Galvanized Steel Welding - How to safely weld and blend

Galvanized steel is great for standing up to the elements in the outdoors, but it is not so great for your health when welding. This week's question from the weld app was about welding and grinding galvanized steel. Austin goes over the safety precautions to follow as well as some advice to follow when it comes to removal. If you have a question you would like answered head over to the weld app and drop it in the feed. If we don't get to it there are tons of welders in the community that can jump in to help.

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00:00 Introduction
00:40 What Is Galvanized Steel?
01:42 How To Tell If Something Is Galvanized
02:14 Removing Galvanization
03:07 Safety Precautions
04:10 Grinding & Blending

[BruceLyeg]

I use muriatic acid and a cordless fan along with a respirator. I've had galvanic poisoning and it sucked big time.
Good video and good tips!

[zumbazumba]

Muriatic acid dissolves zinc in matter of minute or two -clean the part after and apply some oil to stop rusting if you wont weld instantly. Best part is you can protect part you dont want to remove zinc from with tape.
I was in need of m20 bolts for my lathe leveling feet and they needed to be welded to a steel plate .So i took electrical tape and protected thread parts, after that i filled plastic cup with muriatic acid and dipped the bolt heads in . 2 min later bolt head is bare metal and thread still has zinc on it.

[jamespuckett]

When I worked in a fire sprinkler fab shop, I used a rosebud of the pipe when I could. I'd put a fan on it or take it outside and burn it off. Lots of heat worked wonders on galvanized. When I couldn't burn it off, I'd grind it with a flap disc and put a fan on the end of the pipe where it was sucking air through it so it wouldn't affect my gas flow

[CraigHollabaugh]

Award winning acting! Thanks for the safety info.

[kimfuhrer]

I dropped the end of a half inch tube into citric acid. The galvanized layer dissolved after ten minutes. Just make sure that you wash well away the acid afterwards and spray some oil on it if you're not welding it right away. Otherwise it start's to rust pretty fast.

[tjinla]

Only weld in a well ventilated shop or outside. A chemical respirator is a must. Never underestimate how hazardous the fumes are. The nerve damage is additive so repeated exposure can be fatal. Drink milk if you have been exposed to zinc welding fumes.

[Trosity]

had metal fever first day of my apprenticeship now i use a fume hood with it and milk helps alot

[Mocaknight]

Your the best, man! Super helpful. Definitely gonna need to clean my pipe first, before doing a single weld.

[chriswing]

I was welding fence pipe and got that galv. sick quick. Muriatic acid bath with 90 percent water works in 30 minutes then backing soda wash stop the acid. Also WD40 works for splatter too. Didn't know about canola oil. Cooking spray is cheaper than WD.

[shadowxrider]

After reading the comments I'm surprised nobody mentioned T11-GS wire it is literary designed for welding galvanized materials such as for gates and security fencing. It is commonly available and welds very nicely despite being a self-sheilded wire. Ventilation and a good respirator is a 100% must.

[thzzzt]

Metal fume fever doesn't scare me nearly as much as exposure to LEAD OXIDE. I welded galvanized for several days and never got any of the symptoms of metal fume fever. I was stick welding hundreds of shear studs to galvanized metal deck. Then I had an alarming wake-up call when I read just yesterday about lead oxide in galvanized products. Excess zinc leaves the body relatively quickly via urine and feces. Lead, on the other hand, is much slower to excrete, if at all, and builds up in the bones. It is noted for negatively affecting IQ. So respirator it is from now on!

[forreststrong]

I haven't welded too much galvanized I'm not welding all the time though mostly just to build jeeps. For example jeep cherokee xj's when installing frame stiffeners the unibody has been galvanized or dipped in some form of galvanizing you can see the layer when cleaning and if you don't get it all or miss a spot it makes your welds icky and you get that yellow/white junk.
I've ran into galvanized stuff multiple times over the years doing various repairs or modifications on vehicles and ive had to go back and do an extra thorough cleaning but now i know more about it. I've also seen people try to burn through it.

[OsunaFabrication]

I weld Stainless
I Weld Carbon
I weld Chrome
If it’s galvanized I’m going home 😂😂

[gioni]

Hot Gal your weld’s after welding.
MIG welding Galvanised Steel takes a little more experience.
Here’s some tips if you are in a situation where you can not clean off the Zinc Coating.

Reduce your heat.
Hold a slight steeper welding angle.
Have a slight longer wire stick out.
Increase the gas flow to 21 litres a minute.
Use Canola oil spray to reduce spatter.

These are the tricks I learned using solid wire.
You will however obtain a better result with Flux-core wire.
It works great on construction of safety handrails.

[josebangz]

Im welding 1/8th thick unistrut supports for the electricians conduit, learning tho weld galvanized is another ball game than regular carbon welding 😆

[WaynesWorldGarage]

Muriatic acid will disolve the zinc. I think it is easier than grinding, which always seems to leave some zinc embedded in the steel.

[rksando]

Muriatic acid (32% Hydrochloric acid) will completely remove the zinc and rust. I usually dilute down to 10% with water. You can coat with oil to prevent instant rust, but I prefer using phosphoric acid to create a layer of iron phosphate. This will paint over very well.
This also works great to remove rust from old pitted steel, which I use for many non-critical projects.

[paulkurilecz]

I recommend that the galvanized coating be removed prior to welding. Not only for safety and health reasons but in order to obtain a sound weld.

PS: I will weld magnesium alloys before I will weld galvanized steel.

[madhouse]

Guilty of burning through zinc. Also burn through paint.

[jeffladd]

I am a complete novice with welding. Can I use my cheap Harbor Freight wire welder on galvanized if I prep as you described in your video?