Zinc pest

Mar 22, 2019 Last reply: 7 years ago 10 Replies

what kind of things have you had suffer from zinc pest ?


Die cast zinc toys made in the first half of the last century, when the significance of contamination of zinc by traces of lead wasn't realised. From

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Roof soaker and step flashing.

Probably not, as the causes were discovered as early as 1929 (lead impurities in the zinc), made worse by damp storage conditions. Wiki says items made after 1960 are not considered likely to develop the condition.

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I had some matchbox toys from the 50s which looked like they were di cast. Not got them now though. I well remember a dinky toy of a VW camper van having one of itswindow struts break off. Brian

Zinc pest is this the same as Mazak rot which seemed to plague die cast model train chassis' .

Richard

Yes, caused by lead contamination in the casting alloy, as opposed to tin pest, which has become a problem since widespread adoption of lead-free solder can cause "whiskers".

Why would zinc pest attack s*it? (and my name's not Sherlock)

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