[TheForge] TheForge Digest, Vol 62, Issue 12

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

A good particle filter mask will take out most of the zinc oxide, in
theory. Older galvanized stuff has cadmium in it often, which is much
more serious. I've had metal fume fever several times and it was very
unpleasant.
Avoid welding or torch cutting anything zinc or cadmium plated if at all 
possible. If you have to do it, use a good fume mask and follow Mike's 
good advice.  pf

Mike Spencer wrote:
> 
>> When I stick weld anything in my shop especially galvanized parts, I
>> run my exhaust fan and ceiling mounted fan until the smoke is clear.
> 
> A cheap bathroom exhaust fan mounted inside a short piece of 6" stove
> pipe is a handy safety tool that I keep around.
> 
> I have a squirrel cage exhaust fan connected to a 16" diameter
> hood-like affair over my welding table.  It sucks well enough to make
> my forge flue draw backwards if there's no door open but it doesn't
> violently and instantly yank every bit of fume away from a weld.  It
> just creates a general drift in the air unless the fume source is
> directly under it.
> 
> So in the (unusual) case of cutting, heating or welding something that
> makes nasty fume (or that I suspect might), I can plumb the fan/pipe
> widget into various pieces of 6" stove pipe that are laying around and
> put one end within a few inches of the fume source where it
> aggressively sucks all away.  The other end goes wherever it's
> convenient to put it: out a window, up into the squirrel cage exhaust
> pipe or wherever.
> 
> It's reassuring to see, say, zinc oxide fume rising 2 inches off the
> workpiece, making a right angle turn in mid-air and disappearing.
> 
> Professional welding shops, of course, have exhaust systems "powerful
> enough to suck prairie dogs from their holes",  with metal flex octopus
> arms for this purpose but that's too many bucks if you only need it
> one or twice a year.
> 
> 
> - Mike
>