Welding Tips and Tricks

Just ran into one of my firefighter buds and he has a little piece of metal about 5 inches long with part of a c clamp welded onto it. Wish I had a pic. He wants me to make more. He ordered galvanized parts. ugh! I searched galvanized steel on the forum and found out to wear a N-95 mask. Also to use muriatic acid to clean where the welds will be. Is there a certain type of rod to get? I saw silicon bronze and aluminum bronze mentioned. If your removing the galvanized coating can you weld it with ER70S-2? Good project to learn on, their not anything important!

Blaze659 wrote:Just ran into one of my firefighter buds and he has a little piece of metal about 5 inches long with part of a c clamp welded onto it. Wish I had a pic. He wants me to make more. He ordered galvanized parts. ugh! I searched galvanized steel on the forum and found out to wear a N-95 mask. Also to use muriatic acid to clean where the welds will be. Is there a certain type of rod to get? I saw silicon bronze and aluminum bronze mentioned. If your removing the galvanized coating can you weld it with ER70S-2? Good project to learn on, their not anything important!

I'd use 309 stainless rod.....

how thick is the stuff??

You could use stick, or flux core wire...

I weld galvanized stuff all the time. If it's thick, grind it off with a grinder. If it's thin, a flap disc works great. Once sparks start flying, you're down to the metal. If possible get rid of all the galv nearby to the weld site and you're good to go. If it makes wispy, white smoke when welding and/or thick white spiderweb deposits, you didn't clean enough. I weld outside and ventilation is good enough. If there's no white stuff coming off there's no zinc anyway but if there is (e.g. you're welding on tubing and can't clean the inside) for something small like you're doing I hold my breath or for something big some forced ventilation might be required (gentle fan behind you). Obviously you don't want to blow away all your argon though, just keep the zinc away from your nose and mouth.

Filler rod - it's just steel underneath the galv. I use ER70S-whatever.

I don't use acid, just a grinder.

As a kid + teenager I knew a welder joins metal pieces. I bought a $430 welder, dug and filled 200' of ditch. Wired up with dad's coaching, and I welded. It was usually salvaged steel, sometimes galvanized. The effects I experienced I called the galvanized shakes. The symptoms were terrific headache, and shakiness. Without the exposure I might now be normal.

Blaze659 wrote:Just ran into one of my firefighter buds and he has a little piece of metal about 5 inches long with part of a c clamp welded onto it. Wish I had a pic. He wants me to make more. He ordered galvanized parts. ugh! I searched galvanized steel on the forum and found out to wear a N-95 mask. Also to use muriatic acid to clean where the welds will be. Is there a certain type of rod to get? I saw silicon bronze and aluminum bronze mentioned. If your removing the galvanized coating can you weld it with ER70S-2? Good project to learn on, their not anything important!

Hi Blaze,
I have had several jobs small that required welding up mate all Galvanised yuk.
A friend saw me grinding away and said why not use Lincoln Easyarc 6013 rods. he got me some and i didn't have to grind anything , just weld. And the welds came out nice.
Hope that helps.

Hey,

In any experience i have had, TIG and gal hate each other. Stick or Mig/flux core will go much better.

Mick

We mount galvanized strut on steel. Usually use a poly abrasive disc on a 4-1/2" grinder to remove galv. TIG with silicone bronze works well.

Thx Everyone! Going to try ER70S-2 and 309 Stainless rods cause I really would like to TIG weld, If I can't do it I'll stick weld them.

Best of luck. Careful removal of the gal from the weld zone will help a lot, not just a cursory rub with s grinder.

Mick