On Oct 23, 9:24 am, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
I'm leaning toward your not getting the elbow and pipe hot enough before
you apply the solder. You should be anble to see the molten solder suck
into the joint through capillary attraction and flow around the
circumference of the end of the fitting if things are going right.

Could very well be, I'm not sure how to tell what the right amount of
heat is. I read that if it gets too hot, it will burn the flux, which
I guess causes problems. I know it is hot enough to melt the solder,
because on most attempts I've been removing the flame before applying
the solder, just to be 100% sure I'm not melting the solder with the
torch.

When I've removed the elbow, most of the time I'm seeing a nice
coating of solder where the elbow was (inside), so it must be flowing
to the inside like it should. However, I usually do need to run the
solder around the pipe, not just touch it in one place and have it run
around the pipe "magicly" like I've heard about. I've read different
methods, and some say to just apply the solder in one place and it
should run around all sides, and other people say to run the solder
around in a circle. Which is best/better/correct? I can't really get
to the far side very easy, so I guess just holding it in one place
would be nice, if I can get that to work.

Should the solder just stay inside and all the way around the pipe?
What I'm usually seeing is that some stays at the top, but more flows
towards the "bottom" (whichever way gravity pulls it). So I usually
do have solder all the way around, but a bit more in the direction
that gravity was pulling it.

After reading the post by Heathcliff, I am starting to wonder if I'm
getting solder in the right place, but maybe water or air is flowing
through prematurely and creating narrow paths for the water to flow
through when I turn the water back on. I'm 99.9% sure there is no
water, but I hadn't thought about air.

The first thing I'll do when I try again tonight is to open the shower
faucet, that way air can escape that way, and also water if it boils
up that far (but again, I'm pretty positive there is no water).