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New Handy Site On Plumbing
| Spelter for brass and copper (hard); brass mixed with 1/2 to 1/5 or 1/2 of zinc. Spelter for brass and copper (soft); 1 part tin, 1 part lead. Spelter for pure tin; 4 parts pewter, 1 tin, 1 bismuth. Spelter for very soft solder; 3 parts bismuth, 3 lead, 5 tin. Metal which melts at a heat not exceeding boiling water is 8 parts bismuth, 5 lead and 3 of tin. |
An Old but Exceedingly Good Method of Lead Burning
The apparatus required is a cast-iron furnace, two or three ladles, and some moulding sand. Burning is resorted to by plumbers generally for purposes where soldering will not stand.
Cast a sheet of lead of the proper thickness, and cut the proper length and width, turn it up round like a hoop, bringing the two ends well together to form a good joint on the outside, and firmly tack them together on the inside; roll it over to see that the joint is close on the outside, and paste a piece of stout brown paper about 4 inches wide over the whole length of the joint.
The sand must be well tempered, not to have any wet lumps in it; make a level bed with the sand about 5 or 6 inches thick; roll the hoop on the sand so that the joint will come under, be careful not to shift it backwards or forwards, but well ram up under both sides. Have a strip of wood rather longer than the joint, and 3/4-inch thick, to form the runner with, place it along on edge on the top of the joint; now place some sand both sides and ram it well together, adding sand until there is a good bank on the top of the work; smooth it off with a trowel, cut it down towards the strip, so as to form a sort of funnel, leaving about 2 inches of the strip buried; draw out the strip endways, being careful not to break the sand, leaving one end stopped up, the other end stopped up about one inch high. At this end make a bay or pond for the overflow metal to run into. Have the metal red hot, be careful that the runner is free from loose sand, shake a little powdered rosin along the runner. Now begin to pour the metal, holding the ladle at least one foot above the runner so as to give weight and force to the burning metal; pour plenty, not minding what is running off, as the metal that is pouring in has to melt the part which is in the cold sand. When the joint is burned through try it by drawing the trying stick along in the runner; if it feels smooth along the bottom it is burned, if not. pour some more until it is, then stop up the end where the metal has been running off, and fill up about two inches high, and watch for shrinkage, having some hot metal ready to fill up as it shrinks down in cooling, or else the joint will not be round. When set, remove it from the sand, and cut off the runner with a mallet and chisel, finishing off with a piece of card wire, the paper on the outside will strip off, leaving it bright and clean.
