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Jeff Wisnia

wrote:

On Oct 23, 10:23 am, Heathcliff
wrote:

Gee it sounds like what you are doing is right, and the responses have
been good. One more dumb question: while you are soldering, one end
of the pipe is open to the air, right? (So pressure doesn't build up
inside) -- H- Hide quoted text -

Uhh, no! And maybe that is why I'm having so much trouble with this
"last one", since all of the others wouldn't have this issue since the
pipe was still open. However, I did do 2 temporary end caps prior to
this part of the job, and those went on fine without anything "open".

Unless the fact that I have all of the nearby faucets open counts?
This is for a shower faucet, and I have the sink faucet open (both hot
and cold), and also sink and tub in the bathroom that shares a wall
with this one, plus I have the hose open at the water shut-off valve
coming in to the house... I just open all of those up because I want
to make sure water is out of the lines, so I just leave them open,
plus the water shut-off at the house has a tiny leak, and leaving
these other faucets open keeps the pipes I'm working with free of
water.

I guess I'll open the shower faucet I'm installing, since it can't
hurt (unless I forget to close before I turn the water back on, then
my wife gets wet since she stand in front of it with a 2-way radio to
let me know if I need to turn the water back off in a hurry).

Are you absatively certain that the leak is occurring through the solder
joint(s)?

I know you said you tried more than one elbow, but have you eliminated
all possibilities that a pinhole NOT covered by solder might be leaking
in such a way as to make it appear that the leak is coming through the
solder joint.

You sound like a thoughtful, careful and conciencious guy, and I'm
getting a feeling from your descriptions that just maybe you ARE making
good solder joints on that elbow but something else is snookering you
into blaming your soldering.

Maybe it's YOU who should be standing there observing while the little
lady turns the water supply back on. You might spot something else that way.

Keep us posted!

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.