OT: I think I got myself sick welding galvanised, calling any real welders.... Options

[Scott S]

Built a muffler last night (really pleased with how it came out and sounds). Woke up with a sore throat. By lunch a had just a touch of the shakes. Called the FLAPS where I bought some of the piping and they guy said it was galvanised. When I bought the stuff, I specifically asked about this, as it was hard to tell if the parts were coated (not the usual sheen). The other guy said he thought they were just aluminized and would be fine to weld. Being a beginner - I believed him.

Any idea how this will last? I spent a continuous 2-3 hours last night breathing this crap. I litterally feel like I have a mild flu.

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[Andyrew]

Charlie,

Nearly impossible welding is my name! Thats why you have to crank up the argon.. When I used to do it in the shop we had a big fan blow all the air out, it was necessary, but we got good welds out of it with a couple tricks. One of the wierdest tricks that I figured out was that we wouldnt grind down the galvanize OR the primer over the galvanize (commercial door frames), then we would grind a small spot to start our weld and just weld right through the primer and galvanize. It actually allowed (for an unknown reason) for the galvanizing to not affect the weld. Otherwise if we tried to grind to bare metal and weld, we would just lay our bead and then POP and the weld would be gone, and we would have to reweld it MANY times... Not such a good thing for a production shop...