Cable sheathing

[Bobby Ironsights]

What is cable sheathing, I know it's harder than the pure lead that I'm getting from the roof sheathing.

Also, what actually is cable sheathing, is it power cables, for phone cableing, what? And why in the hell do they use expensive thick lead to sheath it?

[Pepe Ray]

telephone cables; Good protection;
They don't anymore except for what may be "remaining stock on the shelf".
They hadn't refined plastics when they first began using lead.
Get it while you can. It's disappearing fast.
Pepe Ray

[BigBore56]

I work for a Electric Utility, and just sold 1000# of cable sheathing on e-bay. Is is PURE SOFT lead. Mostly bought by black powder shooters for muzzleloaders.

They used a lot of this to wrap the old 2400 volt cables...copper cable wrappred in oil impregnated paper, then covered with the heavy lead shield. This was done in the 1940's and 50's on lots of underground primary cable. We now tear it out and replace with modern cables that have a concentric neutral shield (woven wire) covering over the insulation. It is dirty to remove, but melts down nicely. Free lead!

[randyrat]

It may be some real soft lead but i think they solder it together with Tin.. I found this out when i melted it down the seams melted at a much lower temp.
If i were to do it again, i would heat the seams up and seperate the Tin using a torch. My guess there is about 5%-10% Tin in these. Thats a lot of Tin.

[JIMinPHX]

The stuff I got was dead soft. It came off a big bundle of little wires that looked like signal wires or maybe telephone wires. I only grabbed a little bit because I really don't use dead soft for much other than slugging barrels. The guy I bought it from had several thousand pounds for $0.50/lb. It was pretty clean stuff. I didn't see any seams.

[405]

Yep, may be different varieties out there. The stuff I have (about 500#) is dead soft and clean. It came in a tangled pile. Before stripping, the original cable would have been about 1" diameter. Good base stuff for muzzleloader and softer BPCR bullets. Add tin and antimony to taste.

[imashooter2]

My Dad was a Bell lineman back in the 50's and 60's and we shot literally tons of cable sheath boolits. There are many formulations for "cable sheath." At that time Bell was using arsenical lead.

[randyrat]

If there are any seams, they would use a Tin base weld/solder. The one i had was a heavy case 2.5 to 3" ft long and the seams and ends were welded/soldered with a Tin base alloy. Maybe 50-50.

[sheepdog]

I've never smelted this myself but a friend online out of state uses this stuff ALOT. Has thousands of pounds of it. Says its nearly pure high arsenic soft lead as sated before. If you can most a picture of it intact so we can spot it if we see it.

[Ricochet]

My 1948 Metals Handbook lists a formula for cable sheathing lead with calcium in it to resist creep.

[405]

Calcium eh? The cable sheathing I've melted & alloyed (PIC to use the word smelting:mrgreen:) that is dead soft at 5-6 BHN sure has something in it. Always get quite a bit of fluffy dross. Calcium makes sense.

[hydraulic]

Talked to Rick the telephone guy in town at coffee this morning, and he said the unpaved alleys in these small towns here all contain lead shethed cable that the phone company has abandoned. He said go ahead and dig the alleys up if you want to. I think Dean the cop guy would probably object.

[Gerry N.]

I was given over a ton of the stuff about fifteen or twenty years ago. The guy running the phone co. warehouse said to cut the joints off or they'd mix in and make your alloy ring loud enough to make tuning forks. One of his guys used it to make steelhead sinkers and said you could hear 'em clanging on the rocks in the river.

Gerry N.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I worked for the phone co. here in Southern California fo 37 years and used nothing but cable sheathing in my muzzle loaders. I still have some in fact. I think at that time all outside phone cable had lead sheathing, both arial and buried. Every phone yard had bins full of scrap lead cable. I retired 15 years ago and most of it was removed from service by then. We were told at the time that inside cloth covered cable had arsenic in it to keep rats from chewing it. Could be thats why the lead sheating has it also. It is very near pure lead by the way. It will have 50/50 solder at the joints. Perhaps a telephone linemen could jump in here and share his knowledge with us.

[imashooter2]

As I recall it, Bell wiping solder was only 30% tin to maximize the slush time.

[shotman]

the Bell solder bars I have say 50/50 on them. was working at a phone co warehouse and saw them. I asked what they used solder foe he said it was not uesd anymoer and said you want it. I said no dont need it but I am a pack rat so he MADE me take them 27 10lb bars

[imashooter2]

Well 10 pound bars certainly weren't for soldering wires. I guess I didn't recall it right.

And it wasn't very Christian of that warehouseman to force that junk on you...

[randyrat]

I know an old lineman, he said if the solder wouldn't melt quick enough they would throw in some more Tin. He said they would boil the HELL/Tin out of it and get it too hot, then they would just throw more Tin in the pot. No science involved.
He had a fellow that always wondered what would happen if they threw a big boiling pot of the stuff in the river. That fellow swore he was gonna do it when he retired, just to see what would happen. LOL

[LarryM]

My 1948 Metals Handbook lists a formula for cable sheathing lead with calcium in it to resist creep.

Telephone man here. Some of the old stuff in the storerooms I work around has some of the sheathing still in the cardboard packaging labled as having calcium. Still gets used on occasion. And, the local tree rats eat holes in it on a regular basis.

[Mike W1]

I spliced for years for the telephone company though I came in after they'd used the bar solder to wipe the joints between the cable sheath and the bigger sleeves they used to cover the splices with. Used to use the big solder bars to harden my lead a bit but don't have any of those left anymore. Some recent casting of samples indicated my sleeve and sheath lead to be around 8-10 bhn while virgin lead tested 4-5 bhn. Also had a couple hundred pounds of battery cable ends from an ambulance plant that tested around 14 bhn and up. I always separated the sheath from the sleeves and at one time scrapped out the joints but find samples from the joints which I started keeping tested about 14 bhn. Obviously I don't scrap that stuff out anymore. There used to be a tale saying get rid of the joints, that it'd turn things to mush but I never found that to be a problem. I plan on retesting my samples in a couple months to note the changes.

[nighthunter]

The 10 pound bars were not heated with a torch and dripped onto the area that needed sealed. The bars were melted on the ground in a 55 pound pot over a propane burner then hoisted or lowered to the working area. This is why the splicers used to have "helpers". I have shot tons and tons of cable sheathing over the years. I also have my fathers 55 pound pot and propane burner that I use today to smelt WW. The melt was then poured and "wiped" with a muslin patch to create the seal on the sheathing. My father taught me a lot about lead and tin mixtures. He taught me how to do body work on cars with solder and copper screen. He is the man responsible for my bullet casting addiction. These are lost arts today.
Treat the cable sheathing as pure lead. With the proper lube you can shoot it to about 1200 fps.

Nighthunter

[MT Gianni]

He had a fellow that always wondered what would happen if they threw a big boiling pot of the stuff in the river. That fellow swore he was gonna do it when he retired, just to see what would happen. LOL
Lead into water gets hard and sinks. Water into lead turns to steam and grows. That is one rule we all need to keep straight.