bonding metal

It ain't the colors. It's the white smoke. Zinc fumes. Look up "zinc fume fever" on Google. Then you'll know what you're missing.

Some people apparently are more susceptable than others. But most people are gonna suffer, if they breathe a lot of zinc fumes.

We aren't talking about zinc poisoning. We're talking about zinc fume fever. It's a temporary condition that feels like the flu. You drink milk to relieve some of the symptoms.

You'll learn about it in any welding class you take.

Ed Huntress

I brazed a bolt or something to a piece of galvanized chain years ago, in my garage, with the door open. I got sick as a dog. As an added little insult I'm allergic to milk.

Colors, smoke, same thing. Takes colors to make the smoke, that's how it gets white. ;)

(Fun when you overheat the end of a crimped, heavily galv. pipe. Stick a wrench in the open end and zinc plate it!)

Probably it. All those warnings on various solvents never do anything to my skin... well okay, if I play in cement too long I get nasty dry hands for a day.

Well, same idea. 'Cept this poison wears off.. or whatever.... you know what I mean! ;o)

Or from reading RCM a few years, as I have been. :)

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

This is a cumulative effect, TIm. You don't notice any damage for a long time. My hands, from working in cutting oils, solvents, coolants, are dry enough now that I cannot separate two sheets of paper without a lotion of some kind to moisten them. On very cold, dry days, if I make a fist and grab something, the back of my hands itch, and looking at them with a good lens shows hundreds of tiny cracka in the skin. Takes a while, but pay attention to the warnings.

When I worked in the asphalt lab. we used trichlorethylene for asphalt content extraction tests (and a lot more unauthorized applications)' at the same time I was in the military reserve. Hot weather drill became something of a torture as the salty sweat penetrated the dry cracked skin. Didn't take long to developed an appreciation for moisturizing hand lotion. Portland cement is even worse. Gerry :-)} London, Canada