cleaning steel for welding

[mimoose]

i am now practicing my welding and am about to clean and cut my 16 GA steel for my project, is dawn dishwashing okay?

[Taiden]

I'm going to say no. I'm not an expert, but you want to stay away from most solvents. DO NOT USE BRAKE CLEANER! Or any solvent with any form of chlorine in it. When you weld it will release Phosgene gas which WILL KILL YOU! We aren't talking metal fume fever, we're talking you curl up into a ball and you die.

Maybe I'm being drastic here, but Phosgene gas is serious business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene

My understanding is Acetone is good, because it evaporates and leaves nothing behind.

I hear alcohol works well too for the same reason.

[9krome]

Originally Posted by mimoose

i am now practicing my welding and am about to clean and cut my 16 GA steel for my project, is dawn dishwashing okay?

Ha ha ha. Thats funny . Never use dawn... everybody know you should use comet.

[DesertRider33]

Sometimes I have a lot of hole drilling to do on pieces before I weld them. I use generous amounts automatic tranny fluid to keep the bits lubricated while drilling. If I have a lot of pieces to clean, I wash them with liquid dish washing soap (any brand will do) and rinse with water, let sit in sun to dry, then prep and weld them up. If there's not a lot of parts to clean, I clean them with a rag and acetone. It's just not practical or cost effective to do a whole lotta cleaning of oily parts with rags and acetone, so the water and dish washing soap makes more sense in those situations. For lengths of tube that come from the metal supply all oiled up, acetone and rags works well.

[welderShane]

I usually use denatured alcohol

[mimoose]

thanks folks! i suppose the question sounded silly, but i had to know.

[mimoose]

i would have never considered using brake cleaner

Originally Posted by Taiden

I'm going to say no. I'm not an expert, but you want to stay away from most solvents. DO NOT USE BRAKE CLEANER! Or any solvent with any form of chlorine in it.
My understanding is Acetone is good, because it evaporates and leaves nothing behind.

I hear alcohol works well too for the same reason.

[chilinski]

Read this:

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

[Taiden]

Originally Posted by mimoose

i would have never considered using brake cleaner

that's fine, but I wanted to bring that to your attention because I didn't want you to just pick it up one day and get the blunt end of the stick.... See the post chilinski made. Really scary stuff!