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Semi-OT: What fiber in today's plumber's wicking?

At one stage I lived in a house with lead waste pipes and swaged and brazed copper supply, and had the privilege of watching an elderly plumber wipe a repair joint in soft lead pipe. Certainly a real skill and a fair bit of nerve required to pour molten solder into a hand-held cloth and wipe it into a perfect joint- I really couldn't believe it the first time I saw it.
Plumbing with lead is very nearly gone now, some of that old lead work was pure magic.
 
At one stage I lived in a house with lead waste pipes and swaged and brazed copper supply, and had the privilege of watching an elderly plumber wipe a repair joint in soft lead pipe. Certainly a real skill and a fair bit of nerve required to pour molten solder into a hand-held cloth and wipe it into a perfect joint- I really couldn't believe it the first time I saw it.
Plumbing with lead is very nearly gone now, some of that old lead work was pure magic.

My dad wasn't a plumber but he could turn his hand to most things practical. I had a similar leak in my plumbing years ago and he came and fixed it for me.

Regards Tyrone.
 
Good Morning, Everyone --

Thank you to all who have responded to my question. I appreciate your answers and suggestions.

Now for a couple of comments:

The ball of asbestos twine I mentioned in my original posting was given to me by a retired gentleman who was taking the same evening machine-shop class, at San Francisco's John O'Connell Technical High School, in the 1970-1971 school year. He called it wicking, and made a point out of telling me to work whatever pipe joint compound that would be used into the wicking strand before laying the gooped-up stand into the thread. He also mentioned that he had worked at The Shipyard (which, in San Francisco, probably meant Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard rather than one of the private shipyards) during WWII, and at the end of the war his crew was told to throw their unused consumables into the Bay . . . which provided a lifetime supply of those materials to every man on the crew.

As for shaft / pump packing, the packing I've used most often was essentially a tallow-saturated linen "clothesline" rope coated with a bit of powder graphite and a lot of mica flakes. One of my uncles -- who made his living as a Pumping Supervisor (or something along those lines) for Atlantic Oil down in the Permian Basin -- showed me how to properly cut and install rope-type packing, and then pulled out a can of what he called "packing powder", which was pretty much a mix of fine sawdust, wax or tallow, and kosher-salt-size grains of Babbitt metal. He thought the packing powder was God's gift.

Again, thanks for your comments and suggestions.
 
John Garner:

The tale of how supplies and materials find their way from shipyards, powerplants, jobsites and other places into private hands is something I am well familiar with. Plenty of times, when a job would end, the left-over materials and smaller tools and supplies which were 'charged to the job' were left to be 'disposed of'. Sometimes, the client (such as a power company) was asked if they wanted the leftovers, but often, the workforce made sure to pick over the leftovers first. I got a LOT of very good tools and supplies over the years in just that manner.

Your uncle who was the Pumping Supervisor must have been quite an interesting man. The 'packing powder' you describe could turn a braided packing into something of a metallic packing. In old texts for stationary and marine engineers, there is mention of using soft lead packing rings on rods that have been scored, or on very high pressure service pump rods. Your uncle's packing powder and the discussion of graphite being used in some braided packing material has got me to thinking of the new generation of "grafoil" packing ribbon. This stuff is quite interesting and a totally different animal from braided packing. It is a fairly thin ribbon, perhaps 1" wide, with a black color and metallic sheen to it. You wind the ribbon around the shaft or rod to be packed until you have a 'donut' which can just fit into the stuffing box. Then, the gland is made up and socked down as hard as can be done and left to sit awhile. After the requisite time per the packing maker's instructions, the gland is removed and if there is room, a second 'donut' of the grafoil ribbon packing is made up. It seems counterintuitive to sock up a packing gland on new packing to the point you are grunting on the wrenches, but the idea is to get the packing to compress and mold itself into a solid ring. This requires leaving the packing gland socked up as tight as can be had for some little time, then backing off on the gland until it is loose. The packing is then left to 'recover' as much as it is going to, and the gland is then snugged. Due to the graphite content, this packing is self-lubricating, and is touted as being a 'zero leakage' packing.

I like the idea your uncle had with the 'packing powder'. The sawdust likely soaked up the wax or tallow, and the babbitt metal- assuming a soft leaded babbitt- would imbed in the braided packing. The result was a much more durable packing than a simple braided flax (or jute) packing with graphite and tallow.

I know that many years ago, packing manufacturers offered braided packing for high pressure/superheated steam service. These packings were braided graphited asbestos with soft copper wire woven into the braiding. I think the idea was the copper wire would keep the packing from blowing out while being soft enough to avoid scoring a rod or valve stem.

The last I knew, at the smaller hydro plants where we had the continuing issues with turbine shaft packings, they had gone over to an 'injectable packing'. This is some kind of semi-fluid compound which is injected into a stuffing box in place of the usual packing rings. The stuff cures, and forms a single resilient packing ring. Given the fact that the shaft sleeves on those hydro turbines were so badly ridges and 'saddled' from packing wear, the injectable packing is supposed to mold to the shaft's surface with no compression from the gland. I think one of the big packing makers (John Crane, or Garlock ?) furnished this new injectable packing.
 
