Is this galvanized steel?? Beginning of a forced air forge

[strgraw]

Hi all! First post in a long time here...

So I am in the process of building a fairly large forced air forge. I have all my plans ready, and soon I will have the equipment too!

I had this broken air tank that I cut the ends off that I would be using for the body of the forge. BUT, after cutting the ends off I started second guessing myself on the type of steel it was.. As we all know, if this is galvanized, I won't be able to use it!

Attached are a few photos of the work in progress forge. I did a few close ups, let me know if you need anything else - But let me know is this galvanized steel or no? Let me know if any other pics are needed!

The type of tank is a "Fliteway" tank, I couldn't find information about it when looking it up on the internet.

As a side note, I thought, well since this is a coating (and from the looks it would be only on the outside of the tank, not the inside) could I theorhetically just grind it off or would that not be advised due to the zinc?

Thanks in advance all you fellow blacksmiths!

[Jack Evers]

Build a big wood fire around it and burn the coating off.

[strgraw]

Will that successfully get the entire coating off? I do have a massive pit and lots of wood I can toss this in...

[timgunn1962]

I don't recall ever seeing a galvanized air receiver.I'm not saying it's definitely not galv., just that I think it's pretty unlikely. It's extremely unusual to see any hollow fabrication just galvanized on the outside. Usually there are holes to let the Zinc in and the air out as the fabrication fills, and the Zinc out as it is lifted from the tank. Most of the receivers I see are painted. Quite a few have a silver-grey hammer finish that could be mistaken for galv.

Have a good scrape at the coating. If it chips along the edge of the scrape, it's pretty likely it's paint.

Best way is to stand upwind of an off-cut and attack it with a blowtorch. Galv tends to produce a lot of white fumes. often there's a white or yellow-white residue left.

Paint tends to smoke and usually there's a black residue.

Even paint fumes can be be pretty nasty though.

[HWHII]

Looks like paint to me. I would burn it off like timgunn suggests or you can wait till you fire your forge up and it will burn off. Make sure your outside eitherway.

[Jack Evers]

Zinc melts around 1000 F and vaporizes around 2000 F. It's the vapor that causes respiratory problems -- been there, done that, it ain't fun but unless you have pre existing problems, it will pass. It's a one time deal. A big fire or a blowtorch in a ventilated area will do the trick. As TIMGUNN says, white smoke is zinc, black is paint. Both need to be removed.

[strgraw]

Awesome guys, thanks a TON for your input. I didn't know at first where I could go with this until I remembered this forum as a resource. I'm very glad to have come here and I will update forges again when I have completed my project.

I think I will move forward with what you guys suggest and just build a big ol' fire around it, stand up wind, and see if it is black or white smoke. May attack it with a blow torch as well, depending.

[strgraw]

As an update, I did try chipping at it with a chisel, and it just kind of scraped off and did not chip. I'm not really convinced it is galvanized, but as I said before, I'll be burning it at any rate :)