Soldering Copper Pipes

Read your own posts, dumbass.

rusty

Maybe you need to read them. You obviously missed something.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Are you for real?

rusty

Don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you.

...And please refrain from trying to tell people how to solder. You are clueless.

rusty

Bye-bye.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

As it turns out, it'll be easier than getting the plumber to actually call back. This could be the best reason in the world to learn to do it myself. Why should I pay someone who takes a week to call back, after supposedly "checking to see who's got the regulators"?

As it turns out, it'll be easier than getting the plumber to actually call back. This could be the best reason in the world to learn to do it myself. Why should I pay someone who takes a week to call back, after supposedly "checking to see who's got the regulators"?

I'm averaging everything I've read here. The practice begins this afternoon, and it's show time tomorrow. I'll let you all know if the basement's dry, or if I'm online looking to buy trout to stock my new pond. :-)

you can "sweat a joint"! It's not too hard. Go to Home Depot and get a roll of solder, a wire brush tool to scratch the end of the pipe or a piece of grit cloth to rub the end of the pipe. Stick the wire brush inside the end of your fitting to rough it up also. Then apply the "flux" to both surfaces to be joined. Next, uncoil about 2 or 3 inches of solder from the roll...just straighten out a piece about three inches long. It don't have to be exactly three inches...just close. Make sure you have blown out the line and there is no water in the pipe within 50 feet of the spot where you are soldering...figure out where the water line comes into the house...if an intelligent plumber put it in you will have a valve in the line you can open up to drain the line...or you could just open the spigot on the front of your house and drain the water out of the line...after you have cut the water off at your meter box or well. Now go back to that joint, light your Bernzomatic torch and heat the joint for ten or fifteen seconds and then just quickly touch that three inch segment of solder to the seam in that joint you just heated up...you will see that solder just quickly dissolve and absorb up into that joint! You have just "sweated a joint"! If you don't get all the water out of the pipe you can heat and heat until you actually burn the pipe all the way through and the joint just won't absorb the solder.

Bill (weekend plumber)