In 1997 as a college student with mediocre to zero skills in just about anything useful, I was looking for summer work but didn't have anything worthwhile lined up. Forget wanting a to find a job that had anything to do with life skills, I just wanted something that would give me a paycheck so that I could buy gas to drive over to Wendy's parents' house every night. Life was simple back then.
As the summer approached, I wasn't having much luck finding seasonal work, but my mom actually gave me a lead on a possible position as an assistant to a contractor friend of hers. Skeptical of the position, and making some $2.00 per hour less than the prior summer, I took the contractor up on his offer and started the week I got home from college. After all, gas was only $0.99 per gallon back then, so I guess I didn't really *need* the extra money.
Little did I know that working as his assistant while he performed full scale renovations on beautiful old homes would turn into a lifelong passion for me. Of the many basic skills I learned that summer, most became the building blocks for what eventually allowed me to develop the level of comfort and general aptitude for what we do in our home.
Easily one of the most valuable "how tos" he put me through in my four months of working with him came on the day he looked at me and said, "Hey, grab that blow torch!"
Wide eyed, I looked at him as if he had made a horrible blunder or just didn't realize what he had said. Surely he meant wrench, hammer, screw driver, sandwich, hamster, or anything more suitable than "this thing that blows really hot fire out of it." Much to my surprise, he hadn't fallen into a bit of tool Tourettes and had intended for me to actually grab the blow torch and propane canister from the tool box. How do I know it was intentional? Because he followed it up with, "I'm going to show you how to sweat a copper plumbing joint."
Why, oh why, would he want me to do this critical task in this unsuspecting homeowner's soon-to-be-beautiful bathroom? Didn't he fear I might just burn the whole joint down? Or worse, what if I caused a massive leak? (That's worse, right?) His next response put some of my fears to rest. "Hey, if I can do it a monkey can do it, so that means you can almost absolutely do it." Hmm, impressive logic, can't argue with that.
Over the next several minutes he taught me how to make a sound and leak-free copper connection in a plumbing supply line. Now that I've been putting these skills to use over the years, I can pass along my tried and true approach to making up a soldered copper connection, or "sweating a copper joint." I know there may be a kajillion how-to web pages on this very topic, but this is the way that I learned, so I wanted to share it with you.
The first and most important part of the process is ensuring you have all of the necessary supplies to complete the work. There are quite a few supplies necessary when preparing to solder so you'll want to gather everything ahead of time to make the job easier.
You'll need:
To begin, cut your piece of copper pipe to length using your cutter. I go with the "two rotations for every quarter turn" method of cutting. In other words, I turn the cutting tool's handle one quarter of a turn for every two rotations on the pipe. This keeps the cut nice and even without denting the pipe in the process, a very important aspect of the cut. The cutting process will leave a ridge along the inside of the pipe once you've completed the cut. This is where the deburring tool comes in.
This tool is moved in a circle within the cut length of pipe and takes the ridge left by the copper cutter off of the metal. This is extremely important as the bur will impact the flow of water inside the pipe, potentially resulting in premature failure of your joint or fitting.
Once deburred, you need to make sure the end of the pipe and the inside of the fitting are both very clean. The best way to accomplish this is through the use of a wire brush for the fitting...
...and a wire hand wheel for the pipe.
This is a simple process to clean the pipe and fitting, and the end result comparison of the clean versus uncleaned fitting is strikingly obvious.
Clean on the right...if not strikingly obvious.
When the pipe and fitting are thoroughly cleaned, just wipe it off with a rag (to remove any dust) and grab your tinning flux.
Though the name may imply an alternate function, this has nothing to do with time travel, Deloreans, or Doc Brown. Instead, flux acts to draw the melted solder into the joint once it's heated sufficiently. I prefer the Oatey 95 brand of tinning flux. It's what I've always used and I think it works really well.
Apply the flux to both the pipe and to the interior of the fitting...
...and place the fitting on the pipe, trying to work the flux around in the joint.
Finally, grab the propane torch and turn on the gas.
My torch has a supply line and ignitor nozzle. I prefer this to the standard fitting as this allows me to work at any angle without worry of more gas heading to the flame than I want. Lighting it is as easy as clicking a button.
This also allows me to clamp the propane canister to something else so it doesn't fall over while I'm working.This works well, though I should probably buy one of those little canister caddies that I can carry around.
The soldering process only takes about 30 seconds. It's best to pre-extend enough solder from the spool so you won't have to deal with it when the flame is lit.
When heating the fitting, it's best to heat the opposite side of the fitting from where you are going to initially apply the solder. This ensures the whole fitting is heated thoroughly before the solder melts and is sucked into the flux. If the fitting isn't entirely up to temperate it can cause a pinhole leak in your joint.
It's also best to apply the solder to several points around the joint to ensure full coverage. Just keep the flame on the joint (moving around the joint if you'd like) the whole time so it doesn't begin to cool during the process.
Once the fitting reaches temperate, the tinning flux will begin to change color and smooth out, then the solder will melt and will be visibly sucked into the joint. This ensures a solid and secure bond throughout the connection.
When the solder has been applied and everything looks good, turn off the flame and gas and wipe the solder from the joint with a rag before it cools. Follow this up with a wet rag dipped in the nearby water to cool and quench the fitting.
After allowing the fitting and joint to fully cool for several minutes, you will need to test your connection. What you do next is actually the single most important aspect of the whole process, so it's important you follow this step. When you turn on your water to bring your pipe up to pressure, and you inspect the fitting to ensure no leaks, repeat aloud "No drips, no runs, no errors. " If you fail to say this the odds that this or a future fitting will leak increase by 73%. This is a proven fact, there's no arguing it, sorry.
When sweating a smaller fitting, like the one I was working on, you can actually look through the end to see that the solder has been pulled through from one end right to the other, all thanks to the flux. This is evident from the telltale silver on the interior of the pipe and fitting.
Though the process is called sweating because you heat the pipe and fitting until it starts to "sweat," I can actually attest that it's also because of the tremendous amount of pressure I felt when first trying this approach, and how much it made me sweat. All in all, it's a straightforward means for installing copper supply lines, and there's little overall risk if you take the proper safety precautions (primarily to wear gloves and goggles, protect wood from direct contact with the flame by using metal, keep water nearby, and treat the torch with great care and caution).
I hope you find this little story and tutorial useful and that it might inspire you to give it a try if you've never soldered before, or even help you pick up a trick or two for making this process easier.
Did you ever have any good high school or college jobs that provided you with long lasting information that you've been able to use throughout the rest of your life? Did you ever do any work for a contractor? Learn any great tricks? I'd love to hear all about it.
