old casting stuff

[deerstalkert]

Most lead for cast iron piping is cast into semi square lengths and hammered into the joint. Ya just can't pour lead into a horizontal joint.

we had an asbestos collar that cinched around the joint and had a pour hole in the top for horizontal pours.
sometimes, yes we would have to use a oakum punch to drive in wayward flows.
still have the burner, pot, and ladle. they were antique when i was a pup. must be xxx antique now!

 

[tgfrench]

well fellows that being said about pouring the lead. I still lean to the hammering of the lead. By and By it was just easier for most plumbers to just pound it in.

 

[senseisugarbear]

You Absolutley can pour lead OR babbit horizonally.... I use to pour 6"&8' diamiter bearings on a cutter drive on Dredges every spring, I also poured pipe joints horizontally! 12" water mains. fit first , then pound in Oakum To center and hold pipe, then pour lead. If I found a guy poundin Lead into a joint I'd Know 2 things immediatley #1 he didn't know what he's doing. #2. he ain't working for Me any more..........Be Safe >>>>>Wally

 

[Muley Gil]

My dad could do about anything. I watched him redo a cast iron drainpipe in my grandmother's house (built from a Sears kit in 1920) using oakum and poured lead.

 

[deerstalkert]

You Absolutley can pour lead OR babbit horizonally.... I use to pour 6"&8' diamiter bearings on a cutter drive on Dredges every spring, I also poured pipe joints horizontally! 12" water mains. fit first , then pound in Oakum To center and hold pipe, then pour lead. If I found a guy poundin Lead into a joint I'd Know 2 things immediatley #1 he didn't know what he's doing. #2. he ain't working for Me any more..........Be Safe >>>>>Wally

this discussion has awakened some long dormant memories. thought those brain cells were long stomped! if we didn't have the collar i just remembered that dad used to pack the oakum tight in the bottom of the vertical bell. then pack oakum with a cavity between the two layers. leaving a port at the top open. then he poured it full and tamped it while still liquid/melted thereby closing the joint.
this was just after the war and up until about 1958 .don't remember how he did it after that point. i started chasing girls.

 

[tgfrench]

while you CAN do it, plumbers around here repairing piping are not dragging a lead pot into a crawlspace around here and doing it. They are pounding it in. Even my home with a basement has hammered piping. Different areas, different ways of doing it.

 

[toot]

But using lead?

that is what the two sections were mated with!

 

[Rancocas]

Plumbing equipment, as some others have said.
My Dad was a plumber back in the 1940's - 1960's. I have his lead pot and it is identical to what is pictured here. Except, in much better condition without all the rust.
I used Dad's lead pot for many years for casting my own lead round balls and fishing sinkers. Finally, this year I bought myself a new electric melting pot.