Kris, I remember just heating them up and wiping the exterior with steel
wool, or twisting in an appropriate tube brush. It leaves the part shiny
and ready to reuse. If you couldn't reuse a part, then when you had to
break a joint, you would have to replace EVERYTHING.

GWE

Kris wrote:

Awl--

For 1/2" to 1 1/4" copper pipe fittings.

Possible to desolder *and* be able to re-use them??
Worth the trouble for the various fittings, T's, unions, etc? 1 1/4 unions
are expensive!

Any special techniques beyond heating/wiping, heating/wiping? Wipe w/
cloth, steel wool? With, w/o flux?
I think I've done, mebbe once, and it was a pita!

Btw, I found, at Home Despot, something called Tinning Flux, which lightly
tins the surfaces `*before* you actually add solder.
I think this is pretty neat. Any opinions? I would imagine it cleans as
well as non-tinning flux, but I haven't compared.

Thanks!