WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

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Mike Peters
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WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#1 Post by Mike Peters » Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:26 pm

This link was sent to me and I can't vouch for it's validity but, it may be something to think about in your future welding tasks-

P.S. You might have to enlarge the page when it opens to read it.

http://www.brewracingframes.com/87c8ee40.jpg
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drummondracing
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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#2 Post by drummondracing » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:14 pm

I am no professional but, I have welded alot of stuff over the years and inhaled all kinds of smoke all colors too and had some pretty bad fires with obviously toxic smoke, and I can say NOTHING like that has ever happened to me, So I have to say I think somone is setting them selves up for a lawsuit , O.K. read the labels but ignorance is no excuse, This sounds like the making of one of those 3 o'clock in the morning law infomercials..... :oops:
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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#3 Post by wikd69 » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:29 pm

drummondracing wrote:I am no professional but, I have welded alot of stuff over the years and inhaled all kinds of smoke all colors too and had some pretty bad fires with obviously toxic smoke, and I can say NOTHING like that has ever happened to me, So I have to say I think somone is setting them selves up for a lawsuit , O.K. read the labels but ignorance is no excuse, This sounds like the making of one of those 3 o'clock in the morning law infomercials..... :oops:
I had a bad experience stick welding galvanized stuff. The zinc (or whatever) vaporizes and when you inhale it you feel it, but not immediately. I found I could'nt catch my breath (it was a lot like the asthma I had as a kid) and it persisted for over a week. After that I took care to not ingest too much smoke.
1969 ProStreet Camaro RS Best 9.75@139 1.46 60'
Blown 427 BBC, TH400 w/Brake, Back-Half Ladderbar
Narrowed 12-Bolt, 4.10 Gears, Spool, Moser 33 Spline

http://www.marsh-racing.com/harrys_camaro-1.htm

drummondracing
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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#4 Post by drummondracing » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:46 pm

wikd69 wrote:
drummondracing wrote:I am no professional but, I have welded alot of stuff over the years and inhaled all kinds of smoke all colors too and had some pretty bad fires with obviously toxic smoke, and I can say NOTHING like that has ever happened to me, So I have to say I think somone is setting them selves up for a lawsuit , O.K. read the labels but ignorance is no excuse, This sounds like the making of one of those 3 o'clock in the morning law infomercials..... :oops:
I had a bad experience stick welding galvanized stuff. The zinc (or whatever) vaporizes and when you inhale it you feel it, but not immediately. I found I could'nt catch my breath (it was a lot like the asthma I had as a kid) and it persisted for over a week. After that I took care to not ingest too much smoke.

galvanized is definatley toxic, it burns grenn and smokes like hell but as some point you have to move to fresh air or say to hell with it,galvanized or chemical spray, etc
74 chevy luv 355 sbc bracket car
70 Nova SS bracket / t.n.t car.
(Yes REAL SS 396 DISCS 12B0LT ETC)

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE 68-74 NOVAS




TOO MUCH IS NOT ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#5 Post by John_Heard » Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:18 am

Did that when I was a kid many moons ago (Welding on Galvanized Steel). Didn't know any better. Made me dizzy for a few hours, but I did get my Dad's battery tray for his truck finished lol

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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#6 Post by wikd69 » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:29 am

I work for IBM as an IT Architect and Consultant now, but long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I grew up around a small gyppo logging and sawmill outfit my dad owned. I started twisting wrench in my early teens, and began welding soon after. Fixing busted gear, laying hardface with a stick welder, laying bead and burning that stuff in by the hour, you know the drill. You run the equipment (Cats, skidders, loaders) during the day and work on it at night. There is a patch of roadway a half mile from my parents old house that is rough and buckled still today. LOL I installed a new driveline disc brake system on one of our little Clark skidders and the instructions were to test it by running flat out in high gear and locking up the brakes... imagine twenty five thousand pounds rolling down the road at warp 6 when suddenly all four tires lock up - the new brakes worked great, the blacktop, eh, not so much... :smt003

Here's a shot of the one of the types of skidder we had - this is a Clark Model 666...

