On 9/22/2010 6:34 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:52:03 -0400, "John Gilmer"
wrote:

But lead pipe technology is over 2,000 years old!

The "quick and dirty" way is to just pour out liquid lead on a slab of
marble or whatever and create a sheet of lead. This was trimmed and then
rolled into a pipe shape by wrapping it around a properly sized piece of
wood. The ends could be joined by welding (i.e.: using a very hot tool to
barely melt the junction) or by soldering with a tin/lead alloy or by
pouring additional lead onto the joint.

Sheets can also be rolled out or just hammered out also.

Lead is still used in some organ pipes using the solder technique.

Joints in lead pipe just required the plumber to heat up a laddle of lead to
the melting point and just pouring it onto the joint. Rags were used to
"wipe" the joint and make the liquid lead go where wanted. Since lead is
quite soft, excess could easily be trimmed away.

During my years as a handyman and remodeler, I ran across lead pipes
several times. Mostly just the lateral supply pipe from the street to
the house, but I did see some interior lead supply pipes and even a
few drain pipes. I always noticed the "ball" of lead where they were
joined together. My question was whether they had some sort of mold
they poured the molten lead to make that ball? I cant see it just
poured on, there had to be something to make the shape. Maybe some
steel device that clamped around the junction where lead was poured
into a hole on the top.

I did lead together cast iron drain pipes several times using oakum
and a lead pot and the chisels that packed it into place. I even got
pretty good at that, but I never tried to join lead pipes. Several
times I found lead laterals with the shut off valve on the basement
being defective. The first time I ran across this I was not sure what
to do, but a plumbing supply store sold me a clamp on brass junction
piece that had a rubber seal that tightened against the lead. The
other end had a threaded female for installing a new valve or any
common steel pipe. I used these things several times later and they
were quick and easy.

But those well formed balls of lead at the joints were not just made
by pouring lead around the pipes. Whether horizontal or vertical,
there had to be something to hold their shape.

Take a look at
http://chestofbooks.com/home-improve...nt-Wiping.html

It seems that no form or mold was needed to neatly solder lead to lead.