UnSweating

Brad White_43

Especially eye protection. Once the solder is molten there is always (always!) some residual water that flows when solder is at liquidus. It explodes with a steam bubble and will drive solder into your eye, your face and everything else. Always water and always your eye for some reason. Mom was right!

If the situation is in confined areas such as with wooded structure, use a flame barrier and have a fire extinguisher right within reach.

Once the solder is fluid, you have to work fast and that is where the danger is.

Makes the Sawzall seem better and better to me. Personally I do not re-use de-soldered fittings unless I am desperate. Sure they are pre-tinned by that time but I have had too many leaks. New elbows are far less hassle, IMHO.

Eric Johnson

UnSweating

Soldering joints has its challenges, but they're nothing compared to taking copper connections apart. While a SawZall is my favorite tool for disconnecting piping likely to contain residual water, I prefer to use a torch whenever possible.

Anybody got any tips for a novice? I've got a few parts sitting in a box in my basement that I can't get apart no matter what I try.

I learned a lot from the recent thread entitled "soldering tips."

Robert O'Connor_12

eye protection

Adam_22

Get a set of vice grips and some flux . Flux the joint , get a good grip on the fitting with vice grips , heat it a little past where the flux starts to run , try to remove it with the vice grips .

hr

H2O is the bugaboo

even a trickle of water in the tube will make un-sweating an ugly job

I cut the piping out with a hand hack saw, then remove the fittings on the floor or in the shop.

Generally folks tend to overheat when unsoldering. This can burn them in to an un-doable mess.

Long sleeve shirt, gloves in addition to eye protection.

Get the women and children outside, the air may get blue

hot rod

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Weezbo

Eric, Thats just good practise*~/:)

This is a thing that i have given to my only apprentices that i have ever endeavoured to teach plumbing.. two buckets of fittings with pipe soldered on with a variety of 'techniques... and a small pile of fittings and pipe with lots of pipe....

i hand them a torch, a cutter,few fittings ,some gritch cloth, and some flux and solder, a couple pairs of grips and a hammer and some old cleaning brushes and plenty of water...

then i take a couple T's apart ,clean the ends of the pipe, brush out the fittings and ask them if they figure its easy enough to do and let them doit .

Eric Johnson

What's the flux for

Thanks to all.

Adam, what's the flux for? Does it aid the process, or is it just useful to see when the temp is right?

I always try to use new fittings, and buy a few extra every time I stock up for a particular project. But there are always valves and various oddball fittings and parts that need to be restored. And, I'm usually doing this kind of thing in the evening or on the weekend, when it's either impossible or impractical to go to the store. That's when you're glad you've got a coffee can full of old fittings to paw around in.

bob young

EASY DOO

That would be the same way to teach them to wipe a joint on a lead pipe WEEZ !

oil-2-4-6-gas

the 2 things that make unsweating easy are 1 cut the fitting in the middle to remove any water -2 if a 90 drill a hole at the lowest point remove any water ---dont overheat -- & wear decent gloves --

Jerry_15

Unsoldering is a royal pain because often the solder is old 50/50 and melts out at a much lower temp then you're used to. Then any fitting in close proximity sweats out too, and needs to be re-done. I dose it all with flux and hit it all with new solder hoping it will suck it in. Gentle on the heat, light some incense and pray, or just whack it off and pro-press. I use a good water base flux now that doesn't make me sick, and works.

Jerry_15

that's 4 by my count

STEVEN MARKS

I keep some silver braze it my box. Drill a small hole in pipe to drain water. Solder connections on pipe. Fill hole with silver braze.

Jerry_15

And then you go to lunch?

bob young

drill & drain

sounds easy. ever have it like not work very well ?

Jerry_15

I,ve kept high silver stick on the truck for years, don't use much but it's awful handy. You can also use it to braze/fix big fittings in hellish configurations and situations, but it needs oxy/acetylene, and a fair share of guts and experience to make it work. It will even push out water. That said I throw in a pro-press coupling and go have a cold one. Two olives please.