How to Solder Copper Pipe in a Wall (Complete Guide) | GOT2LEARN

what's up guys and welcome back to another video in this video I'll be covering all the procedures on how to safely and correctly complete a soldier in your typical home wall which might be composed of electrical wires pipes or other miscellaneous materials if you've never soldered before this video will give you everything you need to know to be able to do it safely and correctly with basic tools and materials that you could find at your local hardware store additionally I'll be showing you some cool tips and tricks throughout the video to make it easier for you to complete the job soldering in a tight spot means that you gotta take some necessary precautions that you don't normally need to when soldering in an open space or near a concrete wall for example a typical home wall has electrical wires pipes or even the wooden frame itself could catch on fire so we'll be going through all of these precautions together later in the video first up I want to talk about all the tools and materials you'll need to solder a copper joint in a tight spot like this one the first thing you'll be needing is a good extinguisher it's happened to me several times that I didn't use the necessary precautions in a tight spot and regretted it soon after so get one that you know that's in good working condition also I highly suggest getting a bucket full of water if it's your first time soldering most repairs or modifications require that the main valve is closed and lines empty before starting depriving you from water in case of an emergency additionally get yourself a good pair of safety glasses and gloves you'll be dealing with hot solder flux which is an acid and you don't want any of these on your hands or in your eyes now onto the tools and materials so first and foremost you'll be needing a soldering torch and some fuel personally when soldering in tight spots like this I prefer getting a cheaper pencil torch as most times there are a lot slimmer and easier to maneuver they don't give out as much heat but if you're only dealing 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch copper these will actually do better than bigger torches and confined areas usually pencil torches don't come with a built-in igniter like this for that reason you'll need a dedicated striker at which only costs around $5 a good alternative for small pipes is this type of torch they're lightweight and perfect for this type of situation as for fuel there's two different variations when it comes to plumbing one is your typical blue bottle propane which burns at around 3500 degrees Fahrenheit and the other is propane also known as map gas which burns a little hotter at 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit and usually comes in a yellow bottle propane is more appropriate for bigger pipes seeing it burns a bit hotter so I'd suggest just sticking with normal propane when working with copper pipe you absolutely need to deburr the inside of the pipe after it's been cut I'll explain why when I get to the cutting step for this you'll either be needing an all-in-one tool like this one a pencil reamer or just a simple utility knife you'll also be needing some soldering paste or flux soldering without flux is basically impossible the flux is what keeps your pipe and fitting from oxidizing when they're being heated there are several types of plumbing fluxes that you'll find at your hardware store you'll have normal flux and tinning flux if this is your first time soldiering I suggest using tinning flux it basically pretends your joint with a lead-free powder and reduces the chances of a leak normal flux which is a bit cheaper doesn't do this so it's all up to you to choose what you need one thing to make sure of though is to get a lead-free and water soluble flux you'll be needing some lead-free solder as well most LED solders are banned from stores but it's still a good idea to make sure of what you're getting what you need to look for is a writing stating that it's lead-free if you see 50/50 that means that it contains lead and for portable water systems it's not considered code other things you'll need is a small pipe cutter a rag to wipe any excess flux some sandpaper or an abrasive pad to clean the pipe a wire brush to clean the inside of the fittings and a flame protector like this if you don't have a flame protector you could use a thin sheet of metal or a wet rag instead they work just the same everything I use in this video will be linked in the description box below for you to check all right so let's get started in this video I'll be demonstrating how to add a tee on both the existing three-quarter inch hot and cold lines to feed a new sink in half-inch piping the first thing when doing a modification or repair is to make sure that the water is closed before cutting like I mentioned before if you're closing the water from the houses main valve prepare yourself a bucket of water just in case you never know what could happen when using an open flame in a confined space like this so don't take any chances next you'll need to relieve any remaining pressure that's left in the system you could do this by opening a fixture such as a faucet at the lowest point in the house and this will ensure that there's no pressurized water inside the pipes when cutting into them if you're working in the basement like I am for example you could drill a small hole where your new fittings will be to allow for most of the water to come out senior at a lower point when there's no more water coming out of the pipe use the fitting to mark where the cut needs to be made and make the cut I find that using this type of pipe cutter is so much easier than these as they tend to snag on everything especially in confined spaces like this what's cool about them is you could get a ratcheting handle to make the job a whole lot easier without sacrificing space there's gonna be some water left inside the pipe now if you can't get your recipient to fit to catch the water here's a cool little trick get some aluminum foil and use it to divert the remaining water from the pipe into your recipient you won't have any water to pick up like this now that the pipe is cut let me bring you in a little closer and show you the burr I talked to you about before