Yep, more power. I use one of those small Butane cartridge, small blowlamps for fine (actually relatively huge!) soldering work and they're really handy but are hopeless for copper pipe and fittings. A decent torch should take about 5 seconds to make a 15mm T joint. (Horses and courses :).
You do have plumbers solder don't you? not brazing wire or silver solder.
Just about any diy blowlamp should be capable of doing this.
It will take a little more heat for French plumbing rather than UK, as the pipe wall is thicker, but it doesn't make much difference.
They seem to have a whole variety of pipe sizes, as you seem to be able to get them in 2mm steps if you look hard enough. Wall thickness is a fraction under 1mm, allowing a single fitting to be used externally on 10mm and internally on 14mm or for 10mm pipe to be soldered directly into 12mm. All this is assuming that things haven't changed in the 18 years or so since I plumbed most of a house in Brittany.
SteveW
JOOI, why is the above...
... worse performance than that? I can imagine an economic difference for anyone doing a lot of work, but what is it that makes #6 work better?
FWIW I was in the same store today at it was $16, not $20. Brain rot at work... :)
That is think is the problem. I don't think the OP did do chemistry at school or wasn't paying attention to the lesson on bunsen burners. B-)
A roaring flame, like that from a blow lamp has two parts. An inner brighter blue cone and outer darker blue flame. The hottest part is just outside the tip of the inner cone. So the tip of the inner cone should held just clear of the pipe and moved about slowishly. You need to heat both the fitting and the pipe so a good place is at the join.
I use a similar cartridge type blow lamp, succesfully made joints on 28mm with it. But I did fail on a 22mm T when the cartridge was getting low, not enough to be immediatly noticeable in the sound of flame.
On 15mm twenty or thirty seconds of heating is all that is required, you don't want to overheat the joint so little test prods with the solder after 20s or so until the solder melts, when it does remove the heat(*) and feed in a total of about 3/8" of solder. Leave to cool for a minute or so then take damp cloth to wipe away the flux residue.
(*) Making sure you don't set fire to anything whilst you are concentrating in getting solder into the joint...
Good point, thanks. In this case not better in terms of heat output or soldering capability, but better in terms of longer time between cartridge changes (and more economic overall pricing if you have a trade discount at the plumber's merchant).
The flame takes on a green hue as you get to the correct temperature. But may not be very apparent.
Well I thought French regs were no soft solder anywhere? I believe that brazing is the norm, with plumbers carrying portable oxy-acet.
Good source of info from a professional here:
Both are used in France. I bought a plumbing book (in French) specific to domestic French plumbing and it describes both hard and soft soldering techniques and French plumbing in general. The existing plumbing in this house is all soft soldered. You can also buy both at the local DIY store (Bricomarche).
I've cracked it. There were two problems.
The two above now mean the joint is hot enough to melt the solder in around 15 seconds! Huge difference. I guess part of the problem is getting an old lamp with no instructions and with it not being adjusted for an optimum flame. Add to this the fact I've never used a blowlamp before. I live and learn :-)
On with the plumbing now then :-) My T joint is now nicely soldered (after cleaning it up again and re-fluxing it).
For some reason that gave me a flash-back to using one of those old soldering irons that consisted of a wooden handle holding a bent steel wire with a big lump of copper on the end that you heated in a fire (or gas ring). I used to enjoy that.
Wickes sold you steel wire instead of solder?
Not only will that avoid the gas getting too cold to work properly but also the mixture requires less oxygen so will burn better.
Reminds me when a wire came unsoldered in my soldering iron... Used an old screwdriver on the gas stove to solder it back on.
Those are great for salvaging useful components from scrap PCBs, incidentally - although my sister was a bit pissed off a few years ago when I 'liberated' hers for such a purpose :-)
Mind if I copy that into the wiki?
NT
I'd have said that by the time you are blasting copper ions off the pipe it's too hot. B-) I have seen the green but TBH not noticed at what stage, the timing of knowing when the pipe is hot enough just comes with experience of doing joints.
Along with just the time the flame has been on the fitting/pipe I think I might gauge the temperature by the apperance of the bright cleaned copper starting to change.
You can see the flame starting to change colour, though, if you look carefully.
Indeed. Like I keep on saying with a bit of practice there are a number of factors which tell you the temperature is correct.
Still the case at Leclerc and Mr Bricolage, but moving more towards PER (Poly Ethylene Raccord - I think) mostly 12 & 16mm and screw on fittings.
Oh, and still selling imperial sized connectors as well.
Good fun
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