Can you just MIG it or do you have to grind back to clean metal?

Cheers,

Pat...

I welded it ok, just didn't breath in the fumes

Probably is quite bad for you but wasn't told about the fumes afterwards.

There is the possibility that my mate was scare mongering so I'll be interested in the future comments.

Regards

Rich

Id grid it back first pat, iirc welding galv gives of cynenide(?) or so other rather unpleasant gas, make sure your well ventilated!

It gives off zinc oxide I think, and I remember some years ago when I did quite a lot of welding on galvanised sheet, too much fume sniffing resulted in a major bellyache but nothing any more serious than that. Best advice would be to grind the weld area, taking care to avoid the dust as well, and touch over the welded area with aluminium paint to rust proof.

Was always told to avoid galv fumes as they're
highly carcinogenic.
Mind you, what fumes are good for you, i don't know many tradesmen that live to a ripe old age, especially welders. We used to get a free pint of milk each day Like that was going to magically protect us from the deadly fumes, What a load of shi#e

You have to grind (or better still sand with a rotary attachment on your angle grinder) the area you want to weld to plus an inch or so - and where you plan to attach your earth clamp.

You still might find it doesnt weld very nicely - I have never had much success with welding galv

So hope it works better for you than it has for me!

Geoff

Weld it outside and it should be alright. It makes yellow fluff type deposits if you don't grind it off. Zinc or any metal oxide inhalation causes metal fume fever which is like flu symptoms.

you can weld it as it is but you will get a lot of bubbles/pinholes its better to grind back. if you breath it in you get whats know as welders flu buy a pp3 throw away mask

Welding galv is bad. Grind the metal back to shiney and then a bit more just to make sure. Any galv in the weld pool will weaken it. The fluffy powderey fumes make my fillings itch and makes me cough up bits of lung.......

Teachers are college say ya get what they call galvy flu and its not nice

Agree with all said above. After welding touch up with Galvafroid, (think thats right) excelent stuff. HTH Ray.

Well dodgy if you ask me! Wouldn't do it again. I was ignorant and felt like sh1t afterwards

what is it that your welding ? if is hiden away and doesnt have load on it just blast it as it is.
but if it has load on it dont do it without grinding it off first the galv causes perosity in the weld (doesnt allow your shield gas to protect and will be like welding with your gas off) so the weld will be much weaker than normal.
or...... if your worried about the fumes get a mate round tell him you can weld galv is he any good at it and men being men will say yeah let me have a go. job done lol

As previously said, zinc oxide comes off....
Good for curing nappy rash in babies, not so good when you inhale it....
Gives you a banging headache in small quantities, flu like symptoms and abdo grumbles in larger quantities.
Poisonous if you eat it (like when people make BBQs out of shopping trolleys or baskets.....)...

More importantly(!), the welds get contaminated with it and turn out pretty crappy. Better to grind it off properly before doing the welding....

Yes the zinc fumes give you flu-like symptoms, and the milk is for a reason: drinking cold milk cures welder's flu!

relayed info from people who actually know what they are talking about, the topic has come up in the past.