I'm about to do my first plumbing, so sorry if this is a daft question.
When soldering copper joints (not Yorkshire fittings) will the joint be properly soldered if it is done "upside-down" i.e. will the solder wick upwards into a joint? Is it best to solder joints so the solder flows down into the joint when possible?
Solder will wick upwards no problemo.
If you hark back to your schooldays and learning about capillary action that's how it works .Goes right in to the fitting around the mouth a ring of solder is what you are aiming for .....I think most folk will suggest you practise first doing a couple of joints ....and make sure everything is clean, clean, clean .If you stick a straight joint on to the end of a piece of pipe and solder it then look in the other end of fitting you'll see it has travelled in .
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It does flow, just not as well.
There is a tendency for it to fall off before it gets to the pipe. But if you flux and heat, then apply solder to the hot copper with the torch away, it usually works well.
Would a yorkie do better in upside down mode seeing as the solder is already in the fitting ?
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They are capillary action - not gravity. Just as well really as one on a vertical pipe would never solder otherwise.
Do some test joints first - fittings and scrap ends of tube are cheap enough. Or rather less expensive than fixing a mistake afterwards. After making them heat them up (in a vice) remove the fitting with pliers and check how well the surfaces have tinned.
Also, use an active flux - but wipe off any excess with a damp cloth after it's cooled.
If you're soldering correctly, the orientation doesn't matter. The solder is sucked in by capilliary action.
I suppose if you apply too much solder, at least it's likely to run out of pipe for an upside-down joint, verses a right-way-up joint where it runs inside the pipe, and you can't see the damage (in the form of flow restriction or loose bits to be carried away in the water). I was thinking about this when looking at a CORGI's soldered joints, with about half a real of solder in a large puddle under the joints, and probably the other half real of solder inside the pipes.
Well, it's swings and roundabouts. Let's assume you have a join in a vertical run of pipe with a plain solder fitting:
At the upper joint the solder has a gravity assist and at at the lower joint the solder has to wick against gravity.
For a Yorkshire fitting, because the solder is already inside and needs to come out (so to speak) the opposite is true (i.e. upper joint against gravity, lower joint with gravity).
I think the general consensus is that Yorkshire fittings are slightly easier if you're inexperienced, since all you have to do is clean, flux, heat until the ring of solder appears and then wipe. That is to say, with a Yorkshire fitting, you don't have to worry about how long you heat for before you apply the solder and you don't have to worry about how much solder to apply.
Fundamentally, however, Yorkshire fittings don't make a better joint than end-feed (plain) fittings - you just pay more for the convenience of a product which is slightly easier to use.
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Clean and flux the pipe and fitting making sure that there is a bit of cleaned and fluxed pipe showing outside the fitting - about 1/2" of cleaned / fluxed showing.
Heat the end-feed fitting as evenly as possible (up and down and around) and the pipe where it meets the fitting. Touch your solder to the pipe just below the bottom of the fitting and watch it flow upwards. Then immediately do the same at the top of the fitting using a little more heat if needed. Try to do this all in one smooth movement - i.e. no delay between bottom and top.
Cic.
I was going to say that too. Also, really important to clean and flux. Many years ago I had to rescue a Cambridge physics PhD who had done lots and lots of electronics soldering with good old Multicore but didn't realise there wasn't any flux in a Yorkshire.....
And to the OP...I'm sure there are online vids Youtube etc showing folk doing soldering
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Stuart B coughed up some electrons that declared:
I can end feed solder, but I hate doing upside down joints.
I'm probably going to use yorkshires - more foolproof. As long as everything's cleaned and fluxed right, the appearance of solder at the edge means it's worked. Move on to next joint :)
In message , newshound writes
Flux all in Yorkshire
as for PhDs ...
I can never understand this. Granted end feed are cheaper than solder ring, but is it worth it?
If I were going to use 100 fittings a week, the price difference might be worth looking at. But using a few dozen fittings on a project, the cost savings are irrelevant.
On Wed, 6 May 2009 00:18:34 +0100, geoff had this to say:
Apparently there's (nor has there been for many years) no requirement for _any_ graduate students to be able to actually to do any real practical electronic work. That, it seems, has to be left to common or garden techies.
Dave, I'm surprised. I think end feed look nicer and capillary action draws solder into an end feed joint. It's quite satisfying for solder to disappear into a joint. I feel that the ring in a yorkshire might actually hamper this capillary action so I avoid them like the plague!
You pay a lot more for that ring of solder - and it's really no guarantee it will work better than capillary.
As I said before, practice with some scrap pipe so you're confident before doing it for real. It's not difficult to get a perfect result every time once you're up to speed with it.
Agreed on the cost thing, but end feed do look nicer, so I'd consider it for anywhere on show.
Does no one else use a brush?
You have a brush to eliminate the bulbous and unsightly ring on a yorkshire?
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