Tool Talk
What's-It Forum => What's-It Forum => Topic started by: Sudsy on February 23, 2016, 11:13:51 PM
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7" long
Only markings are a W B (could be an R)
No dents on the end and the tip is still sharp so chisel is out (although I might use it as one)
A few small dings on the bottom tells me it was used as some kind of lever, perhaps for a machinist lathe ??
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Does it look like it has been hammered on the right end?
it sort of looks like a "panel cutter" for sheet metal / autobody repair.
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I was sent this via PM:
The tool is a boiler tube beading tool, the tubes stick through the holes in the end sheets and the tool curls the end over to form a seal.
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I was sent this via PM:
The tool is a boiler tube beading tool, the tubes stick through the holes in the end sheets and the tool curls the end over to form a seal.
UMMM, boiler & exchanger tubes are normally rolled into the headsheet, not beaded or peened. The seal is between headsheet and tube on the taper. Tube rollers are heavy and hurt like hell when they hit you on the shin or foot. Don't ask how I know that.
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Sellens lists is as a Boiler Beading Tool (also Flue Beading Tool; Tube Beading Tool). A tool used to crimp and expand the end of a boiler smokestack or tube.
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a simple explanation here http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/mechanics/Mechanical-Processes/388-Methods-Of-Holding-Boiler-Tubes-In-Place.html (http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/mechanics/Mechanical-Processes/388-Methods-Of-Holding-Boiler-Tubes-In-Place.html)
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Tube rollers are heavy and hurt like hell when they hit you on the shin or foot. Don't ask how I know that.
Gosh, Aunt Phil, how do you know that? :grin:
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Tube rollers are heavy and hurt like hell when they hit you on the shin or foot. Don't ask how I know that.
Gosh, Aunt Phil, how do you know that? :grin:
Drop by and I'll show you. I know exactly where the 4" is.
Bring your own foot.
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Here's something else that similar enough to the beading tool that it might also have something to do with boilers and pipes n stuff
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NOPE, that's a running iron for packing Okum into bell mouths so they can be leaded.
Somebody has misused hell out of that tool though hitting it with a hammer.
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Awesome !
Now could you translate that into english ?? :embarrassed:
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One of those thingies that a plumber used to use to seal drain pipe joints. He wouldn't have used a hammer to do it.
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perhaps someone tried to use it to drive off a stubborn muffler or tailpipe. ???
as folks find some of the uses for tools other than the right tool.
just like some would use a screwdriver as a chisel or scraper.
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Sudsy,
Cast iron drain pipe joints were made by inserting one end of a run of drain pipe into the bell end of another run (or into a joint, like an ell). The plumber then packed oakum* into the space between the two. The running iron was used to tamp the oakum down into the gap. Once this had been done all around, the plumber would then wrap a piece of oakum-ish rope around the pipe right where it entered the bell of the other pipe, leaving the top out a bit from the joint. Melted lead would then be poured into the space in the bell. The tamped-down oakum served as a dam to keep the lead from running into the pipe. The rope around the pipe kept it from running out. Errors in doing the work carefully no doubt led to a good many cursing plumbers, particularly if they weren't alert to the direction the hot lead would run if it got out.
I've never done this procedure, my knowledge being limited to reading about how to do it; Aunt Phil can offer a lot more detail. By the time I was running DWV, plastic pipe had come into common use, so all I had to learn was how to prepare and make a glued joint (and how to clean the adhesive off my hands afterward). I am not pining over the lost opportunity.
I noticed, oh, 8-9 years ago that our local hardware store still stocked oakum; haven't looked lately. I'll have to try to remember to look next time I'm in.
I do have a tiny little running iron, maybe three inches long, that I assume would have been used for making these joints in tight spots during remodels. It was nearly free at a yard sale, and it's a nice artifact of the days when plumbing was a lot more complicated than it is these days.
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*Loosely wound rope-type fibers impregnated with tar.
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Well gee Bill, you sort of skipped over how to make a horizontal bell joint without even mentioning making up a bell coupler on 2 male joints of pipe for fun & punishment. You completely skipped over the era when everybody jumped from lead joints to those lovely rubber collars you forced into the damn bell by getting help from a fat guy to put it to the handle so the tool didn't launch you like a Harley with the timing set wrong when you kicked the starter, and went right to PVC bypassing ABS completely. Of course many sane people swear ABS should have been bypassed anyhow.
You also forgot how to lead in a toilet shoe, especially one below grade where the damn hole the pipe is sticking out of is full of water.
