lead welding with tig

djknight · Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:35 am

Hello,
Have sucessfully welded lead with oxy/acet,decided to try with tig dc+ good fusion but not as prettyas gas.
Has anyone else tried this?

Mike · Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:13 pm

Welcome to the forum djknight.

djknight · Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:20 pm

Thank you Mike,
Have also tried on straight polarity and this works also.The lead needs a good scraping first and I reckon that I could be running at 10 amps or less (although my transtig has a percentage of amps rather than exact amps)
Not sure how much call there is for lead welding in usa,not much use on site in uk as is always wet and windy!

steeldr. · Fri Sep 12, 2014 11:20 pm

welding lead using the tig process is possible, but the amperage must be quite low.You can fuse it, or use filler wire made from strips of the base metal. The best way to weld it is flat with a backing.I.E.steel, copper, brass, etc. For best results, clean the joint and filler rod , scrape or wire brush until it shines.
'' WARNING....the welding fumes are hazardous to your health and others,use adequate ventilation .
P.S. the best process for welding lead is the atomic-hydrogen process.

Sat Sep 13, 2014 5:40 pm

Sorry to be the language nazi....

Leading is "soldering," not welding.

That said, there's no reason it can't be done with a TIG system. Personally, I'd think the heat would be locally high, so one would heat the metal well ahead of the intended joint.

I've never tried it. Even silver-brazing I still do with oxy-fuel.

Steve S

rake · Sat Sep 13, 2014 5:49 pm

Otto Nobedder wrote:Sorry to be the language nazi....

Leading is "soldering," not welding.

That said, there's no reason it can't be done with a TIG system. Personally, I'd think the heat would be locally high, so one would heat the metal well ahead of the intended joint.

I've never tried it. Even silver-brazing I still do with oxy-fuel.

Steve S

Steve? using lead to bond dissimilar metals like copper, brass, bronze, steel, etc. would be soldering but using lead
filler to bond lead would be technically welding. Isn't welding the bonding of similar metals with a similar filler material?
Heck, we even have plastic welding equipment available.

Back to the task at hand, I wonder if AC tig would work on lead? Might be worth a shot. Maybe the cathodic action
of the AC current might just help with the oxidation on the lead?

Sat Sep 13, 2014 7:00 pm

rake wrote: Steve? using lead to bond dissimilar metals like copper, brass, bronze, steel, etc. would be soldering but using lead
filler to bond lead would be technically welding. Isn't welding the bonding of similar metals with a similar filler material?
Heck, we even have plastic welding equipment available.

Back to the task at hand, I wonder if AC tig would work on lead? Might be worth a shot. Maybe the cathodic action
of the AC current might just help with the oxidation on the lead?

Who bonds lead to lead?

Leading is a body-filler method that predates Bondo...

and bonds lead to steel.

Steve S

AndersK · Mon Sep 15, 2014 10:54 am

Otto Nobedder wrote: Who bonds lead to lead?

Steve S

Its quite common while laying roofs but usually soldered.
when OP mentioned "on site" I read "construction site"

Braehill · Mon Sep 15, 2014 11:05 am

There's some lead welding that goes on in the Nuclear industry for containers and such that get sealed after being filled.

Len

Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:51 pm

Fair enough, on both counts!

I forget lead is still a common material in some places to line roofs, tile/mosaic tile shower floors, and (as Len mentioned) for containment vessels.

I've actually done a lead shower liner, using a propane torch for preheat and a huge soldering copper to make the weld (yes, you're right, bonding the parent metal with the same metal IS welding, regardless of the metal involved).

I'm sorry I spoke so quickly.

Steve S

Mon Sep 15, 2014 1:55 pm

djknight,

This is a long-shot, but did you work a cold-box (aluminum pipe welding) job at Herr & Sacco, in Pennsylvania?

Steve S

Tater · Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:25 pm

Wehave a lead tinning and bonding process but it is for manual torch not TIG. Our instruction uses the term "bonding" which implies something more like a braze than a weld. Anyway I'd think the fumes generated with TIG would kill you off within hours...

AndersK · Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:31 pm

Otto Nobedder wrote: I'm sorry I spoke so quickly.

Steve S

If everybody would think through all possible scenarios there wouldn't be much said in the world.

Sometimes thinking before talking is like wiping your b...t before you s...t

...and 99 things of 100 you say is usually spot on

djknight · Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:35 pm

Hello,
After a lot of distractions I have finally got to grips with a bit of lead(pb) tig.
First, large ceramic lots of argon(similar to o/a gas envelope)
Amps down to 7(inverter won't go lower)
Melt lead filler into weld pool similar to traditional lead welding
Remembering to Scrape not brush surface oxides off before hand
Hope to post a few photos of welds to lead outer of time capsule
Need to be sound as going 4 feet down in ground on side of hill for one hundred years
The idea is sound enough as Roman lead pipes keep getting dug up over here after many
hundreds of years in the ground

steeldr. · Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:58 pm

welding is when the base metal is melted,soldering and brazing is when the filler metal is applied by capillary action!

Blue Diver · Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:30 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the answer to welding vs brazing vs soldering had to do with temperature, not what metal is melting to another. Welding is anything above 850 deg.. I can't remember the difference between brazing and soldering but soldering is the least amount of heat (<400 deg maybe?). Either way, lead has a melting point of 600 soI would not classify it in welding at any rate....

A forum newbie's 2 pesos anyway.

-Don

Arno · Mon Oct 13, 2014 2:42 am

Naah.. Temperature is not the key. That all depends on the base material.

Definition is usually as cited above:

- melting the base material to form a join == welding
- melting an additive but not melting the base meterial == soldering/brazing

That's whay there's also plastic welding and glass welding. Plastic can melt at (very) low temperatures, but it is welding and the effect is similar to metal welding (including heat-affected zones and possible structural changes in the weld compared to the base material).

Fiber optics (glass fiber) is also fusion-welded with an arc-welding process in machines like these. You can just make out the electrodes:

Of course glass doesn't oxidise as rapidly as metals when exposed to oxygen/air, so these usually do not use shielding gasses like TIG.

Bye, Arno.