June 9, 200818 yr I recently finished reading a great book called "The Joys of Forging with Galvanized Metal" by Iman Eediot. It shows all sorts of things to forge by heating galvanized bolts and other galvanized metal. I emailed the author to tell him how much I enjoyed the book but oddly enough was told that he died shortly after publication. Does anybody have any thoughts on this book?
June 9, 200818 yr well the fact that the zinc releases a poisonous gas when heated makes me think forging galvanized metal is a bad idea. Not to be morbid but the zinc poisoning could be what killed the author.
June 9, 200818 yr Author Thanks. I'll be here all day. I have read of the dangers of forging with galvanized metal on another site and, being new to blacksmithing, would have easily made that deadly mistake had I not. There are other guys out there I've seen on the forum that are new that may not know of the consequences of forging galvanized metal. I figure it can never be repeated too many times. Check out this link of a very experienced blacksmith who, for some unknown reason, decided to forge with galvanized steel and died shortly after.Shop Safety III Zinc Metal Fume Fever If anyone wants to donate money to a fund for Iman, send a check to my home address and I'll be sure his children, Bigtime Eediot and Shesure Izzan Eediot, get it. You can make the check out to my name.
June 9, 200818 yr I attended a demo Saturday where the Gent used 3/4" EMT forged into a candle socket. He said he soaked it in muratic acid first, before forging, to remove the plating. Any comments?
June 9, 200818 yr You may want to do a search of Zinc (71 hits), Fume Fever (15 hits), etc on IForgeIron. There is much more information presented, and discussed on the subject, which includes many off site references such AWS (American Welding Society) health and fact sheets, medical papers, etc. Zinc if not the only heavy metals (or the worst heavy metal) a blacksmith will encounter. YOU must read the material posted on IFI (and other sites) to gather the information and knowledge to stay safe. PPW (Jim Wilson) was a member of IForgeIron. HE was the first person to alert me to the dangers of heavy metal poisoning, fume fever, etc.
June 9, 200818 yr I GET IT NOW!!! I`am a little slow today LOL! Thats funny, but ZINC posioning ain`t .
June 9, 200818 yr Muriatic acid is an accepted way of removing zinc from iron. It's fine for small objects, but gets to be a problem with large objects. I have no desire to have a acid pickle vat around that is larger then five gallons. After removing the zinc the acid turns into zinc chloride which can be used as solder flux. That's assuming you saturate the pickle with enough zinc. I was taught to make made flux this way many years ago. I would a cut zinc mason jar lid with tin snips and toss small pieces into the acid. When the acid stopped reacting, it zinc chloride - Flux.
June 9, 200818 yr Hammerkid, that's solder flux, not welding flux. Zinc chloride is the active ingredient in most solder fluxes.
June 9, 200818 yr this is a interesting thread! i had seen posts on various boards from "paw paw" and knew he had passed but didnt know the contributeing factor! ive known about zinc for a long time ... i worked at a sprinkler fitter shop and had the shop foreman try to tell me zink fumes wernt a problem... then a few weeks later they had a fancy new fume vacume for parts being welded in zinc coated pipe (probably did some research and realized the liability) .. its something that can sneak up on ya ...
June 9, 200818 yr Paw Paw's death was truly a waste, but serves as an eternal reminder to us all; you might get away with cutting that corner or disabling that safety device 100 times, or you might die the first. It doesn't matter whether you're a greenhorn or a veteran if you know better, don't do it. Aged 1 or 100 you die just as dead just as easily.
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