Lead welding

Are there any good sites detailing lead welding?

Reply to
Ian Carey
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Depending on what the lead is, you might Google in stained glass. We used a solder technique to join the lead "came" that surrounds the pieces of glass. Just a little more heat and the stuff melts. Not a pretty sight.

Reply to
Ken Moffett

There are lots of papers on the processes used, but they're mostly scattered. Typically, thermosonic welding or laser welding are used to bond the chip to the lead frame. Search on "lead bonding" instead of "lead welding" and you may have better luck finding what you want.

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

Historically I only know of lead welding being done on telephone cabling. The wires were sheathed in lead to make an air tight seal then pressurized to insulate and prevent moisture intrusion. The lead joints I saw from a distance were done with a small acetylene torch. You also might look in very old texts dealing with lead piping used on sewer and drain systems. Randy

Reply to
Randy Zimmerman

I worked for British Telecom from '82 onwards and was unusual in that I could already wipe lead joints (from plumbing experience) at a time when this was a disappearing skill in telecoms. We never referred to it as lead welding though, and used propane not oxy-acetylene.

I can also "weld" lead, as used for roofing lead. However in the UK this is always referred to as "lead burning". I've never heard of any lead work being referred to as "welding", either sheet, pipe or glasswork.

IMHE, you need the right torch - the BOC model 0, which is absolutely tiny. You might do it with an old Firefly torch, but Saffires (as most of use use) are just too big. Oxy-acetylene is essential too - if you only have propane, you'd be better off trying for wiped joints, not burned ones.

As to the techniques, I found an old building book on how to form valleys and gulleys showed me what to do, and some practice from steel welding experience was enough for the how-to.

Use clean lead and always patinate it afterwards. Trying to weld repairs in old lead is no fun at all, especially in a polluted city.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

My grandfather was a master lead burner. As a small child, my mother took me on a shopping trip downtown. we dropped in at the plumbing shop where he worked. He sitting in the middle of a sheet of lead, with a plumbers blow torch (blow lamp), a pair of tin snips, and a ball pein hammer. We came by again an hour later, and he was sitting in a half finished septic tank liner, with walls that were now about 2 feet high. Shiny rings and vertical seams indicated the areas where he welded strips on to form the sides. He was renowned for his craftsmanship, and often went south, as far as Los Angeles to make and repair tanks for explosives works. His residence was in Victoria, B.C., so he sometimes travelled quite a bit, as his skills were so rare.

Steve R.

Reply to
Steve R.

Interesting.... The torch I referred to was a simple acetylene only torch using atmospheric air for combustion.

Indeed it is a lost art... It was rare in the 1970's when I saw it done.

Randy

Reply to
Randy Zimmerman

You might want to be more than normally paranoid about fumes, which older references might not empahasize enough. Soldering would be a lot easier, and as far as I recall the "wiping" referred to WRT plumbing lead pipe is a solder process.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

Actually I can report that it is alive and well - when our roof was mended, quite a lot of the lead capping and gulleys were welded, using a propane torch. The overall effect resembles TIG - a series of overlapping 'coins'

Dave

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Reply to
Dave Garnett

I used to work at a Naval Nuclear Shipyard and used to certify lead bonders. Typically, it was 2' lead to steel, bonded utilizing oxy-fuel torch or ladel process which was then UT and RT to ensure no voids or lack of fusion was present. What specifically did you want to know?

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