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The Natural Philosopher

wrote:
If I had a copper pipe with a hole in it - say a nail had been driven
through it - is it possible to repair this hole by heating the pipe
with a blow-torch and melting some plumbing solder into the hole?

(This hasn't actually happened btw - I'm just wondering how best to
ever deal with this eventuality!)

Thanks,
Mark.
I tried it once: it wasn't too successful. The solder needs to be fully
liquid to bind, and that meant it tended to run away from the hole by
capillary action.

However a split piece of pipe, flattened slightly and cleaned should
make a good enough patch, but the standard thing is to cut the pipe and
use a slip coupling.

Ultimately thats what I did.