Lead head insulator pins

[lightman]

All of that pole thing really makes a lot of sense! Those green poles that we used were highly flammable, not a good thing in farming country, and let off toxic fumes when burned and even the ash was toxic!

[Lloyd Smale]

we were told that 75 percent of the treatment injected into those green poles was water. the chemicals used are actually more toxic then creosote. Its just that they don't leach out into the ground. All that said utilitys are going away from the green treated poles because there hard which makes them harder to climb, the hardness also transmits vibration to the poles from the wires and that vibration makes animals think there insects inside and when the animals (like woodpeckers) go after those bugs that are not there they absorb some of the chemicals. Weve found poles so attacked by wood peckers that there were holes bigger then your fist that went into the pole that was hollowed out to a shell for 3 feet. It happened mostly on our 69kv and 138kv lines. So now they have a new formula to treat that is back to a brown color.

All of that pole thing really makes a lot of sense! Those green poles that we used were highly flammable, not a good thing in farming country, and let of toxic fumes when burned and even the ash was toxic!

[TaylorS]

I’d rather a greasy creo pole to climb than a salt or any other treatment


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lloyd Smale]

you got that right! Ever cut out and get some of those green slivers in your hand. They get fester in about an hour! nasty stuff

I’d rather a greasy creo pole to climb than a salt or any other treatment


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TaylorS]

Just the chem rubbing on the sleeves of my shirt is enough to burn ya at least the creo has to soak in before that starts! We had a couple loads come in a few years back that were salt treated then treated with a little creo on top it was easier to drive a staple in concrete then to put copper on them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dondiego]

we were told that 75 percent of the treatment injected into those green poles was water. the chemicals used are actually more toxic then creosote. Its just that they don't leach out into the ground. All that said utilitys are going away from the green treated poles because there hard which makes them harder to climb, the hardness also transmits vibration to the poles from the wires and that vibration makes animals think there insects inside and when the animals (like woodpeckers) go after those bugs that are not there they absorb some of the chemicals. Weve found poles so attacked by wood peckers that there were holes bigger then your fist that went into the pole that was hollowed out to a shell for 3 feet. It happened mostly on our 69kv and 138kv lines. So now they have a new formula to treat that is back to a brown color.

Holes that size were most likely made by a Pileated woodpecker. They are the size of a crow!

[Biggin]

Our company gets most of it's poles out of Alabama. The drivers tell me that they are still the green poles but they're treated with the brown stuff your talking about. Makes them softer and supposed more flame resistant.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup they are pileated woodpeckers and the problem is at least in MI there protected. So I wont tell you that when we patrolled our transmission lines I carried a 22 pistol.

Holes that size were most likely made by a Pileated woodpecker. They are the size of a crow!

[dondiego]

yup they are pileated woodpeckers and the problem is at least in MI there protected. So I wont tell you that when we patrolled our transmission lines I carried a 22 pistol.

Heck Lloyd, even doves are protected in Michigan! The # 1 game bird in the US! I was raised in Texas but found out that MI doves taste just as good.

[Lloyd Smale]

ya we never had doves around here when I was young. Now there everywhere.

[454PB]

A bit off subject, but back when I worked in power plants we had to change out the low side leads to our transformers. The old leads were the grease encased, lead covered type Lloyd refered to. It was 1000 MCM wiring, so about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. We found the best way to strip the lead was to lay out 40 feet or so on a concrete surface, then straddle the wire and hit it with a sledge hammer. It split open and was then easily pulled off for rendering. That dielectric grease was a good fluxing agent, but really smokey. The copper was sold by the company, but myself and a fellow employee that casts grabbed all that "hazardous" lead. As I recall, we got about 2 to 3 pounds of lead for each foot of cable we stripped.

[lightman]

Just to bump this thread! I just got the XRF results on some samples that BNE ran for me.

Pole top pins
PB-97.7
SB- 1.9
SN- 0.4

Hardness tested about the same as clip on weights.
Each pin produced an estimated 4-5 oz of lead.
Some older pins were a little bigger.

[TaylorS]

Awesome I tried to melt a couple dozen last week and failed miserably to remove the lead from the tops I’m waiting on time to finish my smelting pot to do more the ones I cut the pins off of melted nicely in the Lee pot when added to the mix. But that’s great info to have! Thanks lightman!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lightman]

Thanks goes to BNE for being willing to do these test for the members here! I just posted the results. I saved these before I retired and now my buddy Biggin saves them. I mixed mine with coww whenever I smelted a big batch of weights. A smelting pot full of pins melts kind of slow because of the minimal contact with the sides of the pot. I'm thinking a weed burner may do a good job. Like me, if you get paid for changing them out and get paid for breaking them down then thats a win-win!