The problem in my case is that even if I possessed such a BFO torch, I'd most likely find myself staring at a puddle of molten lead where the pipe ends used to be. :( It takes considerable skill and practice to make a lead wipe joint and I possess neither. I know my limitations so I definitely won't be going there. :)
On 10/08/2022 00:07, Johnny B Good wrote: ...
It is a bit fiddly on very small sizes, but I have done it with a 1X Jubilee clip. The larger sizes, such as the 9.5 that I sometimes used to use, are supplied open as standard.
I temporarily fixed a damaged pipe with a bit of car radiator hose and the associated clip - twenty years on it still hasn't leaked. :-)
SF might have something suitable for a bit less - but prolly still ~£10 a fitting...
There is an alternative method that will work for a straight "end to end" lead to copper joint.
You start by swaging / reaming / drilling the end of the lead pipe to accept an inch of copper inserted into the end. Clean up the end / interior of the lead so that it is bright and clean, likewise the copper.
Shove the copper in the end of the lead with plenty of flux. Then
*gently* start heating the copper pipe with a soft flame - not letting the flame play on the lead directly. The idea being to get the copper up to soldering temp, and just on the verge of melting the inner surface of lead it is touching. Then using a normal lead/tin plumbing solder start touching in all around the joint. You should be able to get a decent fillet of solder into the joint and bonded to the end of the lead. It will take a number of minutes to complete the joint.
I managed to fix a leak in lead pipe where it passed through a sleeper wall and over the brick, so failed on underside with thermal changes ,vibration or something, using 2 hot air guns. As it was impossible to turn off totally the water supply, 1 gun to boil away the water at the lowest section in the pipe run and the other one locally to heat the pipe at the failure, not enough heat to melt it , and sweat in some solder over the leak . After abraiding and fluxing that is
Handy table - I thought it might be worth keeping that for future reference, so put it in a new wiki page:
Just for the record, one of the Screwfix conversions has (probably) a typo. 53/64" is 21.43mm. I've amended the wiki table.
Looking into it a bit more, there seems to be conflicting information - some sources quoting the size of 1/2" 5lb as 53/64"
I dug out a copy of BS602, but could only get the 1970 version. They seem to have had a half hearted attempt at metric conversion and made many of the measurements look rather "rounded" (i.e. nominal pipe bores shown exactly as 12, 20, 25mm etc. It would be interesting to see the
1956 version if anyone has a copy?Some of the transition manufacturers also quote sizes, but not all of those agree either.
Don't think I've ever seen lead gas pipes!
Pretty sure there were some in the house I grew up in (built ~1880) - mostly buried in walls for gas lighting. Some was iron barrel.
I've seen a plumber get come leadlocks which were too small for the lead pipe and used a knife to take slithers off the pipe to fit.
I did check, and you're pretty well spot on. :(
I have heard, but not seen, of a plumber enlarging the centre by drilling with a 15mm drill bit. He passed a piece of fluxed copper into the lead. Then heated the copper and successfully filled the joint with solder.
Obviously if there's any water around it won't work.
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My head hurts. This is not unusual. But it still hurts.
I have! The house I grew up in (built 1931) had lead gas pipes. When we had a gas copper installed to replace the original coal-fired one, the gas fitter tee'd off the pipe to the cooker by bodging a hole in it and creating a wiped joint.
IME if there is doubt over the size required, then the universal transition fittings like the Philmac are a safer bet - they do only a few different sizes, but they cover a fairly wide range of lead pipe sizes.
Yup I would guess that process is doable for anyone reasonably experienced with soldering copper pipe:
We still have a few bits in our walls (1903 house).
I took quite a bit out ofg our previous house (1926).
I hadn't spotted that article. One minor comment is that lead melts at
327C a lot higher than 60/40 solder, though I wouldn't recommend lead free as that melts nearer 210C if 60/40 is available. Either way, if you heat the copper I thought you would be pretty safe?Yes, but that's true with any pipe. The last bit of plumbing I did was for a shower and I first ran water through the pipes, before connecting up to the fitting, to have a fighting chance that no debris would get stuck in a filter.
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