The previous post made me think of something I was going to post about a while back. I was using all stainless hardware on the first UDS I made, but I couldn't find the right size fender washers one day, so I bought Zinc, and figured I would just torch them to get the zinc off. No wayyyyyyy
I almost melted one of the washers....it was red hot, and it did not fume off anything. So, I looked up the specs on zinc coatings.........they don't even melt until about 800 degrees F, and they don't vaporize until over 1600 degrees F. Call me crazy, but I don't think that my UDS will ever get close to that hot, even if I had some red hot coals laying directly on the hardware.
I don't see any reason not to use Zinc coated bolts, and washers, etc, for grate supports and lid/handle hardware. This stuff will never get that hot, other than in the initial burnout, when I don't have any hardware on it.
Anyone else given any more thought to this??
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