tips for making a lead line

[ninky]

i'd like some tips on making and using a good old fashioned lead / sounding line. what sort of line should i use and how much weight should i put on it? is lead the best material to use? would you mark it at metre intervals or something else? and how much line would you use for typical coastal navigation? also, are there any tips for using it other than just dipping over the side?

 

[Refueler]

You use braided line and sew into it the markers. You have choice of Internationally accepted Metric marking or Imperial. I would suggest that you keep to one of those so that others who use it will understand it's marking.

Lead sinkers are advised as you need real weight to get it down as quick as possible ... remember usually boat is moving when you make a cast..

Method is to cast the lead forward so that by time it hits bottom it's as near vertical as possible ... even the movies get it reasonably right !! Best I've seen is a scene in Master and Commander ... they even get the terms and calls right !! Sand and broken shell !!

Length ? For a yacht you are usually looking for shoaling ... so a 20m / 10 fathom line should be enough.

Maybe this page is a help ? http://tmlha.exis.net/leadline.htm

 

[VicS]

They vary in size but for small boat in shallow water 2lb would be sufficient I'd think 4 lb quite adequate. more if you want to use it in deeper water.

I think mine is on 3mm line but off hand I do not know the length. In 30 years only been used in anger once ... when I lent it to someone whose echo sounder had failed ... he still went aground.

I cast mine in a cardboard tube (ex bog roll!) a wooden mould would have been more sensible.

Mark it however you prefer, metres, fathoms, ninkies or whatever..But there is a traditional making scheme if you want to search for it..

There is a technique in using it. You swing it forward so that when you actually take the reading the line is vertical.

look at various chandlers websites eg http://marinestore.co.uk/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=lead-line-sounding-lead

very useful for checking the bottom around you when using a drying berth that you have not inspected at LW.

dont forget the pot of tallow to arm it!

 

[barfly4657]

Lead line

You may enjoy the challenge of casting your own weight (careful, molten lead will ignite a cardboard bogroll!) but fishing-tackle shops sell suitable weights and line on a frame. And forget arming it, you'll find that jiggling up and down reveals whether you're over rock, sand or mud.

Mine's 10 metres long, knotted for the first five metres with 1,2,3,4,and 5 figure-of-eight knots to feel in the dark.

 

[ninky]

You may enjoy the challenge of casting your own weight (careful, molten lead will ignite a cardboard bogroll!) but fishing-tackle shops sell suitable weights and line on a frame. And forget arming it, you'll find that jiggling up and down reveals whether you're over rock, sand or mud.

Mine's 10 metres long, knotted for the first five metres with 1,2,3,4,and 5 figure-of-eight knots to feel in the dark.

this sounds the ticket barfly. OH is a welder so used to fire and metal. what size weight have you gone for, and if you are talking fishing tackle shop does that mean it is fishing line? if not, what do you actually ask for at the counter?

 

[VicS]

careful, molten lead will ignite a cardboard bogroll

Yes almost! I probably used partly lead recovered from a couple of old batteries so not pure and therefore not quite as hot as pure lead would have been.

I don't know if you'll get a fishing weight heavy enough. The small Plastimo leads are 0.7 kg, say 1.5 lbs. I dont reckon anything lighter would be much good although mine at about double that is heavier than necessary. The Plastimo ones are on 2mm braided line. Don't fancy fishing line at all.

I bet Refueler uses a 14 or 28 lb lead that he nicked off the last Supertanker he was captain of

 

[Refueler]

Yes almost! I probably used partly lead recovered from a couple of old batteries so not pure and therefore not quite as hot as pure lead would have been.

I don't know if you'll get a fishing weight heavy enough. The small Plastimo leads are 0.7 kg, say 1.5 lbs. I dont reckon anything lighter would be much good although mine at about double that is heavier than necessary. The Plastimo ones are on 2mm braided line. Don't fancy fishing line at all.

I bet Refueler uses a 14 or 28 lb lead that he nicked off the last Supertanker he was captain of

Cheeky s*d !! In fact I don't have one on board ! I do mean to make one some day though, till then I use my fishing rod and line / weight !

