I think I may have messed up bad !

Mark Williams

Mark Williams

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I was melting what I thought were some silver nuts and washers in my gas forge. I had assumed silver because they were used in high voltage power supplies.

Nothing unusual until they got to the melting point. All of the sudden they started giving off a lot of white smoke. I held my breath and ran into the shop and tuned off the gas. I was standing outside the shop at a little distance, but I had been in there with the stuff for a while.The molten metal was glowing a light green color. I had dumped some borax on the metal before I heated it up.Could that be all it was?

Have I poisoned myself? :eek:. What do you do if you have poisoned yourself with zinc. Is my forge ruined? :(
 
Do you feel okay???I hope so. Was it a lot of metal that you were melting? If your in doubt go to your doctor tell him what happend. Metal poisoning is nothing to be laughed at.
"Symptoms will vary, depending on the nature and the quantity of the heavy metal ingested. Patients may complain of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, headache, sweating, and a metallic taste in the mouth. Depending on the metal, there may be blue-black lines in the gum tissues. In severe cases, patients exhibit obvious impairment of cognitive, motor, and language skills."Heavy metal poisoning
 
I just did the melting. It was only a few ounces. I could probably talk myself into headache , sweating and stomach pain. That's normal in my life :) I wonder how long it takes to manifest?

I ground down the glob a bit to look at it. It appears to be brass, duh!!. I guess it would have been wise to cut some of the pieces and etch first.

It's been a crappy w/e.
 
Silver ??? I'll bet it was brass or bronze that might have been silver plated.There are lots of silver plated [to prevent oxidation and other corrosion] products of copper alloys but I don't know of any silver ones.Copper would show green too. If you get enough zinc fumes you'll know it .
 
Mark, As a goldsmith I have occasionaly used these silver contact pads .Some are a copper or brass pad with a pure silver layer soldered on, and some are a block of pure silver soldered onto the switch arm -in all cases the solder is lead or tin/cadmium based and will give off nasty white clouds of smoke.-there are even some brass alloys that do the same when melted.If you want to use the silver pads simply file them well on all sides then check with a mild sulphuric acid solution (20%)-the silver will turn white and any remaining solder will go dark.If there is ANY solder left on the piece when you melt it the silver will be ruined and useless.Hope this helps. Regards,Don
 
Mark,Tell Debbi I'll be over for the tool sale ,and to hold back the anvils and hammers for me.
Seriously,you are probably fine.It was plated brass hardware.You never see all silver except the contact pad.(and they aren't always all silver).
When testing unknown silver,file a groove in it and apply nitric acid.If it foams green,it is ain't silver.
Those fumes can make you sick,and some can kill you.Glad you are OK.
Stacy
 
Mark, If the structure is still there that doesn't count for a bad week. Hope you suffer no ill affects. Being a dumb ass is just part of human nature. Just ask me.
 
Ah, to be surrounded by friends... what a glorious life we have! :D

Glad you didn't keel over Mark. I don't know who we'd have around here to start calling "Mass'a" after that :eek:

You might have a mokume forge now. Some guys seem to be able to do brass/nickel/copper/silver stuff in their forge and still use it for forge welding... but I know for a fact that Tom Ferry's forge lining was shot after someone jokingly threw a 22 shell in it at a hammer-in. Tom knows what he's doing with making damascus, and he COULD NOT get anything to weld in the forge after that.

He had to reline it. Hope you don't have to! :(

-Nick-
 
is it getting dark out and you feel tried and just want the day to end and go away..? man Mark I think you got it bad.


go to bed you've been up to long..worrying about it.. :eek: :D

who's ah dumbA$$ :p :D
 
Seems you are OK.. I think Dum Ass is just the way we knifemakers do ****. Remember if it don't kill you it might just make you stronger....or maybe not.
Glad you are still with us. We aren't done with you yet.

Larry
 
Larry - Might make you stronger, but your grip won't be worth a crap with all those fingers missing!
Mark - Quit playing the the alchemy. Like Mete said, if it was zinc you'd know pretty quick (right before you hit the floor). Mr. Wrong's "severe symptoms" wouldn't be to obvious to most of us who know you. Got any funny tastes in the back of your mouth?
Knock that stuff off until after the hammer-in you knucklehead.
 
You knuckle-head! I wish that was the dumbest thing I'd ever done. :rolleyes:

You'll probably have to re-line the forge. WhenI first started making damascus I took a day to forge some copper & brass hardware and couldn't get a weld to stick worth a damn afterwards. The only way some of us, especailly me, learn is the hard way.
 
I just feel so loved :)

I'm not too concerned about being able to forge weld in this forge. I use it for general forging and heat-T.

I was curious is the zinc fumes would keep being released from the liner. Guess it's probably time to re line it anyway.

I wish these stupid muscle twitches would stop, drivin me nuts.
 
Mark. whaddya do that for? We live and learn, reminds me of the old song by Spinal Tap..."workin' in a hell hole." :p :) :)
 
Mark Williams said:
I just feel so loved :)

I wish these stupid muscle twitches would stop, drivin me nuts.
Click to expand...

Mark do your feet itch Too :confused: watch for the toe nails turning color too. Green :eek:



:)
 
Mark,Dont listen to them guys that call you a Dumb Donkey,they just wish everyone would call them Master :D :D :D

On a serious side,I used to cut allot of Galvanized material at the scrap yard with a cutting torch,not the smartest thing,but it had to be done.Drink a couple of glasses of milk to counteract the effects of the zinc and you will be fine,if that ever happens again...I have one forge set up just for melting stuff,figured once I contaminated the one forge and was looking at re-lining it,thought to myself that it could get expensive after awhile because I wanted to keep casting pieces.So instead I just built a new forge and left the other for smelting.Got a new better forge for my blades and welding in without the worries of contaminating it.

Just my way of fixing the problem,heck I now have 3 different gas forges and a couple of coal forges...

Be careful with unnone metals from now on will ya,we want you around for a while longer,some of use still need the Master to teach us :D

Bruce
 
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