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Hey /diy/, I got some solid advice here recently on how to open a lead drum trap.
>I tried torching, causing a massive flame leading me to chicken out
>cut off the sides
>fucked that up causing a leak already
>finally just cut the top off
It's clear now there was a 1" bronze cap threading onto bronze. Maybe by grinding the sides of the remaining part of the cap I could save the threads?
Anyway, I'm mostly back for advice because what I found was not at all what I was expecting. It looks like instead of a drum below, there's just a piece of pipe? My first thought was that the drum had filled up completely with sediment, but after a bit of scraping it does seem to be just pipe there. To one side I can stick a stick a bit deeper but maybe I'm just going further into pipe. To what I think to be the sewer side I can't stick that far, so there's at least a bit of asymmetry.
Any thoughts as to what I'm looking at? I have taken video from the hole, if that would help.
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File: drum_trap-inside-20170303.png (712KB, 852x853px) Image search:
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Inside view right after cutting it open. This is not deep at all. From the cut surface it's a little over 2.5". The water level is 7/8".
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To clarify, the aim was to fix clogged drains. I suspected the drum trap was the culprit, but... :/
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>>1139242
Looks like the perfect size for a plunger. Still you got some major work to do. Why didn't you start with a drain snake?
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>>1139248
>Why didn't you start with a drain snake?
Because I'd heard they could easily rupture the sides of old lead pipes/traps and I'd have to rent/buy one. Also I thought if I figured out how to open it, it would mean no more future hassle when things clogged up. So lack of experience and reversed priorities probably :(
Will try plunging.
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>>1139248
>Still you got some major work to do.
What makes you say that? Does that mean this is what a drum trap should look like? I can't *see* the problem in these pictures myself...
Plunging doesn't seem to do much. When there's a bit of water in the pipes, it gets it out, but that's about it. I plunged the bath before and a lot of junk came out, but not so much anymore.
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Sure it's not stopped up in the yard?
If it's more than one drain, check the yard first.
If it's one drain, use a toilet auger
If that is a toilet flange, its just a bend attached to a tee or sanitee with vent up and drain down. The toilet itself is the trap for toilets.
If it's all drains but it's not in the yard, find a cleanout at the back of the house if it's a slab.
If conventional with crawlspace, you have cleanouts under the house, you'd have to go into the biggest one.
You can run a sink machine through a sink drain connection at the wall after removing the trap that is under the sink.
It's a bitch to get any snake to go down a toilet hole, drop heads sometimes help though.
-And as long as you are running a small snake with an arrowhead, small coil, or drophead, you are ok even with a 1/2 drum machine.
You can chisel out the lead, its soft. then you can pry the inner fitting out. make 2 cuts along the inside of each side of that brass if you want to save time.
You can stuff a trashbag filled with an old tshirt just barely below the floor if you are worried about dropping things into the drain.
REMOVE bag after work is done!
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