Rank: New forum user 
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Can anyone assist with information regarding the welding of lead which will be taking place on my site in the near future? If anyone has experience of this what are the things to be looking for. I can only find reference to welding other materials on the HSE website and Gooogle.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Sorry can you weld Lead? It has such a low melting point i would not have thought it would work? Is it realy a weld or do you just melt bothe edges and allow it to cool (while stopping it running away) If you are heating it to melting point dont forget there is WEL for lead so need some very good controls?
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Rank: New forum user
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I'm guessing it would be more of a solder despite its name, but certainly involves heat. I don't know if extra should be put in the RA because of the material, I've not come across this one before.
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 1 user thanked T2020P for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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As others have said, you don't weld lead as such - although welding is the joining of metals by obviously melting metals so they fuse together. Lead 'welding' is usually referred to as soldering. An occupational hygienist might disagee, but I've always been told that normal soldering of lead is fairly low risk from the lead exposure point of view, as soldering takes place at something like 250deg C. Siginificant lead fumes aren't released until about 500 dg C. Nevertheless good occupational hygiene is still required. Also hot works control
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Rank: Super forum user
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Sorry if im teaching you to suck eggs - but you have read this? https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l132.pdf - it talks about hot and cold (but even that is above melting point) work with lead and some of teh precautions needed. Sorry been a long time since i had any detailed involvement with lead.
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Rank: New forum user
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I shall proceed with what I can see above. Thank you very much for your input.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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You can actually weld lead, so not just solder or brazing, but actually weld it. It is done with a oxy / acetylene torch similar to welding steel. ( not sure if you can also oxy/ propane weld as you don’t get the weld cone). The filler material is the same as the parent materials ie you use a lead strip to melt into the weld puddle. The same way you would use a steel wire to melt into the weld puddle when welding steel sheet, though it is not normally done this way anymore now we have MMA/ MIG or TIG for steels. Like steel you need to remove the surface oxide off the lead before welding, for lead it is normally scraped clean. So, you will have fume as you are melting the lead and you have handling issues with the lead. You need to enquire what exactly they mean by welding as there is often a lot of confusion regarding welding / brazing / soldering, where one starts and another stops. Generally if you use a different filler material it is not welding, you are soldering / brazing as you are just sticking the material together with a lower melting point material than the parent materials. Chris
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2 users thanked chris42 for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Hi T2020P The risks of exposure to lead are probably consistently underestimated in the UK. A report in the 1980s I think found that well over half of demolition and scrap metal workers in California had significantly elevated blood-lead levels. Then circa 2000, there were only about 400 people doing similar work in Great Britain registered for medical surveillance for lead - the data was (and should be still) available if you look at the HSE website. At about the same time they refurbished the "Hielanman's Umbrella" at Glasgow Central railway station - HSE took a close interest in the project from the start - so you would expect everything to be closely controlled by the contractor (+ oversight from Network Rail as client at one of its "major stations") yet within a month or two of work starting a couple of workers had been legally suspended from "work with lead". So, if they couldn't get it right at Glasgow Central, my suspicion is that control in other environments in the UK is regularly substandard but with lead poisoning being undetected and/or underreported. Hence, you should look closely at what is to be done and how much potential exposure there could be, particularly if this is not a "one off" short duration task. P
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