Pipe soldering Questions

You can use them even when they're "dead" with regards to scouring pots.

Only thing to e aware of is not to use them on hot pipe. I'm pedantic about seeing a perfect bead of solder around the end of the joint which often means a quick re-clean and touch-up after the initial joint is made; green scourers melt.

En el artículo , Andrew Gabriel escribió:

Slate is used in fireplace hearths, indeed my own fireplace has a slate hearth.

oh yes, quick, convenient and safe, love it.

I have seen slate explode when hot. I have also seen asbestos cement explode in a fire (1). Don't assume that non-combustable makes it 100% safe in a fire.

As ~7 year old my brother and I decided to play firemen and set fire to our sisters dolls house up the garden, the roof went with a very big bang and bits went everywhere. The sister wasn't happy. 8-)

I'd not heard of that one before. I've seen ice used. Not sure but I think it had a bit of washing up liquid in it.

NT

Cement asbestos sheet explodes in a fire IIRC, as does cement & sand sheet. Floppy asbestos works great, but I can't recommend that.

NT

I think heated asbestos cement roofing *explodes* due to steam forming within the sheet.

They make springs for that very purpose. F*ck messing around with molten lead!

There is a (sort of) flaring tool sold by BES which is hammered into the end of a length of 15 mm copper pipe, swageing it out so that it can be soldered to another length without a coupling.

So do I!

No, springs are a PITA. Rather than lead, use Cerrobend or Wood's metal.

NT

Fireplace hearths do not get very hot

Its the firebacks that take the punishment

Sounds very plausible. In this case, even when using fired products (ceramic tiles, bricks, etc), make sure it has a very low absorbancy (e.g. engineering brick) so there isn't going to be water under the surface to blow out.

For fridge pipework, I had a set of swaging(?) tools for increasing the siz of a pipe's ID to v. slightly more than its OD. Used to put about 1 dia. or a bit more in, then join it using what I knew as Cuproflow. So long as the pipe was clean and had been rubbed with a bit of steel wool, it didn,t need flux. Used an oxy-propane torch but possibly MAPP would do it.

Flaring is, well, flaring and is used in refrigeration instead of olive - if you think that forgetting a cable clamp or whatever until after doing the wiring is bad, try forgetting the back-nut on 1" pipe that's just long enough! (The T-shirt didn't fit, either).

A ceramic tile