lead covered UF

[stew]

I was doing a service change in a home with a couple of old fuse boxes where I had to use a j box to splice a few circuits back to the new panel. went to strip the covering off a circuit that was going thru the foundation for an outside circuit to an old well pump. It was a bit dark and my old eyes didnt realize the the knife i was using wasnt doing anything to the jacket but making a nice little groove in the grey covering. It turne out this #10/2 was lead jacketed. First time I have ever encountered this. Was this something that was used in the late 40s and early 50s as an underground conductor before UF?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Lead shield was the forerunner to UF--- I think

 

[iwire]

Lead covered was used a lot by the power compaines around here for underground services. Good stuff.

 

[stew]

Just try stripping the jacket! thats a lot of fun.

 

[Joethemechanic]

I dug up tons (literally) of it on a former industrial site when we were digging utility trenches for a new building. As near as we could figure it was put there in the 20's or 30's. I'm not sure when they stopped using it but 50's sounds about right. It sure did make for a nice trip to the scrap yard.

 

[hurk27]

Just try stripping the jacket! thats a lot of fun.

Score all the way around it with a box cutter or somthing sharp, then bend till the jacket breaks, pull off the jacket, not much but I still run into it for garage feeds or post lights, as long as it never gets damaged it last forever.

 

[ptonsparky]

I found it in schools built in the 30s. Some of it was in conduit that I needed to reuse. That was fun.