putting a new bath in

What's wrong with the old bath? Apart from not being made in cast iron with lion's feet, of course...

I'm having fun with Edwardian plumbing this weekend. Today I have to teach myself how to make a wiped lead joint, or we don't got no water!

Oh...it all got rather stressful, wrestling with valves and pipes last night, and I drank your Tatra.

lead joints. you will need ..

1....Tallow.
2....Plumbers metal.(lead stick).
3....Stick of tin.
4....A wiping cloth.
and finally luck.


.....Good luck.

Yes....unfortunately I discovered that these items seem to be out of stock at my local Wickes. So my wiped lead joint is now a wiped-chemical-sealant-and-hope-for-the-best joint. With any luck that'll hold for long enough to run a bath or two.

Tomorrow I will bring some high pressure hose from work and clamp the bugger up with Jubilee clips. Crude but effective!

[I suppose I'll have to clamp an earth wire over the hose section as well....]

there is a gadget called a LEADLOC from a plumbers merchant.It goes from lead to copper like a compression coupling.Measure outside diameter of lead and copper tell merchant and he will give you the right size fitting.

That's actually exactly what I'm trying to do: join an ancient lead pipe (outside diameter 3/4 inch, as far as I can tell) to a modern 15mm copper pipe.

I'll have to track down one of those connectors. Thanks for the tip!

It's been a few years since I did a wiped lead joint... But have only ever done them on really big cables not pipe. It was one of the things I most enjoyed at BT... I was one of the last people to be trained to do it at BT... and as all the old boys retired I got to work further and further afield.

Oh BTW geodhinn really knows his stuff because he's a real plumber not a telephone engineer who did a bit of plumbing on the side like me ;-)

Question... Do real plumbers use what we called "plumbers black"? Made for a real neat job... Never seen it on pipes of any age... wondered if it was just a telephone cable thing.

So I guess the "Tatra" you mentioned wasn't a T87?

"What's wrong with the old bath?"

Old bath leaking around one of the handles so you can't fill it right up... A floorboard or two need replacing that run under the bath... I figure while I have the side of the bath off I may as well replace the bath too.

Could really do with putting in a couple of stopcocks in the bath room so I can isolate the bath room and not the kitchen. May have to wait until I get back from the USA in August now as I have much to do if I'm going to have a lodger move in.