Image

Sorry John, I know this is somewhat off topic. Dunno why this particular memory surfaced... I must be in free range mode today... :scratch:
1969 ProStreet Camaro RS Best 9.75@139 1.46 60'
Blown 427 BBC, TH400 w/Brake, Back-Half Ladderbar
Narrowed 12-Bolt, 4.10 Gears, Spool, Moser 33 Spline

http://www.marsh-racing.com/harrys_camaro-1.htm

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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#7 Post by TheBandit » Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:04 pm

I came across this same article recently and did a little more research. I read the back of my can of Brake Kleen and found it could indeed produce phosgene (the apparent culprit of the article). I have used brake cleaner on a lot of parts prior to welding because it does an excellent job of taking the grime off, but usualy I let the parts dry completely before I weld them. The stuff evaporates so quickly that even if you had a puddle in a hole someplace, it wouldn't last more than a minute or two. This guy must have been cleaning with one hand and welding with the other - that or filling cup-sized holes with the stuff. Even so I take safety seriously and I will be more careful with brake cleaner in the future.
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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#8 Post by dadnova » Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:15 pm

Let the carb cleaner evaporate first, or blow it dry first. Its carb cleaner for crine out loud, how could you not know its not for breating or safe to breath.

Thats as bad as the news people the other night on TV about the Ca. wildfires. One really DUMB reporter said, if you can see and smell the smoke, then you are probably breating it :scratch: :shock: :scratch: :shock: :scratch:

There is no probably about it, if you smell it your breating it.

Thats also why any and all welding equipment and supplies state to weld in a well vented area. We use the garage swamp cooler to blow air where we are welding, to get the fumes out and away from us.

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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#9 Post by John_Heard » Wed Sep 02, 2009 8:10 pm

I would assume the deal was some of the cleaner got trapped between some layers of steel - something like that since it evaporates very fast when out in the open.

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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#10 Post by DOTracer » Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:16 pm

Brake Kleen is for cleaning brakes...Acetone is the only solvent you should be using to clean weld areas. It evaporates quickly and leaves no chemical residue.

Just because brake kleen evaporates, doesn't mean it doesn't leave some chemical residue behind.

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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#11 Post by BracketNova » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:37 pm

wikd69 wrote:I work for IBM as an IT Architect and Consultant now, but long ago...
That's kewl...I recently got done with my associates in BIS. I had a personal injury while going to a four year college that made it impossible for me to go. So I went to a two year at night, and got done in a year and a half. Any advice for someone fresh out of school? I do want to continue on to a four year, but I want to get my feet wet first.

My uncle is a Enterprise Data Architect for Principal Financial Group.
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Re: WARNING - Brake Cleaner and Welding

#12 Post by wikd69 » Fri Oct 02, 2009 2:32 am

spaz109 wrote:
wikd69 wrote:I work for IBM as an IT Architect and Consultant now, but long ago...
That's kewl...I recently got done with my associates in BIS. I had a personal injury while going to a four year college that made it impossible for me to go. So I went to a two year at night, and got done in a year and a half. Any advice for someone fresh out of school? I do want to continue on to a four year, but I want to get my feet wet first.
My uncle is a Enterprise Data Architect for Principal Financial Group.
Man, I don't know what to tell you. IT is not what it once was, with OutSourcing and overseas, offshore migrations. I honestly don't know what the market is like today, or where the hotspots are. A lot of it depends on where your interests lay and where you imagine yourself to be in 10 or 15 years. When I first got into IT (we called it Data Processing, or DP, back in those days) there were endless opportunities and lots of cool stuff to invent and work with. Not so much today. It's a lot of pre-packaged commodity tech, shrink-wrap and packaged stuff.

If I had it to do over again, just starting out today, I'd look at focusing on emerging green technology - how to do more with less energy. Come up with a way to provide solar power kits as aftermarket add-ons for passenger cars to keep batteries charged, air conditioning running, etc. Or for the home, something solar-cell based, inexpensive, modular in design, a scalable product that homeowners can purchase and snap together like Leggo blocks to harvest energy from the sun, offsetting their electrical bill. There’s a lot of opportunity in that corner of the market still. Note that I use solar power as an example, there are other green areas to explore. There's a lot of cool stuff you can come up with using off the shelf technology that would have good market appeal.

Sorry, this is prolly not what you wanted to hear. LOL

I'm just getting old and don't have the energy and optimism I once had. Maybe if you ask me again tomorrow, I'll provide a more cheerful and happy sounding response. :mrgreen:
1969 ProStreet Camaro RS Best 9.75@139 1.46 60'
Blown 427 BBC, TH400 w/Brake, Back-Half Ladderbar
Narrowed 12-Bolt, 4.10 Gears, Spool, Moser 33 Spline

http://www.marsh-racing.com/harrys_camaro-1.htm

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