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Turning galvanized bolts?

PaulL

PaulL

Technologist at Large
Premium Member
A project years ago left me with a *lot* of 3/4" galvanized bolts in the 8"-14" range.
Any particular warnings about turning them? I expect to start slow and well-lubricated to keep it cool until the zinc is off. Cross draft through the shop. Anything else?

Paul
 
You should be ok unless you get it smoking and then you have serious issues to deal with. Otherwise follow standard safety practices with metals.
 
Your not going to burn the galvanized off turning them, and it won't be particulate in the air like with grinding it off

Nothing to worry about, giver

I have many many hours of experience removing galvanizing before welding, so I'm not saying this out of no where
 
Just do not weld it without respirator on or in super well ventilated area. Turning on lathe is fine (for me) unless you go uber fast or something.

If you weld without respirator not in well ventilated area you will be sick for few days.
 
Tom Kitta said:
If you weld without respirator not in well ventilated area you will be sick for few days.
Click to expand...

There is a trick to that.....if you know you have to weld a pile of galvanized......drink milk before hand, it coats your stomach and reduces the amount of zinc fumes you absorb, helps prevent "zinc chills" (not fun), it doesn't replace the respirator or good ventilation....but it helps
 
I got metal fume fever boring a bunch of galvanized parts in a turret lathe many decades ago. They did get hot enough apparently. Staggered home and when I came back I told the foreman I was not doing that job anymore.

Ventilation and keep things cool and you'll probably be OK.
 
Tom Kitta said:
If you weld without respirator not in well ventilated area you will be sick for few days.
Click to expand...
Yes, I now always wear a respirator when welding. Those flux fumes are nasty! Wish I'd been smarter when I first started.
 
Zinc fumes from welding/burning can KILL you, dust from grinding not good for you but falls into the same as you are likely getting it hot enough to burn (sparks).

Cutting with coolant or cutting fluid should not generally get you to that stage.
 
Degen said:
Zinc fumes from welding/burning can KILL you
Click to expand...

lets not get to dramatic here....argon will kill you faster than zinc fumes

high exposure for long periods of time will eventually have lasting health impacts, not many people escape working in a hot dip plant without health problems in the long term, but no one is dropping dead on the shop floor either

moral of the story, avoid zinc fumes, but a days exposure is just going to give you a nasty case of zinc chills (metal fume feaver) for the evening, so use ventilation, a respirator and drink a quart if milk if your going to be exposed to the fumes or a lot of particulate in the air that day (typically grinding), this has been studied, occupational health has daily exposure limits and they are not 0
 
phaxtris said:
lets not get to dramatic here....argon will kill you faster than zinc fumes

high exposure for long periods of time will eventually have lasting health impacts, not many people escape working in a hot dip plant without health problems in the long term, but no one is dropping dead on the shop floor either

moral of the story, avoid zinc fumes, but a days exposure is just going to give you a nasty case of zinc chills (metal fume feaver) for the evening, so use ventilation, a respirator and drink a quart if milk if your going to be exposed to the fumes or a lot of particulate in the air that day (typically grinding), this has been studied, occupational health has daily exposure limits and they are not 0
Click to expand...
Yes I agree and all I don't want to diminish real risks associated with any of our hobbies, but I sometimes think things get blown out of proportion by hobbyist and have us scared beyond reason.
I have seen people repeatedly weld galvanized metal in old farm shops and some of these people died of old age and the rest of us don't show any sign of adverse effects... YET.

Make sure your head isn't in the cloud of green smoke and get a cross draft if you can and I'll bet as an occasional workers around galvanized metal we will all be fine.
 
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phaxtris said:
lets not get to dramatic here....argon will kill you faster than zinc fumes

high exposure for long periods of time will eventually have lasting health impacts, not many people escape working in a hot dip plant without health problems in the long term, but no one is dropping dead on the shop floor either

moral of the story, avoid zinc fumes, but a days exposure is just going to give you a nasty case of zinc chills (metal fume feaver) for the evening, so use ventilation, a respirator and drink a quart if milk if your going to be exposed to the fumes or a lot of particulate in the air that day (typically grinding), this has been studied, occupational health has daily exposure limits and they are not 0
Click to expand...

Ya, if I go by what everyone else is afraid of, I died 40 years ago. Which could explain my poor memory and bouts of stupidity. Who knows, maybe I am dead but just don't know it yet.......

Used to collect mercury as a boy and loved to roll it around in the palm of my hand. Really liked the way it splattered and then collected.

Used to routinely drain the PCB oil out of transformers and used it for all kinds of lubrication tasks - food and drink mixers, household hinges, fan motors, etc.

Drank the water coming out of field tiles, made a distillery to clean septic water and drank that too. Collected rain water in a cistern and drank and cooked with that.

Had a cow patty cooking stove for years. Then switched to coal for cooking and heating when we moved east.

