10 MISTAKES Beginners Make When Soldering For The First Time (Beginner's Guide) | GOT2LEARN

all right so here are 10 things to know before soldering copper pipe and remember to hit the like button if you learned something by watching this video now the two first things i talk about are concerning safety so if safety is not your kind of thing just skip to the third topic number one is having an extinguisher nearby if you click this video it's most likely because you're totally new to soldering and you don't know how to take the proper precautions 95 of repairs or modifications require the water to be shut off and emptied from the lines which means that if something was to catch on fire you'd be left empty-handed what i suggest doing before starting your project is to fill up a bucket of water to have your extinguisher close by and to use these flame resistant blankets to avoid burning the surrounding area you could even use aluminum paper if that's all you have number two is another safety precaution and that's to use safety goggles i bet you guys know what this is yup this is flux flux is an acid it contains zinc and ammonium chloride and trust me i caught a lot of stuff in my eyes in my career and flux is the number one winner in terms of pain obviously this is more of a concern when you're soldering overhead as when the flux is heated it turns liquid so if you're directly under it you're bound to feel the pain so just wear some goggles when you're soldering please all right on to the real stuff number three is making sure that the pipe and fittings you're soldering are a hundred percent clean this is kind of like trying to stick a sticker on a dirty surface it just won't stick it's the same analogy when soldering and they both need to be spotless the best way to clean the pipe is with an abrasive pad i don't use emery cloth or sandpaper like most people do as they tend to slip in the hand because of their paper back the pads have grip on both sides which gives you more purchase and for the fittings i just use these wire brushes right here what i do like to do with these however is to cut them and use them in a drill it's much quicker and a lot less tiring this is what a clean pipe and fitting is supposed to look like no pits no dirt no spots just good old shiny copper number four is getting good quality flux brushes let me explain why these brushes are often made really really cheap and it's hard to get the quality stuff but because they're made so poorly the bristles tend to come out as you're using it this is what it looks like so what do you think happens next as you assemble the joint the bristle serves as a vein or passage for the water to escape so here are two little tricks to prevent this from happening the first is to use some abs pvc or even super glue at the base of the bristles this will secure them in place and prevent them from coming out and the second trick is to not use them to clean the joint off this burns them and makes them really brittle for the next application number five is touching the joint with your fingers once again if you try sticking a sticker on an oily surface it just won't stick our fingers constantly secrete oils and just to show you what i mean on the left is a pipe with flux on it and on the right is a pipe with an oily fingerprint and flux on it as we could see the one on the left sticks like it's supposed to but the one on the right has trouble adhering and this is because of the oil from my finger so never ever touch the parts that are gonna be soldered with your bare hands or it might just compromise the joint number six is making sure there's no residual water in the pipe i made a whole video on this not too long ago and how it's basically impossible to do the reason being is that the water absorbs the heat while you're soldering and doesn't allow the joint to get hot enough this happens mostly when soldering in a basement as the water from upstairs dribbles down into the pipes until they're completely empty i'll put a link here and one in the description box below to this video if you want to know how to solve this problem the seventh thing is which part to heat when soldering the answer is pretty simple you heat where you want the solder to go if we look at a half inch elbow for example we want the solder to completely fill the joint and for that the heat needs to go to the back of the cup so you'd point the hottest part of the flame here to make sure it's hot enough and the same for the other side one thing you don't want to do if you don't want to get punished by the plumbing gods is heat the actual solder heating the solder won't do anything even if you try really hard all that it'll do is break off and go to waste i suggest watching my soldering playlist to learn how to properly solder number eight is which part of the flame to use your torch has a sweet spot you don't want to get too close nor too far the hottest part of the flame is right here at the tip of the inner cone by using this part of the flame you'll get the job done quicker you'll save on gas as you won't be heating it for as long and you'll reduce the amount of oxides introduced to the joint here's another side-by-side clip that shows using the hottest point of the flame and the coldest more rich part of the flame they're both heated at the same time and temperature and we could see that the right side oxidized a lot more which could prevent good capillary action number nine is wiping off the excess flux when you're done like i said before flux contains acid if you leave it on the pipe after you're done it'll eventually eat away at the copper and make a hole in it when you're out doing the groceries so you must get rid of it just wait for the joint to be cool to the touch and use a rag to wipe it off there's no need to use special products like simple green or any of that as most fluxes nowadays are water soluble and number 10 is to always inspect your joints once they've cooled down i like taking a few minutes to visually inspect my work as it's a lot easier and a lot less messy to do before testing it with water i always have one of these small inspection mirrors with me to check the back of the joint and if i see that there's a spot that has no solder the best thing to do is to dismantle it and restart just heating it back up and adding solder will only fix the problem temporarily and i also made a full video on this if you're interested in watching it link in description box below and that pretty much covers it like share and subscribe if you learned something in this video and drop a comment below if you have a question and until the next one thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: Got2Learn

Views: 474,176

Keywords: got2learn, DIY, plumbing trick, plumber, do it yourself, pex plumbing installation, plombier, plumbing hacks, plumbing, plumbing tools, plumbing repair, plumbing diy, plumbing how to, how to do plumbing, how to repair plumbing, how to fix plumbing, toilet, rough in plumbing, solder with mini torch, how to solder, how to solder copper, how to fix copper leak, how to fix copper pipe, soldering copper pipe, sweat copper pipe, plumbing tips

Id: 7DItexvD4O4

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021