If I had a copper pipe with a hole in it - say a nail had been driven through it - is it possible to repair this hole by heating the pipe with a blow-torch and melting some plumbing solder into the hole?
(This hasn't actually happened btw - I'm just wondering how best to ever deal with this eventuality!)
Thanks, Mark.
The correct way is to cut a piece off and solder a Female insert on,however this is sometimes not possible? so a piece of 1" long copper pipe is cut and then cut in half along the 1" so you have a piece of copper pipe that will sit over the hole and you solder around its edges to the main pipe.
Methinks that just a blob of solder isn't enough to make me comfortable. At the very least, solder on a piece of copper (e.g. a bit of pipe or a bit of a copper pipe fitting which would already have the right internal diameter), cut to shape and bent/flattened a bit if needed).
But far, far better would be to put a complete copper pipe connector over the pierced pipe and solder it as normal. Or cut out and replace the pierced pipe.
I tried it once: it wasn't too successful. The solder needs to be fully liquid to bind, and that meant it tended to run away from the hole by capillary action.
However a split piece of pipe, flattened slightly and cleaned should make a good enough patch, but the standard thing is to cut the pipe and use a slip coupling.
Ultimately thats what I did.
I once had a problem where the wife drilled a wall (!) and nicked a water pipe that was buried in there, It was totally impractical to dig it out enough to do a 'proper' repair, so I took some stout copper wire culled from some 2.5mm t&e and wrapped it around the pipe and twisted the ends together, having first cleaned the pipe to a shine around the damage. I then slid the two loops together, and bent the wire out to form a 'circle' around the damage. With some flux on there, and a large electric soldering iron, I was then able to fill the copper wire circle with solder, which bonded well to both the pipe and wire. Left exposed for a while, I was able to confirm that the leak had indeed been fixed reliably, so eventually, I reinstated the plaster. I lived in the house for some years after that, and no problem with the repair ever appeared, so as they say, the job was a good 'un.
Arfa
The Natural Philosopher coughed up some electrons that declared:
I suspect it could be done with plumbers metal - which is what they used to make lead joints. It maintains a wide plastic zone and can be wiped (moulded) into position and maintain bulk.
Of course, I doubt there's a lead free version for potable water pipes.
Tim
yes - but bear in mind those solder joints were very thick to get sufficient strength.
NT
That is a net trick as well. Filed in case I ever need it.
If it were a very tiny hole it might. But probably not on a larger one.
Cut the pipe at the hole and use a coupler.
Got me thinking too but I probably would just have wrapped the wire round the pipe many times to create a sleeve then soldered up the whole lot.
Put a self tapping size 6 screw in the nail hole. Worked for me.
Get a bit of offcut copper tube of the same diameter and slice of half an inch or so. Cut the tube lengthways to remove around a third so that you're left with ( end on ) a C section. Carefully open it out a tad, clean the interior with wire wool. Clean the pipe similarly. Apply flux to the interior of the C section and then carefully slip it over the pipe - you'll have to bend it out to get it over the pipe, just be sure not to yank the C section apart or you might crease the copper. Position the patch so that it covers the holes and give it a squeeze to close it up as much as possible. Wrap a bit of wire around the patch ( any old bare wire will do - a bit of earth wire from a length of twin and earth cable is fine ) and twist the ends around each other. Twist them up tighter with a pair of pliers until the patch fits snugly.
Heat with a blowlamp and apply solder at the sides of the patch. Snip off wire when cool.
Regards,
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