Quote:
Originally Posted by big shafe
Looks awesome and can't wait to see the final product. FYI welding zinc is toxic I would not attempt at all.
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Thanks, and thanks for the reminder. I went back to
#29 and added a warning. I knew I wasn't supposed to do it at the time, but I did it anyway, without calculating the risks. OSHA has a page describing the toxicity:
Welding Health Hazards. Nothing bad happened to me - it was some months ago but I might have done it right before I left the shop to vent for the night, and IIRC I think I was mindful of keeping my face away from the smoke-stream, and on at least some of the welds I ground most of the zinc off before welding. There were also a few nights back in the cold weather I had my smog mask on - which may have had a filtering effect against zinc - but I don't remember whether that would have been one of those nights.
Here's an example of someone similarly careless who got sick:
Got my first taste of Zinc poisoning... - MIG Welding Forum. So I would agree with the conventional wisdom; don't be like me, don't weld zinc plated stuff on the off chance it won't be an issue.
Of course all of the metal actually on the project is 'weldable' and not plated.