How to Solder Copper Pipes

Video Transcript

"Hello, this is Oscar Moreno with Moreno Custom Home Visions and today we're going to teach you guys how to solder copper pipe. You basic tools that you're going to need is going to be your multi cleaning tool here, which cleans for three quarter inch and half inch. Also, you're going to need your solder, which is right here, and you're going to need some flux with a brush to apply it and, of course, you're going to need your torch, in order to heat all this stuff together. Now, how we're going to start is to clean the actual copper pipe and the copper fitting. One thing you guys, I can't stress enough, after you've cleaned your surfaces that you're going to be using, you have to make sure you don't get them dirty, whatsoever. Even the grease that you have in your hands by wiping your face and you apply it to the actual fitting, will ruin your solder there so just keep in mind, keep it nice and clean after they've been cleaned already and don't touch them. So, what we're going to start doing is, like I said, cleaning the fittings, first clean your pipe, make sure it's nice and clean, lay it on a surface that's off the ground, then clean your fitting on the inside, you have to make sure this guy is nice and clean. Once we have them nice and clean, we're going to apply our flux and our flux kind of gives this little color here, just keep that in mind you guys, this nice little gray stuff there. Once we apply our flux to our actual pipe and our fitting, we can actually put them together and start the heat process. Now, before you start the heating process, get your solder ready and go ahead and pull it out about eight to ten inches and put a little curve on it, a little hook. This actually helps you get underneath the pipe and over the top, it gives you a little bit more mobility when you're using this stuff so here we go. We're going to go ahead and put our piece of pipe together and we're going to get our torch, turn it on and start heating it for about thirty seconds. Once we have heated about thirty seconds, you need to go ahead and start applying your solder and remove the heat away from the actual fitting and go ahead and touch the solder to the pipe, if it melts on contact, the pipe is ready. Go ahead and apply a little bit more heat and apply your solder again. You don't really have to use too much a basic, for a basic joint itself, you can just rely on using almost two thirds to almost a whole hook that you have there and that's, pretty much, all the stuff you're going to need there, maybe, even less. Once you've got that heated up and you have your solder installed already and it's melted in there, you can go ahead and take it off the heat. One of the things you guys have to be careful after soldering your copper pipes is not to touch them, they will be very hot and also try not to cool them too fast by using cold water over the solder, you can instantly crack it. So, let it dry by itself and let it cool down. Basically guys, that's, pretty much, how you solder a piece of copper pipe."