what protects a weld

"tom" wrote: (clip) i thought i heard of a product that can be sprayed on new welds to protect them until primer is applied. thanks ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ How about spray primer?

cheap clear coat spray

Since most of my work nowadays is going in or near water, I spray everything with cold galvanizing spray first.

I don't think I have ever ran across cold galvanizing spray, can anyone purchase that or do I have to go through a galvanizing company? Is it work better than a rattle can of primer? thanks

Does that protect better than a rattle can of primer?

Most of the spray cans of primer i have seen doesn't seem to have much solids in them. Is there a brand you recommend? I saw an etch primer at NAPA but I havn;t heard any good or bad things about it. I also saw the Rustoleum for rusty metal but I don;t know hopw that would work on metal just welded. Thanks for any tips...

Rustoleum makes a cold galvanizing compound, but it's not easy to find as a lot of places don't stock it. I know Grainger sells it. It's pretty expensive, like 40 bucks for a quart. Comes in rattle cans too. Welding supply centers often sell cold galv. compound too.

Hi everyone

A lot of my "day job" is primering steel structurals - beams and hollow closed sections. I use a roller - long wire handle (about

The primer is "etching" - it certainly stings if any gets onto your face and starts to dry there! The grey primer has zinc in it.

For jobs which will be in view, I can produce a finish which folk say is as good as sprayed-on primer. Quite quickly. For rough-and-ready jobs not in view where "mustn't give the customer more than they pay for", can control so the paint is complete and uniform but thin.

In all cases...

Control the paint and its rollering by using a paint tray. Never dip the roller into the tin to reload it. You want the paint on the surface of the roller. Pour the paint into the tray, a bit at a time as you go along. Push what paint you want out of the pool with the roller and spread it uniformly on the roller away from the pool.

Paint tray - if it's a beam, the channel forms its own paint tray - just pour the paint into the channel. For rectangular closed hollow sections, cylindrical tubes and so on, have pieces of Universal Beam which I cut up with an oxy-acet. torch - ones with tall web and narrow flanges. Stays where you put it! Worth carrying over (few kgs weight).

When using a paint tray ("self-tray" or separate tray!) can control so only put paint on one end of the roller - which is useful for controlling paint going on fast but without spattering or dripping for narrow features.

You need to control the consistency of the paint using thinners. Xylene is the common one for industrial etching primers. If you pull the roller out of the paint pot, there should be about three thin liquid separate threads of paint running off the length of the roller.

If you pull the roller out of the pot of paint - you have to leave it in there between jobs so it doesn't dry-out, or when stirring-in more thinners, squeeze out all the paint by rollering hard against the paint tray, squeezing all the paint out to one end of the paint tray. Then reload the roller with paint the same way as you normally load it with more paint.

Hope you appreciate this folks - I've just told you the secrets which keep a roof over my head!

Rich S

"tom" writes:

Every major spray paint line has a version of Cold Galvanizing. Rustoleum, Plasticote, Krylon, Crown,...

Cold Galv comes in 2 version in spray cans. Dull and Shiny. The dull stuff protects better, and works well as a primer coat. The shiny stuff is designed to help blend missed spots in new Hot Dip Galvanizing. It does protect prety well, and looks much nicer than te dull stuff. An example of the shiny stuff would be Brite-Galv

or this stuff

It protects better than most paint in a marine environment.

Oops! Sorry! You want to know about a can of something you can have in your tool bag for site welding to qickly protect a weld and the surrounding ground area two minutes after the weld is completed - before you move your kit to the next weld...

What about WD40 (oily protective spray)? Cheap, and acid etch primer would chew through that without even noticing it...???

Richard Smith

I just picked up a can of the Rustoleum cold galvanizing spray at Lowes. It appears to be the shiny variety - wierd stuff.

Bob

Thanks to everyone for their input on this. There were some good ideas that were postged....thanks again for the help

probably not but a good welder likes to show the bead when he can.