Painted Materials

[Chelonian]

Hi, I have a few questions regarding painted pieces of metal so that I can use them for forging.

Firstly, is there a way to somewhat easily identify paint as lead-containing or otherwise, without the use of rather expensive commercial lead testing kits? If anyone knows a trick for this, I would love to hear it. Are there some colors of paint that are more or less likely to contain lead?

Secondly, what is the preferred method for removing paint? I don't really like the idea of any abrasive method that would disperse possibly lead-containing dust across my workplace, since even if I wear a respirator while I'm removing the paint, the dust will still be kicked back into the air by subsequent activities in the area. Also, I don't mind if it takes a while for a method it to work - I have no need to remove paint particularly quickly. I've looked at the MSDS's for some common commercial paint strippers, and I don't really like the idea of spending much time around the ingredients that they are comprised of.

Whenever possible, I just use steel that is unpainted, but there are some cases in which I would like to forge something that has been painted.

Any ideas or thoughts about this topic are highly appreciated! Thank you.

[ThomasPowers]

Date: the more decades it has the more likely it was to be lead paint.

Use: things like bridge work or other structural items tended to be lead even after it was not in general use.

Primers could be lead based no matter what colour was on top.

IN RUST WE TRUST!

[Chelonian]

I didn't realize that about primers. Thank you for that information.

Also, I notice this thread was moved. I'm sorry for posting in apparently the wrong section, but I don't think I ever would have guessed that this should have been posted in "Alchemy, Formulas, Fluxes, etc".

[ThomasPowers]

Read up on Red Lead Primer; IIRC I've even seen reference to them being used on boat hulls

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

We went through a lot of red lead primer on the light houses I was stationed on in the 60s.

[Glenn]

Unless you have a LOT of this painted metal available for free or less, delivered to your shop is a warning sign, stick with known metal and bare metal. The paint remover should have the credentials to deal with the haz-mat and toxic waste residue from the paint removal. Sand blasting or chemical removal of the paint must be added into the price, along with moving the painted material to the paint remover, and then moving it again to your place. 

New steel that somehow got bent and into the steel warehouse scrap heap is a bargain. Drops from folks that use a lot of steel in their work is another good source for steel.

 

[Chelonian]

Looking at the MSDS for red lead primer, it seems to have quite a high lead content at around 45% by weight. I'll definitely keep an eye out for that in the future. Thank you for that information.

Glenn, I don't have a huge amount of painted material, but there are some things that I would quite like to be able to use. For instance, A few months ago I was given about a dozen RR spikes, and since getting them I've always wanted to try making stuff out of them (not knives though ), keeping the head intact so that they were still identifiable. So far I have avoided them because they're painted. I also have several large bolts which are painted, and a badly damaged cold chisel that I would like to reforge into a useful chisel again.

None of this stuff really is worth burning the likely lead paint off in the forge to me though, so unless I find a good way to remove the paint, they're just going to remain unused.

Thanks!

[Glenn]

Speaking with a rr track repair foreman, he cautioned that many of the rr track clips are galvanized today.

Bolts today can be coated or plated with all manner of stuff, most of which you do not want to mess with. Use another source for metal and avoid the problem.

Many times removing paint costs more in time, labor, and haz-mat disposal problems, then just buying new material. GTTS or go to the source is a great way to find material.  As mentioned you can find drops from fabricators, machine shops, garages, and etc. Find a place that uses a lot of what you are looking for and ask about going through their dumpster.

 

[Glenn]

Adding more information to the thread.

On 1/30/2019 at 10:21 PM, eutrophicated1 said:

Please, don't work directly with lead coated metals.  Lead forms an instantaneous layer of lead2 and lead4 oxides, (that's the white-ish coating you see on older galvanized stuff) ..  Don't even work in enclosed spaces where solid lead has been sitting open for a few weeks.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/53811-hot-dipped-galvanized-finish-on-moving-parts/?do=findComment&comment=632845

Ironpp:  the white coat you see on older galvanized stuff is not leat oxide.. its zinc hydroxide..

[Chelonian]

I would also add that the "Don't even work in enclosed spaces where solid lead has been sitting open for a few weeks." part of the quote is pretty false, as long as the lead is just sitting there undisturbed. (If the quoted statement was true you would probably be able to smell metals, which you cannot)