Practicing on conduit

YES....although I can't really say what they are.

Either grind off the galvanzing in the area of the weld, or keep your face outtalk the nice white smoke.

Good ventilation is not a bad idea either.....Just don't blow away your shielding gas if you are using MIG or TIG.

Don't breath the fumes. They contain zinc because zinc vaporizes at a lower temperature than steel melts at. Zinc generally isn't a problem for the human body unless you breath it. In fact, some zinc is required for the body to work right. But if you breathe enough of it, you will be sick as a dog. There are no chronic effects though. But you may wish you died for a while.

OK - no conduit or galvanized pipe;- - Mike

Howdy! AS another reason... If you haven't priced conduit lately, I see no way it is cost effective to practice with "new" material of conduit. The costs are so high right now. The best place for material to practice with I have found, is material supply houses. They usually have a scraps bin. It's simply cheeper for them to sell it to public, then to ship it to the scrap yard. My local supply house has pre-bundled "batches" of about 75 lbs of misc steel. It's about 20$ a bundle. pieces are arranged bye style. I.E. flat bar, round tube, square / rectangular tube, angle steel. Usually they are between 12"

--> 36" long, 1/8th"--> 1/2" thicknesses. Just a thought for material. I use these sorces for nearly all my material, since my projects don't require long pieces. Happy welding! Brian Lee Sparkeee24

"Michael Horowitz" wrote: OK - no conduit or galvanized pipe;- - Mike ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If I stopped using conduit for my welding projects, two things would happen:

1.) My light weight structures wouldn't be nearly as light anymore, and b.) They would cost a lot more.

Most of my time is spent preparing the pieces, so I don't spend long periods of time doing the actual welding. I am pretty casual about the galvanizing--it just burns off while I'm welding--never had a problem. I'm not saying anyone else should follow my lead, but I sure save a lot of time by ignoring it.

Leo, Do you know if welding right on it with TIG would work? Also, what sorts of stuff have you been making of conduit. I've wanted to add conduit to my 'capabilities.'

i am certainly no expert, but when i tried welding something galvanized (with a TIG) it seemed as if the metal (both the zinc AND steel) were spitting and jumping onto the electrode and (welding) onto the screen inside the ceramic cup. really a frustrating mess. won't do that again. and, it seemed to me soft conduit got MUCH softer after i heated it (to remove the zinc), like, uselessly soft.

the other day i tried muriatic acid on a piece of galvanized sheet metal for the first time and it seemed to work very well. i wanted to say thanks to whoever/everybody who (throughout my time here) have suggested using muriatic acid. i was very surprised how FAST it worked, i assumed it would take tens of minutes, took seconds. muriatic acid = good.

b.w.

"David Todtman" wrote: Do you know if welding right on it with TIG would work? Also, what sorts of stuff have you been making of conduit. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I use oxy-acetylene and flux-core MIG, but I don't own TIG. What are some of my projects? I welded a pair of masts to some clamps, so my son could support a banner from a table. I did extensive modifications to a walker/wheelchair that I use to take my wife to the doctor. I added a footrest, some handles, and a more comfortable back. I built a bicycle trailer using a combination of conduit and bike frame parts. I built a rack for my wood-lathe tools, using angle iron, conduit and plywood. I could go on if my memory were better.

Thanks Leo. That helps.

Thanks also to William.

Why not use black water pipe without the health issues and its half the price of electrical conduit.