Okum is jute or hemp fiber with just enough tar added so you either spend an hour with Boraxo getting the crap off your hands, or smell of tar for 47 hours. It isn't wound, it's a linear lay so you can pull the bundle apart and get the number of strands you need.
The Okum is wound around the male pipe in the bell to a point the bell is about 2/3 full, and then tamped with the running iron BY HAND. Hitting a running iron with a hammer will generally result in 1, perhaps 2 verbal warnings from the Plumber followed by a hammer flying through the air to impact the skull of the fool. Nobody cared if a fool died from the flying hammer, because there was no place on the job for somebody too stupid to pack a joint! (insert world of real men lines here) On pipes over 6" the joint is usually tamped continuously from the point of 2 wraps until it is full to minimize voids in the packing. If the okum ain't right, the pour can and usually will leak into the pipe itself.
Generally, at least 4 or more joints will be assembled before the lead is heated. Lead is brought to the temperature of charring a pine stick poked in the pot, given a quick skim, and a ladle is grabbed. Pour lead to the top of the bell, and move to the next joint. You pour 6, less if it's really cold in the work area, and get a packing iron to complete the joint.
As the lead is poured the bell expands. When the bell contracts the lead is still soft, and the joint will probably leak if it isn't packed while the lead is in the most plastic condition. Packing irons have a shorter snout, generally an offset handle, concave face and are built to be hammered. You make a couple quick trips around the joint with the hammer & packing iron seating the lead, and go back to pouring the next joints.
Joints on horizontal and diagonal runs are poured using the rope. Ropes were generally asbestos with brass end furrels and a spring loaded clothespin style clamp. The rope is pushed up to the mouth of the bell, clamped to keep the lead inside the bell till it chills, removed and the joint is finished off with a ramming iron and hammer. Most people only pull the rope too soon once.
Ropes are also real handy for pouring inverted bell joints, add some putty to get a complete dam and pouring pocket so you can pour into the rope and flow it into the bell.
All in all it's a fun way to spend a day, beats hell out of ditch digging, unless some fool spits in the lead pot. In case anybody wonders, that damn pot heater does NOT throw off enough heat to keep you warm on a cold day.
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That was great ! Thank you for the lesson, I never knew any of that.
I do know the feeling of hot lead on bare skin, loads of fun - even better, ever melt down beer coil for the tin ?? That one little pocket of moisture always has to wait until the pot is full enough to make the POP entertaining.
The tool in question has nice crisp edges on the working end, doesn't look like it was ever used as a chisel. I wonder if the plumber in question used the back side like a hammer to move pipe around ??
Found two more somewhat similar type tools today. I need to clean em up a little then I'll put up pictures
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Sudsy, that tool has been hit by a hammer and hit hard judging by the mushroom I see in the picture.
If you take a file to the back end of that iron, it is soft. Same file on a calking iron or a chisel you'll find hard steel.
All I'll confess to is once when I was in kid prison I got a real bright idea to chop open and melt down a lead acid battery for the lead. That was long ago when batterys had hard rubber cases and pitch tops. That was not one of my better ideas, curdled the paint on the shop wall, which I got to scrub and repaint. The fumes drove me out of the building.
Good thing was Herb just shook his head and said "that's how boys learn". I also learned from scrubbing & painting to not melt things I didn't understand.
Far as block tin is concerned, that's a low melt point material, generally smoothed on bowls and such with a sheepskin pad. Sheep fur burns at around 1500° ignition point. As I recall, there is still 1 company in the US still blocking tin on cookware, and they do repairs.
Flying molten lead generally ain't real bad. Lead tends to act like an opening parachute as it flys, and cools rapidly. If it lands on bare skin you can generally figure a second degree burn, similar to a Sunburn.
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I pour my own fishing jigs, tin squids, and boolits, so I'm pretty familiar with the "sunburn" lol
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Thanks for your essay, Aunt Phil. I knew you'd have more information...it's just barely possible that I posted what I did to inspire you to expand on the subject...naw, I'd never do that... :smiley:
Better hope your hammer-throwing skills don't extend to a toss from wherever you call home to north of San Francisco!
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MEMO to self:
Check list of old contacts in Okland who owe me a favor to hunt Bill down and make his life a living hell.
On second thought, Bill lives North of Frisco, his life is already hell.
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Hey Aunt Phil
Is this also some weird plumbing tool, or is it just a generic punch of some kind ?
It came in the box with the other ones.
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Looks like a standard every day punch to me.
Captain Cablecar's Opinion may be different.