How worried should I be (galvanized question)

weo

weo

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Hello all. Wondering how worried I should be. A little bit ago I was going to flatten out a piece of rusty schedule 20 pipe I found on my property 10 years ago to make a muffle for my thermocouple. After a few schwacks with the hammer, a greenish flame started on the pipe. I stopped immediately, took it outside and here's what it looked like after cooling down.

lHmGer1.jpg


That's yellowish stuff, and I'm wondering if it could be galvanizing.

Some more potentially relevant info: About a year ago I was melting some copper in my forge in a cast iron pot. I overheated it and melted the cast iron, spilling copper all over the floor of my forge. I know that copper is bad for forgewelding so I tore out and recast the bottom, and have done plenty of damascus since.

Also, there is plenty of airflow in my shop, and today happens to be a windy stormy day.

Is this galvanizing?

Thanks

as always
peace and love
billyO
 
Doing some google re-search, I see that borax also can create a green-ish flame. This would make sense (and bring me some relief) due to the borax flux....is this more likely?
 
as far as I know copper is the only metal that gives off a green flame, or some time almost blue-ish. It’s possible that there is a small amount left over somewhere in your forge and it caused the green flame. Another possibility is that maybe there was copper on the pipe to begin with, that doesn’t seem as likely though.

Also if you were looking directly into the forge for a while it’s also possible that the green flame wasn’t actually green. Your eyes adjusting to the red/orange/yellow of the forge could just have changed the way the flame looked.

I’ve only forge welded a few times before but I don’t remember seeing any kinds of weird colored flames coming from the borax, just dark orange.

I’ve never had zinc close to a forge or high heat source before but I don’t think it makes green flames. I could be wrong though.

Hopefully someone more familiar with zinc or what kind of coatings could be on the pipe will stop by.

Hope this helped,
Kevin
 
Even if it is galvanized, no need to worry. Despite the knifemaker old wives tale, burning off galvinizing isn't fatal unless you get a huge exposure and have preexisting breathing related medical conditions.
 
Galvanised steel makes a white smoke when heated or welded and has colors. There is a lot of misinformation out there about it. If you breath it in you will start to feal sick like your catching the flue. But this depends on how much you inhale. Drinking milk helps this and flushes it out of your system. Lots of people think it’s toxic and going to kill you. That is not true, I dont even know if there is any documented long term risks with it. Now I’m not saying it’s ok to breath but there is no long term side affects of it. There is allways an exception to everything. like if you filled your shop completely full of fumes and stayed in there for way to long. But just a mild passing exposure will not harm you. I would be more worried about the carbon monoxide from forges that are run inside shops.
 
In my small forge I was melting Damascus billets. I could not figure out why thy where coming out smaller then thy went in. Then I started dry welding and I pulled out out and a bunch of liquid hit the floor, whoops. Lol
 
Thanks all. I'm pretty sure I was seeing borax.

John, it's my understanding that cast iron melts around 2100F. I had been forgewelding, but thought I had let the forge cool down a bit.
 
Cast iron is at the eutectic, and melts at the lowest melting point of the irons. It is around 2100-2200°F.
 
Thanks, all. That's kind of what I thought, but I do know a smith who died from pneumonis that was caused ny inflammation in the longs from breathing the fumes. I also know that he was forging quite a bit of it while in a small shop with poor ventilation.

Anyone know what the yellow powder is on the pipe once cooled?
 
weo said:
Anyone know what the yellow powder is on the pipe once cooled
Click to expand...
Thats zink oxide. Normally thats a white powder, but if yellowish, its containing trace contaminant of some kind
 
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Galvanizing will produce a yellow/green flame when being burnt, and leave a white residue. JT above is spot on. Heavy Metal Fever is real and sets on immediately. If you didn't get sick immediately then you're good to go. I also have never heard of long term affects from zinc.
 
weo said:
Thanks, all. That's kind of what I thought, but I do know a smith who died from pneumonis that was caused ny inflammation in the longs from breathing the fumes. I also know that he was forging quite a bit of it while in a small shop with poor ventilation.

Anyone know what the yellow powder is on the pipe once cooled?
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He also had a severe lung condition already.
 
I go on the side of caution. All of this stuff we breathe can have bad long term effects —//-Bakers can get a condition called Bakers Asthma, from years of playing in the white flour they use... I always use a Reperator will P100 filters—/// I know what not being able to breathe feels like. I had a lung collapse in my 20’s it’s a terrible feeling not being able to get breathe and I healed complete from that and don’t want to not be able to breathe like that ever again!
 
Rhinoknives1 said:
I go on the side of caution. All of this stuff we breathe can have bad long term effects —//-Bakers can get a condition called Bakers Asthma, from years of playing in the white flour they use... I always use a Reperator will P100 filters—/// I know what not being able to breathe feels like. I had a lung collapse in my 20’s it’s a terrible feeling not being able to get breathe and I healed complete from that and don’t want to not be able to breathe like that ever again!
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree. But to the original post, he doesn't need to be too concerned. Lesson learned I think.
 
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