All roughed in and ready to solder. Any advice or suggestions??

lchmb

bet that works good now!! enjoy

fenkel

If you have never sodered before heres a few tips:
Dont use to much solder flux, alight coat will do...
On larger pipes heat all around the pipe fitting.
Dont over fill with soder,
use soder and measure the the cross diameter of pipe, on 3/4 you should use about 3/4 inch of soder..
1 inch shouldbe about 1 inch of soder
11/4 inch about 1 1/4 inches.
As you get better you can bend the soder at the aproximate lengths.
Clean up each sodered joint,use flashlight and look for voids in soder around pipe, i also have/ use a mirror to check..
I prefer to do all joints fron the top of fitting, i didnt like sodering upwards..
Can get messy.. looks better as well, no runs..
Also i use a reamer tool and ream all cut ends of pipe to prevent any turbulence..
all joints must the cleaned correctly.., these shouldbe shinny when done correctly. Inside and out
On brass parts, i clean the very flat end of brass to aid in sodering, gives a little more area to adhere too..
I never apply heat to any parts that can melt. This encludes pipe dope and teflon tapes.
I also use a wet rag to hold pipes and clean all sodered joints..
I also have a laundry bottle filled with.cold water close by, this i use to hold parts on and additional water for cleaning up soder, i perefer to rinse my rag often.
Try not to get any water into joints about to be sodered...
On parts the can fall apart, i sometimes will mark how fare the pipes goes in before sodering.. this will aid if it falls apart..
Just take you time...
Its not fast, but if done correctly will last a life time.

hot_rod

A common mistake is to over-heat the connection. Once the solder melts when you touch it to the joint, take the heat away.

If you over-heat and the solder doesn't draw in to the joint, flame will change color, turn green sometimes.
Stop, disassemble, re-clean and re-flux. Don't try to "cap over" a joint that doesn't pull the solder in.

JackW

I would suggest you solder as much as you can in sections to minimize the soldering at your mounting board.

styxplo

Finally got around to soldering this up. Going ok. I feel pretty good about it so far. Might not win any contest, but I think they are good.

I’m going to pressure test before water. I’ve read all kinds of differnt test air pressures. Any suggestions. I was thinking 60-80 psi?

What kinda of flush/cleaner solution do you guys like??

Thanks. And be safe out there. Anxious in Ohio!!!! Mark.

hot_rod

There are a number of these aerosol brands out there, easy for a DIYer to use.

If you have the boiler in the circuit you need to keep test pressure below 30 psi.