How to do a Lead Wipe
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- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2017
- This video goes over in depth how to do a lead wipe. This isn't used much in practice but it tends to wind up on a lot of tests in the industry. This is commonly seen on plumbing tests, feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to assist.
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Beautiful. My dad used to do this in the 1950’s. He’s explained this to me but I never got to see it done. Until now. Thank you for showing us.
This is an example of why things built back when things like this were commonly used have lasted for so long! These types of methods were built for a lifetime!
I`m a retired pipefitter-plumber, we had to be able to wipe a lead service to get our plumbing license. Lots of cities used a lead service, a short piece of lead was used from the main to the service . The lead pipe would absorb any movement or vibration without breaking. I went to the state plumbing contest and we had to wipe a 5in lead joint.
Thank you for posting this. I'm a journeyman plumber in Texas and I've never seen this done. Only heard about it. This is a pretty awesome demonstration of a lost art
Learned that 55 years ago in trade school , had to wipe a 4" vertical and a 1" horizontal to pass the journeymans test. They made it as hard as possible by opening up garage doors on both sides of the building . The pads are made out of mattress ticking, the dirt on top of the pot is called dross. The material in the pot is called "wiping solder " not lead. It is of course a by gone art , there aren't many around that can do it anymore. In this day and age if you have a hand saw and a can of glue ,your plumber. I also still have all the tools to do it . Brings back a lot of memories from my younger days. 55 year plumber, retired .
When I took the test 40 years ago they gave us 4 pieces of lead pipe. We had to couple 2 pieces and had to make a wye with the other 2 pipes.
DID HUNDREDS OF WIPED JOINTS TEARS AGO ..STARTED TRADE IN 1964.
Hi john Krim. Do you sell the tools for lead wiping and if in nyc area are you willing to give me a class or two. here is my number if you interested. 917-603-3330
Great work. Love seeing this old school work. I used to do HV cable jointing in the uk with brass to lead , or lead to lead. not needed now, mostly plastic cables. Miss the satisfaction of the skilled work. Thanks for posting.
an absolutely great video! this is the rosetta stone of plumbing which unlocked the secrets of the past. good job!
I can't remember the last time I've been so utterly engrossed in a video. I can't tell you how people in my trade have told stories of the old-timers who did this process but have never even come close to seeing actually done; until now! Thank you for this great video. Truly one of a kind.
When i was a telephone cable splicer in Air Force. We used to seal the lead splice case all most the same way. Now they use plastic splice cases, Much easy to use. Thanks for the video.
I went to a Bell System, 2 week training school in Manhattan in the early 80's. Course: Pot Wiping and Torch wiping and lead sleeve building. Same Craft different application. Cable Maintenance Crew 32 years. Communications Worker of America Great video, that's how it's done. Lead is a very toxic substance, take precautions.
Fantastic demonstration of how to correctly wipe a lead joint to a ferrule .
👍
Thank you for this wonderful demonstration of this lost art.
Thank you for the demo, been a journey man plumber 30yrs/retired. In the beginning poured many a lead joint but never got to do a lead bend or a shower pan as technologies were changing. Love the skill it takes. It's good to not forget how it all began. Even just cutting a piece of cast iron pipe with a chisel & hammer. Thanks again, you never stop learning even if it's an old way of doing something.
Thank you for making this video Tommy, my father was a licensed plumber in New York City. He used to tell me about wiping a lead joints but I never could picture it. Your video made me feel like i was back in Staten Island again. Beautiful work brother
This video take me back to shop in grammar school which no longer exist. All young boys who will one day be Men should have this kind of instruction available to them. Great Video tommyboy. I have a leak at the lead elbow of our second floor bathroom very small until the bowl gets flushed. This video is beyond my skill set but I have a good friend who is doing plumbing and I will be showing him this well done video on wiping.
It's like the Silver Surfer took a dump in that newspaper. Great video!
Thank you for providing us this educational video very well, detailed step-by-step, excellent lead wipe
I loved to see a master plumber at the top of his trade
I took plumbing in high school as a major 1969 graduated in 1972 -in the senior year if you wanted you could spend all your time practicing to splash wipe --the kids whose fathers own plumbing company practice all they could -and at the time you needed seven years on the books working for a licensed plumber before you could even apply to take the test. in New York that is -today all the lead wiping is done with. Great video the only mistake you keep referring to the bar solder at a lead bar -you wipe the lead with the solder --not lead
Thanks for posting, brought back nightmares! LOL!
