mig welding.white dust...

[God mode restorations]

evening all..
had to make a box out of some 3mm plate i had...but the plate i have gives off a white cloud ...a bit like cotton wool...i no its not galvanized metal......

 

[wyn]

It could be some sort of zinc plating

 

[BrokenBiker]

sounds very much like zinc. Galv gives off stringy white smoke, i have also noticed similar on un prepared zintec but not nearly as bad.

 

[God mode restorations]

dose it have the same effects as galvanized..zinc poisoning....

 

[Windy Miller]

If its zintec, then you should be ok with it. No welding fumes at good for you, but zintec fumes are no where near as harmful as galvanised.

You should still try to avoid inhaling it though. We were designed to breathe air, so anything else should be avoided!

Edit:
Just re read the original post. Can you get 3mm zintec???

 

[God mode restorations]

ok...i am sure its zintec...hear is a couple of pic of said metal....

 

[mfletch]

I think its the same coating as some new washers have {nut and bolt washers}

 

[God mode restorations]

yes...could well be come to think of it......i no breathing any fumes in aint the best......will have to invest in some sort of fume extraction....have seen mig guns with built in fume extraction.............

 

[Windy Miller]

Very hard to tell from a photo, but it looks too shiny for zintec.

Zintec is normally a pale grey - that does look a little like galv, or maybe even BZP (bright zinc plating). I've not seen sheet or plate steel with that finish, but that's not to say it don't exist!

 

[God mode restorations]

yes it is a bit hard to tell...i got a big sheet of it a while ago...it does not look like galzanized that i have had in the past...its the same plate that the work piece sits on.....just never seen the white stringy cloud that came off the stuff....

 

[Windy Miller]

I think it is galvanised...

 

[Welderpaul]

Its galv sheet. Deffo.

 

[Hitch]

Looks like galv sheet to me. Zintec would appear duller than that.

You say you know its not galv..... what makes you think that?

 

[God mode restorations]

i am not hundred percent sure..but all the galvanized i have messed with is patchy in appearance......just didn't really no what this metal was..being shiny in appearance....

 

[Welderpaul]

Its 'galvanised' by a different process so isn't patchy like hot dip galv. It's galv sheet. Deffo.

 

[fixerupper]

Looks like galv to me .... here in Crete just about all the steel is galv, apart from heavy gauge 4 or 5 mill box and that is either thick with oily stuff or rusty .... so all of the 2 or 3 mill light box stuff I work with is galv ... not the heavy dipped stuff that you find in the UK but shiny very smooth and bright and a joy to weld with the mig and with a very very slight white powder around the weld and no Zinc smell that I can detect .. but the the wind up here blows through me workshop.....jeff....

 

[God mode restorations]

ok chaps.....yes its nice to weld....no smell....just the white powder when welded.....well now i no ....thanks....

 

[pedrobedro]

Zinc passivate could be the finish on it.

 

[brightspark]

Zinc passivate could be the finish on it.

well it was till it was welded

 

[Liquid Metal]

Galv (hot dip, or electroplated) zintec, bzp or whatever you want to call it...............

Its ALL zinc.
Its all harmful for you, poisonous.
End of lol