Copper Soldering (Plumbing Question)?
Question:I'm replacing my water heater and the old cold water piping still has some solder on the end of it.
Do I need to cut this off or is ok to add flux and connect to it. I've been hitting it with steel wool to try and clean the end off but its taking forever.
This is all copper piping.
Answers:
Take your torch and heat up the old solder, as it starts to flow wipe it with a thick old rag. You may have to do that a couple of times. Then clean the surface with sandpaper. Then you can basically treat it as new copper. Hope this helps you.
heat it to melting and wipe it off with a damp rag
Use sandpaper, flux it and your ready to solder.
its perfectly all right to use the existing solder on the pipe. or you can just heat it up till it turns like liquid and wipe it off with a cloth. what you will have then is a clean piece of pipe. than just solder away.
You are not placing the torch flame in the proper position relative to the solder entry. A properly heated joint will literally "suck" the solder right into the joint. And an unassembled joint will literally run off in its entirety.
On cleaning old solder off , heat the tube an inch or so above to a high temp, the solder will vanish off the end. and what little is left the fitting will go right over it.
On soldering the fitting, Hold the torch flame upsteam of the fitting, an inch or so, first fluxing, then heat the joint to a hot enough where it sucks the solder right up into the joint.
Kind of a surface tension thing. Goes right into the joint even up hill, it is sucked right in.
Then you simply take a wet rag and wipe off excess if you feel like it, it not leave it on there.
spark up your torch, heat it up and give 'er hell!
More Related Questions & Answers...