lead okum joint

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

Does anyone know of a book or web source for information on how to remove and solder a lead okum joint on cast iron drainpipes? I have access to whatever torches I might need, and have 20+ years lead wiping experience(sealing electrical splices 1″ – 10″ o.d.). If this requires extensive training or somebody with extensive training, i’d like to know also. Removal seems easy, but i’m asking about this for in case there are safety issues. I need to do 1 vertical and 2 horizontal joints. Thanks in advance, Tom

[GuestParticipant]

Tom,

I’m a do-it-yourself sorta guy, but here’s what I did to remove the lead/oakum joint:

First, I drilled holes around the joint into the lead as close as possible. I tried not to drill the iron pipe since I wanted to reuse the joint. It was somewhat messy, but was easy to drill.

Then I used a pick sort of instrument to pick out and remove sections. If you’ve cut the iron pipe going into it, then you can rock it from side to side to make things a little more loose.

You just keep picking away and cleaning out. When you are about 3/4 of the way around—larger sections of lead and oakum should pop out.

Clean up is easy.

The irony of my story is that after all the prep for re-using the bell joint/hub, I just decided to cut it off and join a piece of ABS with “no hub” joints/bands.

I guess you could heat things up with a torch—but man lead fumes are pretty toxic—-let alone all the regs.

Good luck.

Mike [email protected]

[Author]

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