First project advice

[Bravheart]

Thank you everyone for the advice. It really is appreciated.

OK hope you have read all the above comments and taken them on board. I haven't seen one yet that says crack on and get it done so here goes

Run away don't bother with that van. As someone who doesn't make a living from welding but have had my fair share of rusty old crap don't go near it it will be a headache and some.
If you want a first project go get some decent walled NEW box section and build some gates or garden frames barbeque etc. to try out your newly acquired skills.

Oh and stick the pictures on here and get some good feedback.

 

[Osu817]

Just to add to it, here is a Mk6 transit, and what I just found once I popped the washer bottle off .. cleaned up a little round the edges to protect my hands when I was emptying it of rust, but nevertheless, I only took the washer bottle off as a result of this thread yesterday.

Chat with customer incoming...

 

[Hobby_Welder]

OK hope you have read all the above comments and taken them on board. I haven't seen one yet that says crack on and get it done so here goes

Run away don't bother with that van. As someone who doesn't make a living from welding but have had my fair share of rusty old crap don't go near it it will be a headache and some.
If you want a first project go get some decent walled NEW box section and build some gates or garden frames barbeque etc. to try out your newly acquired skills.

Oh and stick the pictures on here and get some good feedback.

Thanks - this leads me onto a health and safety question on what will now most likely be my first project......... some railings.

Picked up some second hand railings for £200 (please see photo below) on the advice of my mate who is a retired plumber, worked in industry fitting pipes in distillery's, power stations, that sort of thing. Did a bit of welding in his job.

We want to install them in my garden/back yard. Should look nice.

We will basically need to cut them and weld them after.

The railings are Galvanised steel and some other mates of mine who are engineers working for bae systems, MOD etc are telling me to be very, very careful of working with this material - saying zinc oxide is extremely dangerous and I should either avoid it or take very stringent precautions. My mate however is adamant that this is scare mongering and all we need do is strip the affected areas on/near of the zinc coating before welding.

Again any advice much appreciated.

 

[Parm]

Thanks - this leads me onto a health and safety question on what will now most likely be my first project......... some railings.

Picked up some second hand railings for £200 (please see photo below) on the advice of my mate who is a retired plumber, worked in industry fitting pipes in distillery's, power stations, that sort of thing. Did a bit of welding in his job.

We want to install them in my garden/back yard. Should look nice.

We will basically need to cut them and weld them after.

The railings are Galvanised steel and some other mates of mine who are engineers working for bae systems, MOD etc are telling me to be very, very careful of working with this material - saying zinc oxide is extremely dangerous and I should either avoid it or take very stringent precautions. My mate however is adamant that this is scare mongering and all we need do is strip the affected areas on/near of the zinc coating before welding.

Again any advice much appreciated.

View attachment 340097

There are telling you good things. Listen to them

 

[gaz1]

agree with parm they are dangerous if breathed in

install them as they are or try matching them in so you can bury them in and cement in place

 

[Moose McAlpine]

The railings are Galvanised steel and some other mates of mine who are engineers working for bae systems, MOD etc are telling me to be very, very careful of working with this material - saying zinc oxide is extremely dangerous and I should either avoid it or take very stringent precautions. My mate however is adamant that this is scare mongering and all we need do is strip the affected areas on/near of the zinc coating before welding.

Strip the galv around where you need to weld. With with a flap wheel or acid (will need neutralizing after or will flash rust) or some such. Then you can weld fine. An inch or two around weld area should be fine.

Galv fumes are highly toxic and can make you very ill almost instantly.

 

[Windy Miller]

I’ve tried grinding away galv many times and never had much success. Seems that there’s always some remaining and it never ALL gets ground away. I wonder if maybe the grinding wheel just smears it around and never actually removes it?
Some sort of acid may be more successful, but what sort exactly?

 

[Moose McAlpine]

I’ve tried grinding away galv many times and never had much success. Seems that there’s always some remaining and it never ALL gets ground away. I wonder if maybe the grinding wheel just smears it around and never actually removes it?
Some sort of acid may be more successful, but what sort exactly?

I use drain cleaner, Spirits of Salt. It's just hydrochloric acid. It eats the galv, but gives off fumes while doing it, so best done outside.

When i've needed to weld nuts to stuff and they're BZP i dip them in acid and it takes all the zinc off in seconds.

Welded some BZP spacers the other day and used a rapid strip disc to take off the zinc, worked perfect.

 

[dave h 2]

The trouble with hot dip galv is it bonds into the top layer of steel so you need to remove that top layer as well as the galv coat.

PS the Transit will end up being 2 weekends work. To avoid loosing a mate get him to hit it with your flux chipping hammer and discover for himself that most of what you can see is flake rust with some paint on it. Then tell him to cut the plates if he still thinks it's easy. You then get to blow holes every where because 1mm steel is like that when you first try it.

 

[addjunkie]

Thanks - this leads me onto a health and safety question on what will now most likely be my first project......... some railings.

Picked up some second hand railings for £200 (please see photo below) on the advice of my mate who is a retired plumber, worked in industry fitting pipes in distillery's, power stations, that sort of thing. Did a bit of welding in his job.

We want to install them in my garden/back yard. Should look nice.

We will basically need to cut them and weld them after.

The railings are Galvanised steel and some other mates of mine who are engineers working for bae systems, MOD etc are telling me to be very, very careful of working with this material - saying zinc oxide is extremely dangerous and I should either avoid it or take very stringent precautions. My mate however is adamant that this is scare mongering and all we need do is strip the affected areas on/near of the zinc coating before welding.

Again any advice much appreciated.

View attachment 340097

Cut them and use a cold bolted solution….

ive welded lots of galvanised stuff its not good for you, its very very bad for you in fact. But its often done.

As for welding cars, get some other mug to do it! The suggestion to get your mate to prep it is a good one. But still tell him to pay someone else to do it