Wiping Solder Ingots

What's the composition?

I suspect Matt isn't interested in ordering 10 skids of it.

I would probably look at a roofing supply for sheet lead. The plumbing supplies that would even know what sheet lead is wouldn't talk to me.

Left over from the days when phones worked reliably………….

Paul, yes, today is good. Until someone cuts a fiber even 200 miles away from you. This has happened numerous times. Knocks out 911 service and even cell service.

Many are confident that they don't need the landline switch office, but cell service is routed thru it via UG fiber. IIUC, cell calls do not go tower to tower, rather they shoot down UG to a switching station then perhaps go out to the appropriate tower.

However, I do appreciate that our little CO-OP phone company has fiber buried right up to the house giving us high speed internet and TV if we choose it. It might fail maybe once a year for less than 1 hour. And being a Co-Op we get almost 1/2 of out bill back in dividend checks every 2 years or so.

The phones seemed to go down and awful lot in the old movies and shows I watch.

Of course they're fake but it suggests it was typical of the time.

i think it was just a convenient plot device

you might have the pair or crosspoint to your house fail once or twice in your lifetime but the co itself was built to be very reliable and redundant and to automatically route around a fault and alert techs to repair the fault.

att stopped putting resources in to maintenance of the plant 20 or so years ago so it is now much less reliable than it was designed to be

Why are they still requiring it and why do you agree with it if it's never used in real life plumbing?

Or are these skills currently being used?

https://www.mcmaster.com/7663A14/

https://www.mcmaster.com/products/solder/solder~/bar-solder/

I think wiping a joint requires a lot of metalworking skills that you need to have for many other plumbing tasks. You need to lay it out right then you need to have the feel for how to move the metal around and control the heat and the oxidation to weld the pieces together rather than tun it in to a big molten blob.

Mercury is rather more of an issue because it evaporates. In something like a manometer it isn't an issue because there is so little surface area, but if you spill it and spread it out you suddenly have a problem.

This is the archive of military manuals I was thinking of:
https://tpub.com/

Lead and mercury are far different than those other materials, Matt.

I can’t say anything about your other statement without running afoul of this site’s rules.

I agree with you @mattmia2, leaded gas and leaded paint are probably the greatest harm by far. They lower the average intelligence across the population leading to all kinds of social problems. It's just good to get it out of circulation.

Here's probably the most harmful man who ever existed. Of course he invented CFCs too so there's a direct connection to the HVAC industry: https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/research/thomas-midgley-harmful-inventor-history/

The article is worth the read…right to the end. But I don't know why links are now silly on this site 😓

So, leaded gas has been largely gone for the last 30-40 years. Leaded paint has been gone for just as long, yet people are still getting dumber every day. 🤣

Yes, I know about leaded av-gas. Luckily my 1946 Cessna 140 was certified to run on 73 octane av-gas, which was lead free, and the plane subsequently eligible for the STC (supplemental type certificate) that allows the use of mo-gas (non-ethanol only). The amount of lead emitted from piston aviation engines is absolutely miniscule compared to the what was spewed forth in the "bad ol' days" of leaded gas.