I recently just started a new job at a fab shop without having prior experience working with galvanized. I've welded it for about 2 days now and pretty sure I got metal fume fever. I figured something wasn't right and I did the research and sure enough you're supposed to wear a respirator when welding this stuff (which my company does not supply or instruct me prior to welding). I'm so afraid that I might have cause some kind of long term affect to my health. Really hope it isn't the case.... Definitely telling them to buy some equipment..
Oh man--sorry to hear that. 😞 If you end up using the 3M face mask like I was using, make sure to use the #2097 filters (NOT the #2091's). The #2091's look exactly the same but don't actually filter vapor. (I actually had the wrong filters attached in the video. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️)
Great video. I knew galvanized welding has its hazards and appreciate your video detailing them, but I need to add one comment concerning scba. Those units do not use oxygen bottles. They use compressed air bottles, basically atmosphere air compressed into the bottle. Breathing pure oxygen can have its own hazards but the volume of oxygen that you have not consumed which exits a positive pressure mask adds its own safety issues to Open Flame or welding sparks. Just look what happens when you turn on then up the oxygen on your oxy acetylene torch. Just food for thought.
It's crazy to see how many people don't wear breathing safety mask when welding. I learned the hard way....got a serious chest infection. I now wear a mask for all welding.
Would be good to round out the video with a comment about the weld strength and how to re-apply the galvanization or whatever is most appropriate after the weld.
It’s a cheap fix because a lot of places that you can’t clean perfectly heat up enough to produce lead oxide. I only say this 1 year later because if you haven’t realized already, you have not been properly protected for however long you’ve been working with galv
It’s definitely a good idea to grind off the coating to ensure a clean weld with no inclusions but this doesn’t mean that the workpiece isn’t still producing the same fumes.
Metal Fume Fever always sounded like a battle of the bands head liner🤘! Years ago one of my graveyard supervisors said just suck it up and embrace it. Or hold your breath in between the stitch. 🇺🇸
I didn't know about galvanized when I was younger 80s so I was breathing the fumes like sometimes u can't help inhaling, so I lit up a cigarette and it tasted sweet and I ask my buddy hay these cigarettes taste sweet he said it not breathing that fumes are you I said well kind of he said don't breathe that crap I woke up the next day felt weird went to work and 2 other people I knew were dead I said what happened zink poisoning I felt like crap for 4 weeks honestly I didn't think I would ever feel right again, my buddies who died just started welding galvanized for the first time too we car pooled together, we were all about 22 years old, so that day I went to the hospital and ask how they died he said the zinc poisoning makes your heart just stop , the brain and the nerve that goes to ur heart to keep it beating zinc poisoning from welding it tells it to stop. Found out later the two were going home that night the driver die instantly and hit a tree killed the passenger, autopsy was of zinc fuc up man
I liked that shirt, 😒 my bad for leaving it in the shop. Also... it's important to clean and allow your respirator to dry before sealing it in a plastic bag (in a cleaner area than the shop). Bad things will grow in the nooks and crannies due the humidity from your breath and will also make you sick. Sick bad.
The lads here in the Philippines weld galvanised all the time, usually in flip-flips and shirtless, no gloves. Sometimes the safety conscious ones might wear a pair of sunglasses. Sounds like I'll stick to regular steel and my mountain of safety gear; I'll avoid that galvanised shit like the plague. I've been around them a lot when they were welding as we had a team here last year building an extension to the house (they weld the roofs here with thin galvanised frames and rivet the corrugated covering on top) - luckily I was not close enough to get zapped by fumes.
I always hang my respirator up in front of a fan in an open area with no fumes. I used to keep my respirators wrapped up in a thick hoodie or blanket and it ended up growing a bunch of mold.
One of my uncles used to be a welder. Many years later, he’s diagnosed with Thyroid cancer which doctors claims could be caused by his previous occupation as a Welder. He has since passed..
Question.. I was told by an old friend. You can throw a galv peice of pipe that you want to weld on into a hot fire pit and walk away and it will BURN the galv off of the pipe?? Have u ev heard of this?
