✅ SOLVED One for the I.D. Crew

[CoinandRelicMan]

lead seal for pipe

Found this yesterday any ideas on its I.D. / uses ? It seems lately even though I've been detecting for 30 + years I still feel like a new guy An old food scale says it weighs a bit over 1/2 pound. Also found another sizable piece of lead nearby within 10 feet.TIA CARM

 

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[NOLA_Ken]

Lead seal from an old cast iron drain pipe is mt thought.

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

They made drain seals on the spot there maybe?

 

[BosnMate]

Looks like it's not very large for a drain pipe. It might be a babbitt bearing?? At one time those were poured in farm shops for various machinery. Can the item be scratched with your thumb nail. Pure lead is soft and will scratch, babbitt contains a lot of tin and is too hard to scratch with your fingernail.

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

It is soft enough metal that my fingernail can make a line on it.

 

[mical66]

i agree it was a lead o-ring basically for cast iron pipes. lead was used allot by allot of different people for different things.

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

What years would they have been making pipe O rings on the spot any idea?

 

[BosnMate]

Marking with your finger nail rules out a bearing, and even though new installation of oakum and lead sewer drains were pretty much done for by 1961. I worked in a lumber yard in a small town, and there was lead seals being poured in repair jobs. I don't think it was being used in new construction though, I recall lots of copper water pipes, and plastic drains.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Bosn.... I've seen it done here still in old houses, when the cast iron had gotten a bit loose from the house settling, and they didn't want to rip it all out. It's not very common, but it does still happen. But yeah, lead was pretty much done for when PVC and ABS came out.

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

Thanks for the replies and input T-net(ers)