wise, that's around 207 cubic inches. I'm only using the one burner on it right now. I started running it around 5 psi. About 2 weeks ago, I jacked that up to 7-9 psi. That's why I was thinking it might just be my pressure.

[unkle spike]

Out of curiosity, how do any of you guys get anything done? I've only been at this for a little bit, and I'm already planning/envisioning more projects, bigger/newer forge, etc. With the rate of my mind planning projects and me actually completing them, this hobby is begining to turn into a full-time job!
Mickey[/quote]

I generally limit my mind to 3 projects at any one time, more than that will cause sleeplessness. Also if you are into knives you might want to back that off to two. Only one if you are working with Damascus or Pattern Steel. Otherwise you will end up like Steve Sells waking up in the middle of the night screaming "WHAT IS THE LAYER COUNT"....