Drank unpasteurized milk and sucked raw eggs until I was 18 or so.

Drove around without seatbelts and even slept on the back window sill of my dads old sedan.

Used fly spray that was hand mixed from concentrate in those old hand pumps that killed flies on contact instantly.

You get the drift.....

Yup, I died 40 years ago and life is just a dream.

Don't get me wrong. I think many of those things I did were stupid and I'm glad they are gone. Especially glad to wear seat belts. But I'll quit riding a pedal bicycle the day they force me to wear a helmut.

My point is that life itself involves taking risks. Sometimes I think people today have learned to fear their own shadows.

An excellent book to read is: Risk - The science and politics of fear by Gardiner. Highly recommended.
 
phaxtris said:
lets not get to dramatic here....argon will kill you faster than zinc fumes

high exposure for long periods of time will eventually have lasting health impacts, not many people escape working in a hot dip plant without health problems in the long term, but no one is dropping dead on the shop floor either

moral of the story, avoid zinc fumes, but a days exposure is just going to give you a nasty case of zinc chills (metal fume feaver) for the evening, so use ventilation, a respirator and drink a quart if milk if your going to be exposed to the fumes or a lot of particulate in the air that day (typically grinding), this has been studied, occupational health has daily exposure limits and they are not 0
Click to expand...
I think reading comprehension here is in order in terms of the words "CAN" and "WILL". See the end to understand what these actually mean.

It is an important reminder for hobbyist that some of the things we do actual have serious health effects with very little exposure. Err on caution, consider this one very dangerous.

The difference in heat for galvanizing does make a difference in what you are exposed to.

In this case of plating the chemicals used are a concern in terms of direct skin contact (and long term inhalation) and their toxic effects.

My concern is the your easy dismissal of safety precautions. Remember the importance of how things are phrased.

CAN means it is dangerous if you don't follow precautions.

WILL means screw up and you are done for.

It is not fear mongering but true health and safety precautions. Remember I am old school, but old school advice is no longer the safest or wisest advice to give, work place or hobby.
 
@Degen I'm not sure how to respond to your post, I am not minimizing the risks, I work in the welding industry, have welding tickets, journeyman/red seal for welding, I am not comming from a hobbyist level of experience regarding this

What I have outlined are the current 2022 recommendations for welding galvanized steel, not some school of hard knocks bs

Now i even assumed worst case that he actually has galvanized (hot dipped) and not just plated bolts, if it's actually just plated there is even less of a concern, electro plating is typically less than .002 thick...a skim pass.... 1 - 2 tho is not going to heat up enough to vaporize the zinc coating
 
phaxtris said:
Now i even assumed worst case that he actually has galvanized (hot dipped) and not just plated bolts, if it's actually just plated there is even less of a concern, electro plating is typically less than .002 thick...a skim pass.... 1 - 2 tho is not going to heat up enough to vaporize the zinc coating
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And I've now learned a new thing: hot dipped vs plated. How do I tell them apart?
Ok, 3 minutes with google tells me these are definitely the hot-dipped kind - not at all shiny ;-)
Either way, thanks for all the good advice. I'll wear my respirator, keep the air flowing, and keep the parts from smoking as I take the zink off. This is comfortably within my acceptable risk profile.
 
PaulL said:
And I've now learned a new thing: hot dipped vs plated. How do I tell them apart?
Ok, 3 minutes with google tells me these are definitely the hot-dipped kind - not at all shiny ;-)
Either way, thanks for all the good advice. I'll wear my respirator, keep the air flowing, and keep the parts from smoking as I take the zink off. This is comfortably within my acceptable risk profile.
Click to expand...
Hot dipped typically are not smooth as they are actually dipped into the galvanizing solution so they tend to have a rougher surface. Plated are smooth and shiny.
 
If anyone was curious it's actually not a solution for hot dipped, it's first acid bathed and then dumped into a literal swimming pool sized tank of molten zinc
If you look on something that is very long you will often see kind of a parting line where they were unable to fit it in the tank, had to take it out, and dunk the rest from another direction

Either way, horrible job, stay away
 
While we're on the subject of machining plated parts, especially fasteners, another item to be careful with is cadmium plated parts. A web search will give the important details but for all but certain aerospace parts, of note here fasteners, CAD plating has been phased out.

If you find yourself with aerospace fasteners (e.g. AN, NAS) with a gold colored plating take appropriate precautions to establish what you have and handle suitably when machining & welding etc. Apparently every day handling is safe enough but machining dust & oxides are to be managed.

D:cool:
 
Tecnico said:
If you find yourself with aerospace fasteners (e.g. AN, NAS) with a gold colored plating take appropriate precautions to establish what you have and handle suitably when machining & welding etc.
Click to expand...
Good to know I just acquired a whole whack of aircraft hardware , some titanium, aluminum,stainless steel and lots of gold colored plated stuff.
 
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