I have done a lot of welding over the years and suffered from galvanise fume poison on many occasions. I always brushed it off as a bad flu, because that's exactly what it felt like. Last week I was mig welding a wall mount air-condition bracket up out of some thin galvanised box tube. The welds were tediously slow due to the thin thickness of the metal, all in all about 2 hours welding. That evening I felt I had caught another bloody flu! I woke up in sever chills and sweat, body was shaking, couldn't walk unless I was prepared to suffer even more so. I tried to drink water which was hard from a very sore throat. I could only lay back in my bed in a cold sweat twitching and shaking and feeling nausea. I had a headache but it wasn't so bad unless I had to cough. Next day was just as bad, with nausea picking up and severe cramps followed by liver or kidney and left inner chest pain. I couldn't eat, only drink lemonade water or milk. 2nd night I laid in front of the heater with jeans, shirt & a blanket all night. I felt like I was going to die. My body was cramping so badly, really painful cramps I couldn't un-cramp some of my muscles cramped in my feet & legs for 5 to 10 min at a time. I did that welding on Wednesday and now it's Saturday, I still have the flu cough and slight chest pain but I can actually get about. At the beginning I actually thought maybe this covid is real and that's what I got. I used the kids free covid tests kits building up in the cabinet 3 times, Nothing! Negative! In the end I linked that poison odour from my lungs and sweat and looked up galvanise fumes to finally realise this isn't a bug or flu. I am left wondering if all galvanise is the same? I have welded a lot of galvanise steel and never suffered this badly before.
I'm not a welder, just took welding classes through high school and college and I know welding galvanized is poisonous. It blows me away actual welders have no idea.
they dont seem to sell the 2097 filters in Australia, I'm looking at a 3m 7500 respirator and it seems to have 2128 filters? would they be any good for this?
Hmmm, I'm not up on all the different types of filters out there. You want one specifically for metal fumes. I'd get a hold of a welding supply store--they'll know the answer in a heartbeat.
Dan… why did they give you the pink Princess Lia hair bun thingys for your mask? Is that the new manly man thing? I prefer yellow… it matches my eyes much better! Are you gonna auction that shirt on eBay? I mean a genuine feature film used artifact can sell for tens of thousands of bucks. Dan, you have to explore all the revenue streams that celebrity… or is it infamy… provide! On a serious note… this may be my favorite SWI production to date.
Any difference in weld penetration between cleaning the galvanized coating off vs not doing so? & Do you have to spray coating over the weld or do you leave it be vs spraying the cleaned off section of pipe which creates an unsightly contrast imo. Thx
You do get a better weld and not as much spatter when you clean the galv off. We always spray the coating over the weld. We swear by Galv Pro: bit.ly/galvpro
Good information. Now for the critique. Because the subject is about preventing a mishap welding Galvanized steel, a little less antics and a little more straight forward information. Thought you should know.
@@SWiFence I don't know much except what he told me but he claimed the medicine he had to take for the seizures seemed to make him unable to think very clear at all but helped the seizures. Years had already passed since his incident and he said he was advised he'd have the problem life long. Seems hard to find a ton of info on this stuff online. You'd think there's a specific respirator you could wear. Wonder which grade of respirator can stop it? Can the zinc enter through your eyes as with some meds and poisons? A lot to consider when dealing with something like that.
Get him an Adflo PAPR helmet. Positive pressure inside the hood that will keep the fumes out. It's the only safe way with that big ol beard he's sporting there. It's not just the short term ill effects, this can have long term consequences.
Can’t wear a respirator if you’ve got a beard 🤷♂️ I just hold my breath. Been doing it every Monday-Thursday for the last 2 years and have yet to get sick from it. But seriously FUCK welding galv. It’s an absolute nightmare. My feet are so covered in scabs from getting burnt up. Definitely need a new job! 😂 👎
I recently just started a new job at a fab shop without having prior experience working with galvanized. I've welded it for about 2 days now and pretty sure I got metal fume fever. I figured something wasn't right and I did the research and sure enough you're supposed to wear a respirator when welding this stuff (which my company does not supply or instruct me prior to welding). I'm so afraid that I might have cause some kind of long term affect to my health. Really hope it isn't the case.... Definitely telling them to buy some equipment..
Good luck
Oh man--sorry to hear that. 😞 If you end up using the 3M face mask like I was using, make sure to use the #2097 filters (NOT the #2091's). The #2091's look exactly the same but don't actually filter vapor. (I actually had the wrong filters attached in the video. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️)
get out of there
That sucks, your company clearly doesnt care about safety at all
@@SWiFence Those filters work VERY well. You know you have a good filter if you can't even smell a fart.
I'm a firefighter. I love this PPE walkthrough. So many similarities to our work. Great video. Thanks for posting it!
Great video. I knew galvanized welding has its hazards and appreciate your video detailing them, but I need to add one comment concerning scba. Those units do not use oxygen bottles. They use compressed air bottles, basically atmosphere air compressed into the bottle. Breathing pure oxygen can have its own hazards but the volume of oxygen that you have not consumed which exits a positive pressure mask adds its own safety issues to Open Flame or welding sparks. Just look what happens when you turn on then up the oxygen on your oxy acetylene torch. Just food for thought.
Great points!
I used to work in a shop that had a couple places that welded galvanized metal a down draft table is awesome to clear out smoke.
It's crazy to see how many people don't wear breathing safety mask when welding. I learned the hard way....got a serious chest infection. I now wear a mask for all welding.
