Major Rusting Issues In Our Building All Of A Sudden??

[wesg]

I was gonna say 'acid' too. Other thing we had was a vapor degreaser ... 'Trichloro' ethane ... ethylene???

TIG welder was not far away. Made an odd smell when used ... Phosgene gas pops into my head .... but all kinds of nonsense pops into my head after breathing that crap for years...

 

[Rollerman]

Look at the periodic table, fluorine is under chlorine Florine makes chlorine look friendly. Any trace of muriatic or hydrochloric acid, even a very small spill is big trouble

 

[john.k]

Hydrochloric is so cheap ,everyone has a 5 gall drum .....come in handy for whitening the driveway .....and then discovers everything steel within 30 ft is rusted away.

 

[projectnut]

I wouldn't be too surprised if the muriatic acid is evaporating through the HDPE container. Several years ago, I had to buy a few gallon jugs of mineral spirits for a job. I noticed the price when purchased in an HDPE container was considerably less than when purchased in metal cans. I was told the shelf life of the HDPE containers was about 2 years. After that the mineral spirits would deteriorate the container and evaporate through the plastic.

The same product in a metal can supposedly had a 10-year lifespan. In this case not that the mineral spirits would evaporate through the container, but rather that under normal atmospheric conditions in that amount of time the seams of the cans would start to rust from the outside. Maybe something similar is happening with your container of muriatic acid.

 

[john.k]

The most amazing stuff is tri chlor ethane ............bare steel drums shiny inside ,open the bung and the drum disintegrates in a few weeks...........I got a contract from the electric utility to remove and dispose of 16,000 litres of tri chlor ethane in 50 gallon steel drums ............I disposed of it by selling to to guys with parts washers for half the price of kerosine.

 

[swarfless]

Yeah Trike used to go 'sour', atmospheric moisture hydrolyses it to hydrochloric acid. But back on topic, while I'm 100% with the anti-muriatic/hydrochloric acid bunch .. you haven't acquired a forklift in the last 6 months?

 

[technocrat]

or a meth lab?

 

[Limy Sami]

Another thought ;- have you been machining cast iron? .......it can produce very fine airborn particles can rust other stuff easily, which would be an addition to any acids you have

 

[gustafson]

What do you use to run the radiant? Gas? A gas exhaust leak will throw a bunch of acidic moisture into the building and in a machine shop you may not smell it.
Hows your water bill? leak in the radiant slab may go un noticed for quite some time. I was going to say shut off the fill valve to see if pressure drops, but consult a heating guy first.

 

[Scottl]

Are the cleaning folks using bleach or other strong cleaners?

 

[mhzinduction]

Didn't read everything but you said open cell foam. That is bad hoo-doo. That is better known as a sponge. It is fully vapor permeable and holds onto that water quite well. So a couple years for the vapor level to fully permeate and reach your steel and start it rusting sounds about right. If you want to do insulation, you need a layer of closed-cell foam down first. The thickness of that layer depends on your climate zone. The purpose is to seal the moisture out of the structure. Then if you want to get a lot more insulation at lower cost you can add open cell to boost the R value without causing a moisture problem..

Would this still be an issue even though our insulation is covered inside?

 

[gustafson]

If Iso foam was an issue I would have thought worse at first then diminishing over time
If it was holding moisture, there must be a source of that moisture

 

[mhzinduction]

Yeah Trike used to go 'sour', atmospheric moisture hydrolyses it to hydrochloric acid. But back on topic, while I'm 100% with the anti-muriatic/hydrochloric acid bunch .. you haven't acquired a forklift in the last 6 months?

Ive had a forklift since day one, what are you thinking could be a problem with a forklift? The gas itself or something?

 

[mhzinduction]

or a meth lab?

Not currently running a meth lab, but its good to know that could be an issue if we change things up in the future!

 

[mhzinduction]

What do you use to run the radiant? Gas? A gas exhaust leak will throw a bunch of acidic moisture into the building and in a machine shop you may not smell it.
Hows your water bill? leak in the radiant slab may go un noticed for quite some time. I was going to say shut off the fill valve to see if pressure drops, but consult a heating guy first.

we have an electric boiler and the in floor heat is a closed loop system. As far as I can tell its still full i've never ran into any issues with that.

 

[mhzinduction]

Are the cleaning folks using bleach or other strong cleaners?

Nope, nothing of the sorts like that going on. Parts are cleaned with isopropyl alcohol or dawn soap depending on what we are doing. The bathrooms and whatever else would be cleaned with a scrubbing bubbles or something along those lines, that hasn't changed since we have been here.

 

[mhzinduction]

Another thought ;- have you been machining cast iron? .......it can produce very fine airborn particles can rust other stuff easily, which would be an addition to any acids you have

No cast iron, we mainly run aluminum, copper, and some 4140. We did run a big delrin job a while back and that about killed us in here, all the gassing off of those parts was terrible. We did seem to think maybe that did something to the coolant in those two machines that ran the job. We had the customer switch to acetal after that and the nasty smell went away when we ran those parts. Could that be apart of the issue?

 

[bhigdog]

I think we have a 1 gallon jug of muriatic in the shop. That is the extent of bulk chemicals outside of the coolant itself.

BINGO.............We have a winner............Bob

 

[gustafson]

we have an electric boiler and the in floor heat is a closed loop system. As far as I can tell its still full i've never ran into any issues with that.

most radiant systems are closed loop, they can still leak

 

[Speedie]

Its your coolant sonny!