Good Afternoon, Joe --

My uncle's "packing powder" was a commercial product. I don't recall the maker's name right now, but it might come to me after a bit of pondering; Rain-Rite is kicking around in the back of my head, but it isn't quite right.

At any rate, the powder was about the consistency of coarsely ground coffee. It was spooned into the packing recess and tamped a bit before installing and torquing the packing nut. Needless to say, this was a vertical shaft; I remember him saying something about putting the powder into socks (?) for horizontal shafts, but don't remember any details.

Incidentally, I appreciate your use of the word "mechanic". I learned to use that word in the same way, from an old Englishman. And, FWIW, the same guy taught me tongue-in-cheek understatement. He was a superb mechanic -- in that sense of the word -- but referred to himself as an old knuckle-dragger.

Like you, I suspect Tyrone is a top-notch mechanic.

John
 
@Joe Michaels

Have you ever thought about writing a book? If not, you really should consider it.

Sent using Morse code on - .- .--. .- - .- .-.. -.-
 
Joe is way above my pay grade, he is one of the top people I would love to Spend a couple of hours or so with a cup of coffee.
 
As for clearing clogged drains: I grew up in a 3 family house which my father owned. We did as much of the work as we could for maintenance or repair by ourselves. Dad had worked for his brother-in-law back, a licensed master plumber in Brooklyn, NY, back in the 1930's. Dad knew his way around a lot of work done by different crafts, and we had a good assortment of tools and a home shop in the basement. We had one tenant in particular who seemed to create plumbing problems on a nearly weekly basis. A typical example would be his kids flushing some toy down the toilet and then having waste/toilet paper flushed to jam and clog against the toy. Another example was the time his kids decided to play football in the house. Problem was they had no football, so used a glass bottle of 'Old Spice' aftershave for the football. One kid went out for the pass, did not connect, and the Old Spice bottle busted the ceramic toilet on a Friday night. We had the tenant family traipsing in and out of our apartment to use the toilet all weekend.

Dad kept a few plumber's snakes and a 'closet bowl auger' for unclogging toilets. Dad was on 50% veteran's disability pension as a result of injuries suffered during WWII, and had a really bad right shoulder. If he reached wrong or over his head, his shoulder would dislocate and it took an orthopedic surgeon and anesthesia to put it back in right. The result was Dad got me started early on working on plumbing and other repairs. Getting under a sink or wriggling around or reaching up between joists in the basement to get to a shutoff valve was the kind of thing Dad had me doing early on. I also learned to use a 'force cup', working it like a pump, to clear clogged toilets before having to break out the 'closet bowl auger'.

The things that seemed guaranteed to clog drains in a home were hair and kitchen fats or heavy soap scum. Usually, we could drop the trap from a clogged sink and work a snake thru to the waste stack pipe. Dad's other ace-in-the-hole was pure lye. Sodium Hydroxide in flake form. The stuff was sold in cardboard containers with steel lids in the A & P store, or we got it at the local plumbing supply or hardware store. Hooker Lye, red can, did the trick for dissolving soap scum and hair clogs. We were living in Brooklyn, and I remember wondering why the directions on the Hooker Lye cans included information for making hog swill using lye. Dad taught me how to use the lye to clear bathroom sink and tub drains- which were notorious for hair/soap clogs. We did not bother with 'Liquid Plumber' or 'Draino'. Dad went for the real deal, buying flake lye. Like so many of the stronger solvents and chemicals we had when I was a kid, I am sure pure lye is verboten, too dangerous for the public to use. As a young fellow working in the instrument machine shop at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Hospital (about 1971), I learned that lye did a great job of putting an etched or 'frosted' finish on aluminum. We'd make certain parts of lab or other hospital equipment out of aluminum, and for something like a control panel face, or some machined parts, we'd put them in a plastic pail of lye solution. We used to go to the hospital plumbing shop or the hospital janitors and get some of their lye when we needed to put that etched finish on aluminum parts. You had to be quick about it, and it did not take long for a solution of pure lye in warm water to etch aluminum, then into the shop's slop sink and a cold water rinsing. Lye was good stuff when the tenant would dump a load of chicken fat down the kitchen sink drain, and when any bathroom tub or sink in our house clogged. I think lye, along with things like creosote (wood preservative) and "carbon tet" (used in fire extinguishers as well as for a 'spot remover' to clean garments) have all been declared too hazardous for the public to be using. Of course, seeing how the lye could quickly etch aluminum, it is a highly corrosive and potentially dangerous substance. Still, it was one good drain cleaner.
 
Have not looked for flake lye, but you can get a strong liquid lye material under the name of "Instant Power" at the big box stores (for sure at Home Depot).

It is a thick liquid and is very strong. With hair and grease clogs, it will dissolve and clear them in a pretty short time. Has not failed yet. Much better than the goofy mixtures like "Draino".
 








 
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