Searching for zinc sheet

admin

I am looking for approx. 14g 4x8 sheets of zinc. I make table tops with them. Mostly I have had people offer galvanized, but I don't want to weld galv. with all of the fumes. I have found them on the west coast, but am looking in the Phila region.Would appreciate any help.
Reply:Ummmmmm, maybe I am missing something here...but the problem with galv IS the Zinc. Galv is just a thin coating and a solid Zinc sheet would be way worse to weld than galv'd sheet.   Galv isn't that bad. Just take precautions and be smart and nothing bad will happen. I did it for almost 10 years straight and nothing has fallen off.
Reply:DDA52lets not jump into the deep water just yet...straight zinc and some alloys can be "soldered" using eutectic solders that melt at temps below where the zinc would spontaneously oxidise to the objectionable gas and fumes, and thus the tabletops can be made, or even with no soldering at all just using basic sheetmetal techniques. steel welding temperatures are unnecessary for this work and the fumes they would generate would be absent at the temps normally used for zinc work. while lead solders were used they would probably be a NoNo at present but doubtless there are some newer ones to take their place. Zinc as a material has been in use for a long time while avoiding the welding fumes problem - this is an old issue that has been solved long ago. maybe Ryguy already knows this and what he really wants to know is where to find this sheetstock since its now out of fashion to have metaltop tables in the household or commercial foodprep industries made of anything but stainless, and few of the metals supply places even handle sheet zinc anymore since demand is probably quite low. benefits of zinc are that it doesnt dull knives as fast, easily polished but looks fine with a dull finish also, easily cleaned, holes can be repaired by soldering with table disassembly unnecessary, doesnt create as sharp an edge where cut, easily worked, can be patched and can have foodmachine bases, brackets, or castings attached directly to it
Reply:Try Google.......http://www.neymetals.com/ZincAlloys/zinc2.htm
Reply:You just never know what you're going to learn when you log on to Welding Web!  Now if I can just remember where I learned this when I need it.Thanks, gnm109.awright