I recently had a job in a place that had a lot of stainless steel pipe in its plumbing systems. I think it must have dated from the copper shortages of the 1970s(?) (connected with the Rhodesia crisis?). What surprised me was that many of the joints were soldered, with regular-looking Yorkshire (solder-ring) fittings. I tried tinning a bit of stainless pipe but couldn't get the solder to wet the pipe. How does one do it - presumably some special sort of flux?
Soldering stainless steel pipe
Sep 25, 2008
3 Replies
YAPH coughed up some electrons that declared:
Baker's fluid?
I've used that to solder stainless, but small stuff, not pipes.
I was a bugger to do IIRC. There's probably a better flux for the job, but that's all I had to hand and it sort of worked...
Cheers
Tim
AIR active flux worked for me but more heat was needed
dave batter kitchenman
I always mixed my own, 50% Baker's Fluid No1, 25% water, then slowly add 25% concentrated hydrochloric acid. I'm not sure whether it would work with lead-free solder though.
Colin Bignell
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