Thanks for taking the time to show this. Memories from the NYC Plumbers' test.
Thank you sir for taking time to make and share this video. Like you said... it is an art. Take care
I've always see the end results, but never met anyone who can actually do it! Thanks!!
It brings back memories of my father in the 1970s
very very educational wow i chamge lead bends in apartment buildings, i use couplings to connect the ferrel to the new lead bend. so for me this was amazing to see how it used to be done back in the days.. thank you for this video
Nice 1 love the old skills a picture is worth a thousand words but this video is like a library of them little adjustments etc need to be seen thanks
Thanks so much. This helped me understand what I’m looking at in order to replace mine
Thank you for taking the time to make this video on this lost art, not very many people know how to do this!
I am glad we lost this art.
@@zaxarispetixos8728 I actually enjoyed this, I was pretty good at it, of course I have not done a lead wipe in probably 25 years.
@@jeffreykreft5442 Nice to watch but thoose who did it for their whole life had a hard time and lead poisoning.
very good video. Saw this once in my time plumbing
I've searched for this before, and I know exactly what video he's talking about, with the guy wiping the lead on a wire. This was really cool to see!
Really makes you appreciate PVC though.
What you are doing is saving a trade and that is important and worth your time.More people should be doing this with their trades to teach others and to save a way that is vanishing in some cases.Thanks for your time and effort.
Thanks for posting and sharing the knowledge learned a lot.
I am getting ready for my lead wipe test on Long Island. Very helpful video. Thank you
Did you ever get around to taking the lead wipe?
THAT WAS TEXTBOOK PERFECT, WONDERFULLY KIND OF YOU TO SHARE OUR ARCANE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE SALUTE
Journeyman plumber in NYC. Never seen one of these done before. Thanks for the great video.
Hey, Tommy. I retired from the Mount Vernon Water Supply Company. I started right out of high school in 1972. I spent all my time on one of two "gangs" we had as a Maintenance Man.
90% of the time I did leak detection and repair. I'm curious about the hundreds of lead service lines I found leaking and had to repair. The lines almost always leaked at the connection where the lead pipe was connected to either the curb valve or the 90° brass bend on the tap into the main.
The old timers used to talk about "wiping a joint". That was the ball that someone, who probably passed away by now, "wiped" to connect the typically 1" or 3/4" lead pipe to a brass fitting. The water pressure in town ranged from about 50psi at the highest elevation to close to 120psi at the lowest point in town down by "the creek".
Tommy, I would love to see how this was done. I say "see" because I've had it described to me by the old timers, but never seen it done. Most of these wiped joints withstood some extremes of pressure for 50, 60, 70 or more years before they failed and sprung a leak. Most likely due to the ground shifting as the seasons changed. Our busiest times were in the Spring and Fall when the ground was shifting. Thawing from the winter freeze or freezing from the summer warmth. I'm old now and I guess I talk too much.🤷
Anyway, Tommy. Do you know the lost art of wiping a high pressure joint, from lead pipe to brass? I don't even know if you could find a piece of lead pipe anymore. I'd appreciate any comment on this subject.
Best regards... John
How did you fix the leaks?
I’m a backhoe operator for a utility company in CA. We find lead pipe in the ground every once in a while. I’ve never seen a live one, they’ve all been replaced with copper. They crumble when you touch them. I pull the pipe out if I have time and melt it down to make bullets.
Awesome Video. I'm taking the test this year!
@nycplumber Did you ever end up taking the test?
We used mole skin wiping pads, I would leave the new pads for the new jointers, the experienced guys liked the older well worn in pads, we also used torches and went direct to the lead sleeve with the sticks, watch the colour of the wiping metal change to bright as it reaches the right temp so you could move it you wanted with the pad, too hot and it ran off, we had a gas torch in one hand and a wiping pad in the other, heat and move metal, heat and move metal, get in sync and you could keep the metal at the correct temp and move the metal where you wanted and form a nice ridge where you wanted, get out of sync and you lost the hairs on the back of your hand, we did vertical wipes, crutch wipes, wipes using mirrors placed on the ground to see under the lead sleeves as you could not see directly, and gloves were for sissys and you could not get the feel for the lead and the delicate touch on small sleeves to move it small amounts to where it needed to be for a really smooth finish and water tight seal. Here Tommy has cool metal on the surface of the pipe, see how it was very grainy like a thick biscuit dough, the only smooth bit is on the surface so no real strength where it is needed, will look ok but no strength.
