anyone weld after cleaning part with brake kleen? better read this!

[john walker's workshop]

as posted on the H.A.M.B. pretty scary.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=382835

[steve185]

Good information to know! I believe phosgene gas was used by the Germans in the first world war.
Steve

[john walker's workshop]

yup, now you can make it at home. also called mustard gas. the scary part is 2 parts per million can kill you. even less can fuk you up for life. anyone ever use it to check for vacuum leaks on a running engine and get a whiff of the exhaust? smells pretty evil. probably not phosgene in that case, but it ain't good. this post will probably float away and be pages back in short order, in spite of it's importance.

[fastfredracing]

In my early porsche days, I was doing head studs on a 3.0, had the case all cleaned with solvent, and gave it a final spray down with brake cleaner, and then blew off with air hose. When I started heating the spigot bores to loosen the studs, some left over solvent flashed, and besides scaring the hell out of me,, I noticed that my throat and nose hurt for a couple of days, Holy Sheet batman I guess, I was lucky . Thanks for posting this , I use a couple cans of brake cleaner nearly every day.

[legion]

Holy S***!

[lm6y]

Yep, Heating R-12 does the same thing. Use care if you have to heat any old A/C stuff too.

[john walker's workshop]

tig welding with an argon shield on aluminum after brake kleen is probably the worst thing you can do.

[David]

I will definitely give this to our safety guy and all the welders in our shop. Thanks!

[Jeff Higgins]

This has been on a couple of the Harley forums as well. Poor bastard will never be the same. It really sucks that a guy can get so messed up just pursuing a hobby he loves, and from a totally unexpected source.

[Hugh R]

When I first saw your post, my first thought was Phosgene gas, nasty, nasty stuff. Did you know one of the biggest killers in the house is mixing liquid bleach and scouring powder, like in a toilet. You want a great way to kill yourself, try mixing chlorine pool shock powder and brake fluid, or even a Coke. If you try either one as an experiment, make sure you aren't near any cars you don't want to repaint, or your neighbors house or any living thing.

[slakjaw]

John, thanks for the info! I have actually done this before. Maybe I should have bought a lotto tix that day.

[speeder]

Good of you to post this. I can't believe how much Brakecleen some people use, though. I remember reading posts on the tech board years ago where guys would use a whole can to clean some large part, holy christ!! Are you fking nuts?? You can't tell by the smell how toxic that stuff is?

I use very, very little BK. Only in weird situations where something must be cleaned in situ, ie. cannot be removed and cleaned properly. I am a parts cleaning fool, cleaning things that don't need to be cleaned but I take things apart and clean them in mineral spirits that I recycle/reuse, then rinse w/ water and dry. Water works great as a "broom" after cleaning in solvents. Because they don't mix, it somehow works(?)

Anyhow..., sorry to hear about that guy.

[David]

We haven't allowed tetra-chloroethylene in our shop for almost 10 years. One drop of the stuff can change a 55 gallon drum of non-hazardous waste to hazardous.

I still have it in my garage at home

[dad911]

Thanks for the warning. This should be a sticky at the top of all forums, not OT.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

When I first saw your post, my first thought was Phosgene gas, nasty, nasty stuff. Did you know one of the biggest killers in the house is mixing liquid bleach and scouring powder, like in a toilet. You want a great way to kill yourself, try mixing chlorine pool shock powder and brake fluid, or even a Coke. If you try either one as an experiment, make sure you aren't near any cars you don't want to repaint, or your neighbors house or any living thing.

Don't be screwing around trying to make any of this stuff at home pelicans.

[legion]

Yep.

Remember that guy a few years ago that tried to make ricin and ended up killing himself?

[kach22i]

My brother does a little welding, I passed the link on to him.

[Nader]

Aren't most brake cleaning solvents now non-chlorinated? I know the green can of Brake-Kleen from NAPA is mostly non-chlorinated organic solvents. The stuff the guy used in the article had tetrachloroethylene. It's the combustion of chlorinated compounds that makes phosgene gas.

[asphaltgambler]

Also don't subsititute brake clean for carb clean when trying to find an intake / carb / injection vacuum leak. Same result. Ask me how I know. I almost did not make it out of my garage and the door was open. It was 25 years ago and it still haunts me. I almost died.

[Teutonics]

Originally Posted by Nader

Aren't most brake cleaning solvents now non-chlorinated?

I know there is a non-chlorinated version available, but I don't think it is standard.

I use only the non-chlorinated kind. I didn't know what the real difference was, but figured it was safer. Now I know why!