I have welded on probably 20 of the cast aluminum elbow onto turbo outlets and have never noticed anything weird. Today I welded one on that came from racepartsolutions, not sure of the brand but it didn't have a T on the side or anything.
My compressor housing was clean, I wire wheeled, clean stainless brush, and then acetoned the elbow.
Well when welding this thing I thought I was gong to die!! Didn't really put off a smoke of any type, but it had a strange odor that you could even taste. Inhaling even a tiny bit made me almost nauseous and I have upchucked in years, I still have a pounding headache and feel ache all over. Any idea what the heck happened?
My work area is vented pretty well also.

Thanks

 

zinc pot metal I bet...
edit. not pot metal, but aluminum alloyed with zinc


Modified by Bailhatch at 6:58 PM 4/19/2008

 

It sounds like you didn't have sufficient ventilation, and if you were welding anything galvanized, (i.e., electrical conduit pipes) the zinc oxide vapors will make you feel sick. BTW, I fail to see how this has anything to do with the Chinese.

 

well first off, he said Aluminum, not Galvanized steel. And I agree about the cheap *** chinese metals. I had to intercooler piping that I was told was vibrant, I found out after welding it, it was some cheap ebay piping. It would not clean for anything. Never dealt with cast though

 

i've welded some aluminum bends that customers have brought in, nothing bought from any of the sponsors on here (that's for sure) and no matter what i did, the contamination was always there... even when i went from my own 6061 and back, it is just cheap *** aluminum. it was probably painted with lead paint.

 

Congratulations you have cancer, lol. Definitely get a respirator made for chemical fumes. They make some that fit behind welding masks. I try to wear one when welding anything.

 

i have noticed when welding ebay piping, after you weld there is a blue color in the cleaning zone of the weld

 

Ever wonder why that chinese stuff is so cheap, and then some? Its probably a contaminated alloy, as zinc will alloy with aluminum fairly easily. Cast metal is also porus, so its possible they cleaned it in some very unhealthy solvent and left it bathing too long. Basicly all metal made in the USA will carry an alloy designation which is true, since there are few ways around certs, as ISO doesn't hand them out like candy. In china, all you have to make sure is you aren't a gross polluter or kill much of your staff - or at least pay enough to keep that quiet. Anything goes

IMO, people are actually over-paying for chinese metal products.

 

ive welded some chinese 308L Stainless steel elbows before, and it gave off this sour / vinegar smell , it was totally gross..

yeah i dont know whats up with these chinese metals

 

Some of that Chinese stainless doesn't even feel like stainless. You try to expand it and it cracks, you try to weld it and it fizzes, you try to cut it and it eats your bandsaw blades. I don't get it.

 

maybe the special additive is sars

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HiProfile &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">IMO, people are actually over-paying for chinese products.</TD></TR></TABLE>

^^^fixed it for you.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by k24em2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">maybe the special additive is sars</TD></TR></TABLE>

i laughed, that is so funny... thanks.