I haven't wiped a joint scene the mid-seventies. I used 50/50. talked to a kid a few months back that got his journeyman's license, he said they don't take a shop test anymore all written. Like me, the old days are gone, I still from time to time have to replace a closet flange, I keep oakum and have saved old shower pans and lead I replaced to meltdown.
Very informative. I have a lead toilet bend in my house that needs replacing. I see the wipe joint on it from 60 yrs ago. Probably was done very much like this. With all the health issues with lead, i understand why this is a lost art. Too bad.
Wow! Great Video!
Now that is plumbing at its finest.
We had to learn how to wipe lead for my plumbing license in Dayton Ohio, later I had to wipe a 4 inch lead joint for a state plumbing contest.
Amazing Video
This Is How You Really So Lead Wiping and LeadJoint
Nowadays even the newspaper to do this is getting hard to find!
Intresting video.
Thanks for the post
Wow, incredible old craft. I had no idea. Thanks for showing it.
Also, this seems like a strong case for allowing PVC pipe in NYC. Lol
Thanks, very nice, helpful.
Thank you for this i will need to do this lead wipe for the master plumbers test for long island T.o.h
Hey can I get your email to ask you a few questions about that the test for TOH?
Very interesting.
A big, big thank you to the people who gave us modern plastic pipes, so that I don't have to do this.
Lost art.
There's a lot of downsides to plastic. Convenience for today is not always the best solution.
I still rewatch this video. it's like my 5th time.
question about beating the lead edge to the brass...hypothetically speaking could you use the bowling pin as a evenly distributed wedge to flatten the lead to the brass?
I appreciate the knowledge I plan to pass this down to my kids someday. Great Video 👍🏽
liar
I left NYC in 1969 for Mass. Are they still replacing closet bends with lead in the City.I told the plumbers in mass that we still used lead and they could not believe it. Thanks for the video.Brings back old memories.How about the lead goose necks in the street.
Good job 😊😊😊
I’m from Long Island and preparing for my test. Does anyone know a teacher or maybe this guy Tommy. Seems like he is a good teacher.
I had to use a tinned copper iron to tin the ferrule.
Excellent video. This couldn't even be found in any text book! You have taken the mistry out of this skill. Are all lead bends done on the bench and made for different rough ins? I understand that led bends were bent using sand. I would love to see how it is done.
very cool, always wonder how it was done.
Awesome
dont ever put a wire wheel on a drill and clean lead it creates lead dust which is toxic. you're supposed to use a sharp paint scraper. no dust just shavings that cant be inhaled.
If you turn the bowling pin over, you should be able to straighten smaller pipe with it. How would you remove this joint? could you just cut it away?
That is a lot of work.
Interesting! I'm fairly sure I've seen old-timers do this with just a blowtorch, no furnace or anything. On a pipe inside the wall sticking out maybe 1/2", underneath a sink. I've also watched plumbers splice copper into leaking lead supply lines more often than I care for - cheap landlords never replace the lead pipes, just have insurance pay for fixing them when they leak. My uncle apprenticed under a nutcase plumber who ran 110 mm lead toilet drains new as late as the 1980s when everyone in their right mind had switched to push-fit plastic pipes decades earlier. I've also had the dubious pleasure of watching modern plumbers try using some strange compression fittings joining lead to copper. Galvanised compression fittings downstream of copper. Hasn't leaked yet as far as I know but it's only been in the wall for three years or so.
Hi. Love your video. Are you located in NY?
I was a UK telephone Jointer, we joined thin copper telephone cables 3800 pair, 7lbs copper wire with a twist plus paper sleeve. Every pair wrapped in paper. Our lead cables were 4" across, the outer lead sleeve 8".30" in length.
