On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:19:07 -0800, "SteveB"
wrote:


"HeatMan" wrote

I'll admit, back when I was starting out, I cooked a couple of copper
solder
joints. No amount of sanding and fluxing would bring one of those back,
so
I had to add a coupling


Soldering copper pipe is SOOOOOOO easy once you get the hang of it. But I
would say the most common mistakes are too much heat, poor cleaning, and no
flux.

It is a breeze with good cleaning, a little flux, and the right amount of
heat. What a lot of people do is put the heat in the wrong place. Heat a
little away from the joint so that you heat up the pipe, and let the solder
flow and be "sucked into" the joint.

Not rocket surgery, but a little tricky.

Steve



The first time I sweated a joint, after I was done it looked like a
lead candle. Solder was everywhere running down the pipe. When it
was tested to see joint would even hold, it sprayed water everywhere.

Less is better.

thx,

tom @ www.WorkAtHomePlans.com