 

[achwilan]

this sounds the ticket barfly. OH is a welder so used to fire and metal. what size weight have you gone for, and if you are talking fishing tackle shop does that mean it is fishing line? if not, what do you actually ask for at the counter?

main lead: 30 m of 4mm braided line (a thinner one will saw fingers...); a 25cl or 33cl perrier bottle in a sand box makes a perfect mould to cast your sinker from old lead pipes.
Sometimes thought of using it as a sling against jetskis...)
secondary lead: to feel the bottom when you are looking for a drying (or near-...) place: 5m with a 0,5kg fishing sinker

 

[glynnffc]

lead lead

Intrigued by perrier bottle in sand!Does it have to be casting sand to keep its shape.
I was going to use wooden plug in bucket of cement, but your method sounds easier.

 

[Cliveshep]

i'd like some tips on making and using a good old fashioned lead / sounding line. what sort of line should i use and how much weight should i put on it? is lead the best material to use? would you mark it at metre intervals or something else? and how much line would you use for typical coastal navigation? also, are there any tips for using it other than just dipping over the side?

Get a braided line from Homebase or similar, sort used by brickies, comes in a roll fluorescent yellow in colour and costs a pound or so for 50 metres although the best is a braided line of around 4mm in diameter The weight you can cast inside an old bottle in sand if you cannot make a mould any other way, dry sand to avoid the resultant hissy fit by the lead when it melts the bottle and comes into contact with the sand assuming a plastic bottle.

Weight needs to be such that when you cast forwards it goes straight down and the reading is taken when the line is straight. Markers braided into the line used to be leather, calico etc, I've got it all written down somewhere in the old Seaman's Pocket Book, at 6ft (1 fathom) intervals. The end of the lead was hollowed out, and filled (armed) with tallow (from a good plumber's merchants as it's used in wiping lead joints) so that when it was hauled up the particles of bottom stuck to the tallow.

I'd look at a weight of around 4 or 5 pounds, 2kg or so, to be effective, and you have the line in large coils at your feet, preferably coiled around the inside of a bucket, swing the lead underarm like a pendulum over the side, and on a swing forward, let go and allow the line to slip through your fingers until it is "up & down" as your vessel overtakes it and read off the depth from feeling the tages braided in.

 

[achwilan]

Intrigued by perrier bottle in sand!Does it have to be casting sand to keep its shape.
I was going to use wooden plug in bucket of cement, but your method sounds easier.

A small Perrier bottle has the right shape for a sinker; you have to bury it in compacted sand to keep the pieces together (and avoid blowing up the thing) when you pour molten lead in it. Of cause the moulding bottle is destroyed during the process, but you withdraw a perfectly shaped sinker from the sand when everything has cooled.

 

[achwilan]

Intrigued by perrier bottle in sand!Does it have to be casting sand to keep its shape.
I was going to use wooden plug in bucket of cement, but your method sounds easier.

ordinary sand: it won't be in contact with the lead

 

[ninky]

and how do you make the hole to thread the line through. OH has promised to get cracking on this in the near future......

 

[Amulet]

RN Hydrographic Service Lead Line

The standard below works well for me on 5 mm braided line.

I wrap it round a plywood form which I cut based on scaled up hand fishing line type of shape. (I have written the table below on the frame.) I cast a weight which I guess at a kilo. (You can invoke marital wrath if you melt lead in the livingroom fire.)

Don't dick around with the toy ones available from mainforcespeednautisupergaelmail places. They aren't worth a damn.

Try not to get it round your prop - fling it ahead, and arrange a signal to tell the helmsman to go for neutral 'cos you just cocked it up.

(Can't find the web site I got this from, but I didn't invent it.)
RN Hydrographic Service Lead Line
1, 11 & 21 metres 1 strip of leather
2, 12 & 22 metres 2 strips of leather
3, 13 & 23 metres blue bunting
4, 14 & 24 metres green & white bunting
5, 15 & 25 metres white bunting
6, 16 & 26 metres green bunting
7, 17 & 27 metres red bunting
8, 18 & 28 metres blue & white bunting
9, 19 & 29 metres red & white bunting
10 metres piece of leather with hole in it
20 metres leather with hole and 2 strips of leather
30 metres leather with hole and 3 strips of leather
40 metres leather with hole and 4 strips of leather
50 metres leather with hole and 5 strips of leather
all 0.2 metre markings should be with mackerel line

 

[achwilan]

and how do you make the hole to thread the line through. OH has promised to get cracking on this in the near future......

I simply bored the hole through the neck of the resulting lead bottle, but it was the hard part of the job as lead is a soft metal, which tend to block the drills...