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Big_Jake Big_Jake is offline
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Default Unsoldering copper water pipe junctions

On Jan 11, 9:18 pm, mm wrote:
I've tried propane and then MAPP gas to unsolder one half of each of
two copper junctions** and it doesn't seem to get hot enough.

I also have a torch that uses 12 inch tanks of propane and of oxygen.
Will that get hotter than MAPP gas and is it appropriate to use?

Or what should I do?

The open end of the pipe points down and I had hoped the connector
would just fall off when it was hot enough. When that didn't work, I
put some needlenose vicegrips on the connector to increase gravity and
to pull and twist, but the solder didn't seem to melt. I had no
trouble getting it evenly hot when I soldered it together in the first
place.

As am aside, when I heated the area, on all sides to the extent I
could do that, with MAPP gas, something dripped from the joint. At
first I thought it was solder, but it was a clear liquid. Was it
water from the combustion? There were 10 or 20 drops a minute.

**Is that the right word, where an inch and a half long outer tube is
used to splice two pipes together, end to end.

I have a couple 3/4 inch copper water pipe junctions, straight
connections, in which there is not much available pipe left on one
side, and rather than cut off the part that is soldered, inside the
connection pipe (I forget what that is called) I cut the connection in
the middle, intending to heat and remove the outer layer next. But I
can't seem to get it hot enough for it to come loose.

Thanks


The water dripping from the joint was not from combustion, it was from
some other source, and it is likely cooling the joint so the solder
will not melt. What you have is a "coupling". I am wondering what
you used to cut the coupling in the middle, and am a little concerned
that you might have really distorted it when you cut it. MAPP is
plenty hot for what you are doing, but the oxygen torch would be
hotter still. It is unlikely to fall off by itself. I would try to
wiggle it with a channellocks to test when you have the solder melted
enough to pull it off.

JK