lead welding

[tony arnold]

I have decided to construct a lead gutter between the two garage roofs that I am converting to a living area.
I have bought the lead and have no experience of using it whatsoever.
It seems from the research I have completed that I can't weld it without the correct gas equipment which means hiring expensive stuff.
Is there any gas I can use without spending a fortune? If not I guess that I will simply join it as bet I can manually and perhaps with some jointing mastic?
I have mastered many building skills-electrics-plumbing- plastering but this is annoying me!

 

[chunkolini]

Lead welding, there are some hilarious videos on you tube. Oh so easy, I wasted an hour melting bits of lead all over the place

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I built two copper roofs without any previous experience, there is lots of information out there, take it slow and plan out your joints and folds carefully.

 

[rikrobson]

It just solders doesn't it? Do you not fold it over and hammer it down though?

St Johns Kirk in Perth has some really good lead work on the steeple. well worth a trip up on one on the open days. The names of the Plumbers are embossed in the lead

 

[mike os]

there are a few threads on here.. search for lead welding or lead burning

 

[rikrobson]

Well
I Just watched some videos of it. That's quite clever that is. and now i'm off for a pint.

 

[Tigman]

lead burning , you require oxy / acetylene with a lead burning torch , the nozzles are very small , you need to clean the lead , cut a strip of lead from the sheet you are using say 12mm wide by 300mm long fold it in half long ways , this is your filler rod , then you need to heat to melt your filler onto the base metal to create a bead , not easy for a novice , its not like welding continuosly , its heat on heat off ! there are a few videos on youtube worth a look at.
Good luck with it . There's a few picture in my Album if you want to see the torch and flame set up !

 

[roofman]

Iff you do your box gutter in steps you wont have to lead weld.. plus you dont want a complete length un-jointed longer than 5ft anyway or it will split as it needs to move. Just have mechanical steps and start from the bottom working up,plenty of info on the tube

 

[Wendelspanswick]

http://www.leadsheet.co.uk
Loads of free technical information here, there is a similar website for copper.

 

[Rrunnach]

It just solders doesn't it? Do you not fold it over and hammer it down though?

St Johns Kirk in Perth has some really good lead work on the steeple. well worth a trip up on one on the open days. The names of the Plumbers are embossed in the lead

Possibly Blakes of Edinburgh did the work you mention above. Their lead bashers are second to none, they really do incredible work on various A listed buildings around Scotland, maybe even further afield.

 

[500e]

No flux is used so they say, When I used to do a few radiators I used killed sulphuric.
A friend asked me to make some lead roof window surrounds (12) about 4 ft x 2 ft Never having touched lead before I asked a plumber his reply was clean the lead use a strip cut of the piece you are using as filler, & I mean clean including filler strip,
He also recommended scraping the lead clean Just before welding using a painters triangular scraper that was sharp, Inc filler strip I used Oxy Acc with a No 1 jet it was pretty straightforward if you can gas weld you just do simple lead work , I still found it easier with flux on a 1\2 paint brush held in same hand as filler