Would be good to round out the video with a comment about the weld strength and how to re-apply the galvanization or whatever is most appropriate after the weld.
Informative and entertaining - great job!
Prep the steel first by grinding the galvanize coating off of the steel before you weld it. Then you just need a welding shield.
If it's pipe you'll still have the galvanized coating inside. Unless you have a grinder that fits inside the pipe too
It’s a cheap fix because a lot of places that you can’t clean perfectly heat up enough to produce lead oxide. I only say this 1 year later because if you haven’t realized already, you have not been properly protected for however long you’ve been working with galv
It’s definitely a good idea to grind off the coating to ensure a clean weld with no inclusions but this doesn’t mean that the workpiece isn’t still producing the same fumes.
Metal Fume Fever always sounded like a battle of the bands head liner🤘! Years ago one of my graveyard supervisors said just suck it up and embrace it. Or hold your breath in between the stitch. 🇺🇸
Battle of the Bands: 🤣
Suck it up: 😵
I didn't know about galvanized when I was younger 80s so I was breathing the fumes like sometimes u can't help inhaling, so I lit up a cigarette and it tasted sweet and I ask my buddy hay these cigarettes taste sweet he said it not breathing that fumes are you I said well kind of he said don't breathe that crap I woke up the next day felt weird went to work and 2 other people I knew were dead I said what happened zink poisoning I felt like crap for 4 weeks honestly I didn't think I would ever feel right again, my buddies who died just started welding galvanized for the first time too we car pooled together, we were all about 22 years old, so that day I went to the hospital and ask how they died he said the zinc poisoning makes your heart just stop , the brain and the nerve that goes to ur heart to keep it beating zinc poisoning from welding it tells it to stop. Found out later the two were going home that night the driver die instantly and hit a tree killed the passenger, autopsy was of zinc fuc up man
I liked that shirt, 😒 my bad for leaving it in the shop. Also... it's important to clean and allow your respirator to dry before sealing it in a plastic bag (in a cleaner area than the shop). Bad things will grow in the nooks and crannies due the humidity from your breath and will also make you sick. Sick bad.
Excellent advice!
The lads here in the Philippines weld galvanised all the time, usually in flip-flips and shirtless, no gloves. Sometimes the safety conscious ones might wear a pair of sunglasses. Sounds like I'll stick to regular steel and my mountain of safety gear; I'll avoid that galvanised shit like the plague. I've been around them a lot when they were welding as we had a team here last year building an extension to the house (they weld the roofs here with thin galvanised frames and rivet the corrugated covering on top) - luckily I was not close enough to get zapped by fumes.
I remember an old man who worked with me in a workshop who not only never wore a mask, but was always smoking a cigarette under the weldinghood 🤣
Well... there you go. 😆
Very informative and the lawyer was the bomb!!!
Excellently produced video! Thank you!
Thank you too!
I always hang my respirator up in front of a fan in an open area with no fumes. I used to keep my respirators wrapped up in a thick hoodie or blanket and it ended up growing a bunch of mold.
10000 dollar osha fine finding an unattended non bagged respirator
@@jodylinnartz4461 I work for myself so it don’t matter
Nick could be a good late night lawyer if he ever decides to give making these fine videos.
*Nick briefly considers changing careers. Decides not to since he doesn't own a lincoln.
This video is top notch!
Thanks!
One of my uncles used to be a welder. Many years later, he’s diagnosed with Thyroid cancer which doctors claims could be caused by his previous occupation as a Welder. He has since passed..
Oh man sorry to hear that. Worth being careful around this stuff for sure.
Very good video!
Thank you very much!
Question..
I was told by an old friend. You can throw a galv peice of pipe that you want to weld on into a hot fire pit and walk away and it will BURN the galv off of the pipe??
Have u ev heard of this?
This is the first I've heard of that. The next time I have a hot fire I'll have to try it and see.
I do scuba dive should I wear my scuba respirator as most don't work with my beard
I have done a lot of welding over the years and suffered from galvanise fume poison on many occasions. I always brushed it off as a bad flu, because that's exactly what it felt like. Last week I was mig welding a wall mount air-condition bracket up out of some thin galvanised box tube. The welds were tediously slow due to the thin thickness of the metal, all in all about 2 hours welding. That evening I felt I had caught another bloody flu! I woke up in sever chills and sweat, body was shaking, couldn't walk unless I was prepared to suffer even more so. I tried to drink water which was hard from a very sore throat. I could only lay back in my bed in a cold sweat twitching and shaking and feeling nausea. I had a headache but it wasn't so bad unless I had to cough. Next day was just as bad, with nausea picking up and severe cramps followed by liver or kidney and left inner chest pain. I couldn't eat, only drink lemonade water or milk. 2nd night I laid in front of the heater with jeans, shirt & a blanket all night. I felt like I was going to die. My body was cramping so badly, really painful cramps I couldn't un-cramp some of my muscles cramped in my feet & legs for 5 to 10 min at a time. I did that welding on Wednesday and now it's Saturday, I still have the flu cough and slight chest pain but I can actually get about. At the beginning I actually thought maybe this covid is real and that's what I got. I used the kids free covid tests kits building up in the cabinet 3 times, Nothing! Negative! In the end I linked that poison odour from my lungs and sweat and looked up galvanise fumes to finally realise this isn't a bug or flu. I am left wondering if all galvanise is the same? I have welded a lot of galvanise steel and never suffered this badly before.