when a pipe is cut with a rotary cutter a small burr is formed inside the pipe and needs to be removed this lip has two negative outcomes the first is the fact that the pipes inner diameter is slightly reduced resulting in a minor flow loss and secondly the fact that it causes turbulence this turbulence could eventually cause a pinhole due to excessive erosion caused by the lip if you don't have these dedicated tools just get a sharp utility knife and you'll get the same results with all of the pipes deburred let's get them all cleaned up a lot of people use these little rolls of sandpaper to clean the pipe which isn't uncommon but I personally prefer to use an abrasive pad like this I just find it a lot easier to use what you're looking for is getting the end of the pipe nice and shiny if you have to do it like this you have the chance of having a small leak so take your time to clean all the pipes properly [Music] the fittings need to be cleaned as well you could use the same abrasive pad you use for the pipes or you could get a dedicated wire brush like this what's fun about these wire brushes is that you could cut the tip off using a pair of cutters or grinder and use it in a drill to make the job faster and easier you want both of your surfaces to be rough and shiny like these right here remember 90% of soldiering is good preparation now on to flexing the flux which is an acid is what keeps your joint clean when heating it up now's a good time to put some gloves and some eye protection on if you haven't already if you try soldering without it your solder won't stick to the pipe and it'll just fall off instead of going inside the fitting like I said in the beginning of the video I do a side-by-side comparison of both normal flux and tinning flux as you could see the tinning flux will give you a better chance of getting full coverage because of the solder powder that's in it in any case make sure you're getting a lead-free flux as some do contain lead which is unwanted for potable water lines I'll be using some normal flux for this demonstration you need to apply some to both the pipe and the fitting to make sure all the surfaces are properly covered a big mistake that a lot of beginners make is applying too much flux only a thin layer is needed and the reason being is that a lot of it is lost inside the pipes when it's heated and if left there for a while it could eat up the pipe and eventually lead to problems here's what a pipe with leftover flux looks like this is only after a few years before I could assemble everything together my pipes still have some water left in them so an old-timers trick to stop the dripping is to get a piece of white bread roll it into a ball and stuff it down the pipe as far as you can with your finger it'll temporarily stop the flow while you solder and it'll dissolve once you turn the water back on now go ahead and assemble everything together making sure the pipe is fully inserted all the way into the fitting and wipe any excess flux off with a rag as you probably noticed the joint we need the solar is pretty close to the wooden stud so we'll need to use some precautions here if you got one of these flame protectors get two thumbtacks and place it around the pipe in a way that anything flammable is protected if you don't have one just get a wet rag and do the same thing as long as the rag is wet it can catch on fire now let's get on with the actual soldering portion there's three things to know at this stage one what to heat two how long to heat and three how much solder to use I like using a low heat for everything in tight spots starting with the pipe first the reason why I do it this way is the fact that between the fitting and pipe is a small gap and heating the fitting can't conduct the heat to the pipe properly because of this so I always heat it up for a couple of seconds prior to heating the fitting the amount of time you need to spend heating depends on the size of the pipes you're working with meaning a half-inch pipe will take less long to heat than a three-quarter inch pipe the best way to know when to apply your solder is to try it out every now and then when it gets sucked in that's when it's hot enough however you don't want to wait too long as the flux will burn off and you'll need to restart everything and lastly for the amount of solder to use it's easy to know just use a half inch of solder for a half-inch pipe and three-quarter inch of solder for 3/4 inch pipes you don't want to use more than that or it'll end up in the pipe and could cause restriction greatly reducing flow alright I won't be talking while I solder everything together like this you can really concentrate on what I'm doing so here we go [Music] once you're done you want to let the joint cool down on its own never use a wet rag to accelerate the cooling process doing this could cause micro cracking in the solder and it will leak a good visual example is if I put an ice cube in hot water the shock caused by the difference in temperature causes the ice to crack so always wait for it to cure on its own or the same thing will happen to the joint once it's cooled down grab a rag and wipe the excess flux off as good measure and test your joints by turning the water back on if for whatever reason there's a small leak you'll have to unsolo the joint clean everything and start over to properly fix it if you want to learn how to unsold a fitting go check out this video right here and that's how to safely solder a joint in a tight spot I hope you learned something from this video and if you did please give it a thumbs up and share it with your friends and as always thanks for watching and I'll see you guys in the next video

Channel: Got2Learn

Views: 3,272,023

Rating: 4.782763 out of 5

Keywords: plumbing trick, do it yourself, pex plumbing installation, plumbing hacks, plumbing, plumbing videos, plumbing tools, plumbing basics, plumbing repair, plumbing diy, plumbing how to, plumbing video, how to do plumbing, how to repair plumbing, how to fix plumbing, rough in plumbing, how to solder, soldering copper pipe, how to solder copper pipe, how to sweat copper pipe, how to sweat copper fittings, got2learn, How to Solder Copper Pipe The CORRECT Way, life hacks

Id: xJodDBC5AwY

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 24 2019