We used to lead each end, in position with a moleskin where the term wiping a joint came from. Ours had to be air tight, plus tested with 9lbs of constant air pressure to keep the water out in deep manholes full of water. BT 1980 🇬🇧
Just did a toilet flange. Brass to lead
I run into one of those once every 10 or so years. But they always have a crawlspace, I cut out the lead pot an change to PVC. It's faster and safer. Where I live 95% of the time they are on wood subfloors, I worry about good cleaning or a fire. But if it's stubbed up with cast, I'll lead in a new cast closet flange. Oddly u bring that up, My house is lead an brass flange, if one ever gives out I'll crawl my fat ass under there an replace both of them
iI really enjoyed this video, good craftsman and workmanship, ! Thanks for posting, They say "you cab learn something everyday,",, and I just did that,,, learned something.. Going to ask a stupid question I guess to you,, but what would be the application or places that ferrule would have been used in a lead piping job in the plumbing system?
old waste joints old lead supplies
the toilet will attach to the top side via a toilet flange and the other end with the brass Farrell gets inserted into a cast iron hub with then needs to be packed with hemp rope or also known as Oakham and then another rope is used to create a dam with is know as a rope dam . then you pour lead into the hub and like he said it's a process you have spoons to pack the lead in . some plumbers would skip the final step you can tell when the lead looks to have a twisted rope pattern .
Anywhere you need to make a mechanical connection you have to do it with a metal strong enough to hold a fastener, which lead is not, it’s too soft. The prime example of this would be a toilet flange, because a toilet attaches with two bolts. Lead can’t hold a bolt, so there a transition to brass.
Anywhere you had to connect lead to cast iron or to brass ferrule, even the lead water line where it came off the main to a house was a wiped joint, and it held water pressure.
How did they remove the black "soil" paste. Whenever I see a lead bend it isn't covered in black. Just curious. Good video thanks
per "Questions and Answers on the Practice and Theory of Sanitary Plumbing, Volume 3" by Robert Macy Starbuck, it washes off.
Hi Tommy, how do I get a hold of you?
Thank you for your knowledge! UA Steam Fitter Local 475.
Cool shit we got it too easy these days. And aint nothing made like it used to be.
Most jurisdictions don't even bother with practical tests anymore.
Savage
i talked to an older plumber yesterday that had to do a lead joint for his Journeyman's Plumber license back in 64 when he was 23. He was explaining to me the process. i asked him what the difference was between a burned joint and a wiped joint and he said none. Any comments on this? Thanks for the video. henry thurman
A burned joint, is used when you are joining lead sheets. Imagine butting two sheets of lead together, clean then to bright lead, then taking a thin strip of lead, about as thick as solder, and carefully melting the lead sheets together, filling the gap between the sheets with the thin lead. That is lead burning.
A wiped joint, is using molten lead in a pot, pouring it on a cloth, rolling the prepared lead pipe and brash ferule in it, then using a cloth to "wipe" the joint. You hold the cloth in a concave shape to build up the lead joint.
Oh...o.k. i see the difference now. i appreciate the instruction.
@@leadwipe
@@leadwipe what is the best way to solder a brass toilet flange to a lead bend? I was taught to drip bar solder on the joint and then go around with a low flame and smooth over the splattered bar solder.
Is this method acceptable for soldering lead pans? Burning lead sounds like a better option. Can you burn lead with a torch?
Thanks
@@iliketakingshowers Clean the top of the lead so that it's bright. Clean and flux the ring. Tin the ring with 50/50 solder. Slide the ring over the lead and peen the lead into the tinned area of the ring so the the joint is tight. Flux the tinned area. Using a torch and 50/50 wire solder, heat the ring with some of the flame touching the lead....regulate the heat on and off the work so that the solder on the ring liquifies but just starts to melt the lead. Keep doing this moving the torch in one direction around the ring, melting the lead into the solder on the ring. You can add solder if need be as you move the torch forward on the work. The trick is to use just enough heat to liquify the tinning solder and just barely melt the lead into it without burning a whole in the lead.
This is lead wiping , a lead burner uses a torch usually with a soft bushy flame, its more like soldering but you are melting the lead and adding filler material.
my house needs this done, i think i'm SCREWED
40/60 tin/lead or 40/60 lead/tin?
Big difference in price
Was this for a Long Island exam?
Vin G sounds like it
Old school
I only got to wipe a lead water service to a red brass nipple .
OK
That’s the pot calling the kettle black !!!!
wassup blackman
Holy shit that long island accent
Is this 1965?
My wife is so angry. We now have lead all over the sheets in our bed. Why was there no warning of not to do this in bed? Thanks a lot...... Neat.
Not bad. Almost good enough for n.y.c.
Dam…. Gotta be an easier way…
We were taught differently in school and not allowed to use a torch
As an high voltage fluid filled cable splicer in the uk,this the most untidy and sloppy example of lead work. I would never employ this man.
this gots to be a joke ask an unground high voltage cable splicer how to wipe
OK.. Show us
Full of air and will leak,terrible workmanship,