Sounds like galv poisoning to me. Maybe you were closer to it than normal or the ventilation was different. Be careful! That stuff's no joke!
I read that you become more sensitive with each exposure.
Have you not heard of the term "cumulative"?
I'm not a welder, just took welding classes through high school and college and I know welding galvanized is poisonous. It blows me away actual welders have no idea.
Literally no idea.
they dont seem to sell the 2097 filters in Australia, I'm looking at a 3m 7500 respirator and it seems to have 2128 filters? would they be any good for this?
Hmmm, I'm not up on all the different types of filters out there. You want one specifically for metal fumes. I'd get a hold of a welding supply store--they'll know the answer in a heartbeat.
hmm i want to live to 125, maybe i should wait 20 more years to start welding
😂
Dan… why did they give you the pink Princess Lia hair bun thingys for your mask? Is that the new manly man thing? I prefer yellow… it matches my eyes much better!
Are you gonna auction that shirt on eBay? I mean a genuine feature film used artifact can sell for tens of thousands of bucks. Dan, you have to explore all the revenue streams that celebrity… or is it infamy… provide!
On a serious note… this may be my favorite SWI production to date.
Thanks Sassafras! If you're interested you can skip the auction and buy the shirt now for $273,000!
@@SWiFence I would… but then I couldn’t afford the postage! LOL
Thank you!
You bet!
ALso good advice for those floating spike proteins. On another note you guys look cute without hose hats on
Nice bro
Thanks
I guess thats what i had a month ago. It felt like it came out of nowhere, instantly right after i got out of school
My welding instructor had Parkinson's and attributed it to welding on galv. No good!
No good at all.
Id never work at this place. You need proper extraction or at least a papr system if you care about your workers.
Can u get shocked and electrocuted when welding flux corded
🤣great video
Any difference in weld penetration between cleaning the galvanized coating off vs not doing so?
&
Do you have to spray coating over the weld or do you leave it be vs spraying the cleaned off section of pipe which creates an unsightly contrast imo.
Thx
You do get a better weld and not as much spatter when you clean the galv off.
We always spray the coating over the weld. We swear by Galv Pro: bit.ly/galvpro
Great that u guys aren’t super pc, super safety weenies. Real world dudes doing work. I am so tired of super pc, super weenies. Rock on!
there's zinc oxide in white rice bubbles
Good information. Now for the critique. Because the subject is about preventing a mishap welding Galvanized steel, a little less antics and a little more straight forward information. Thought you should know.
He had all of the "straight forward information" covered AND he keeps attention via humor and excellent editing.
Guy I went to college with began having seizures for life after welding galvanized in highschool he said.
😶 Not good.
@@SWiFence I don't know much except what he told me but he claimed the medicine he had to take for the seizures seemed to make him unable to think very clear at all but helped the seizures. Years had already passed since his incident and he said he was advised he'd have the problem life long. Seems hard to find a ton of info on this stuff online. You'd think there's a specific respirator you could wear. Wonder which grade of respirator can stop it? Can the zinc enter through your eyes as with some meds and poisons? A lot to consider when dealing with something like that.
Now part 2, how to weld AND die
😆
....you're not going to die from welding galvanized steel.
2:02 😯
Haha sounds like a jawa on the other end.
Get him an Adflo PAPR helmet. Positive pressure inside the hood that will keep the fumes out. It's the only safe way with that big ol beard he's sporting there. It's not just the short term ill effects, this can have long term consequences.
.... Is that Ze Frank as Nick?
It's not. 😁 That's Nick as Nick.
@@SWiFence Well he does a damn good likeness of Ze Frank. I thought you went and contracted the guy to do bits for you, lol
But if ya in a well ventaled space you should be alright
Everyone's definition of well-ventilated is different.
All the stupid jokes are annoying..
Sorry Joe. You'd be surprised how hard it is to please everyone.
Can’t wear a respirator if you’ve got a beard 🤷♂️ I just hold my breath. Been doing it every Monday-Thursday for the last 2 years and have yet to get sick from it. But seriously FUCK welding galv. It’s an absolute nightmare. My feet are so covered in scabs from getting burnt up. Definitely need a new job! 😂 👎