read your labels!!

Dang man. Good post. That's insane. I use all kinds of chemicals all the time and never look at the labels. I'll be on the look out from now on.
 
As somebody who welds a lot, I want to thank you for this info. I have been guilty of cleaning parts with brake cleaner prior to TIG welding. Never again.

I've dodged this bullet too many times already.

Fred
 
Wow!!! Thanks for posting this githianki.
I'm a welder, do MIG welding all the time. I generally don't have to clean what I'm welding, but I'll be taking notice of what's on there in the future.

:rockon:
 
phosgene gas in WW1:

Following on the heels of chlorine gas came the use of phosgene. Phosgene as a weapon was more potent than chlorine in that while the latter was potentially deadly it caused the victim to violently cough and choke.

Phosgene caused much less coughing with the result that more of it was inhaled; it was consequently adopted by both German and Allied armies.
 
You know those chemicals that evaporate really quickly? Alcohols, pesticides and even hydrogen gas? Brake cleaner will dissolve almost instantaneously. I think gasoline will evaporate very quickly, too.

Don't **** with those chemicals. The reason they evaporate really quickly is because of their instability. A chemical that evaporates very quickly is UNSTABLE. Think about that before setting it on fire.
 
Chlorinated Hydrocarbons are bad, very toxic to human cells. Phosgene is really bad. There are a few manufactures around here that purposely make Phosgene, I think it's a building block of polyurethanes.

I once worked at a chemical plant that made Dichloroethane, if you read the Material Safety Data Sheet it will scare the crap out of you.

I was glad to get out of there.

So anytime you see a compound with the "chrol" and a "thane" combined into one word, be careful or try to find an alternative.
 
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When I was a kid (a very long time ago) I worked at a McDonalds. At that time, most of the stores had washing machines in the basement to clean the bazillion rags and aprons that were used during the course of a day.

A co-worker got smart one Saturday morning and decided to mix bleach and another cleaner that contained chlorine in the wash to assure the rags and aprons got clean. The resulting gas release forced the store to be evacuated (I think we lost the load of laundry as well). It was an honest mistake, so nobody got in trouble, but it's still funny thirty years later!
 
I reposted this to another forum, and it was pointed out that there may have been a few pre-existing conditions that made his respiratory condition worse.

4e631a50.jpg


Hype or no hype, I'm still not going to weld near solvents.

Fred
 
Posted this up in the shop. Being a machinist we all tent to get a lil lazy with maching stuff that has some sort of solvent on it. He is right though...people totally ignore 99% of those labels.
 
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