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Posted by DanG on March 27, 2007, 12:08 am
To make sure you are not fighting water/steam, use a nail or screw
and put a hole in the cap. Sometimes fittings get a tenacious
hold, it is almost more like they are in a physical bind than the
solder holding them, that might require a swat with a hammer while
it is hot. I know you don't have enough hands and this will
require some creativity or an assistant.
______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)
dgriff237@7cox.net
>I am looking at a couple copper pipe joints where a temporary
>copper cap was soft soldered in the normal way over hard copper
>water line. From the coloration the joints have obviously been
>overheated in the process of trying to desolder them. They swear
>that they used ordinary plumbing solder to solder them together
>and a third joint they had soldered at the same time with the
>same solder but did not do anything in the way of desoldering to,
>desoldered very easily with only moderate heat when I tried. It
>slid right apart as soon as it got hot enough for the solder to
>flow just like it's supposed to, but the other two (the
>overheated ones) will NOT come apart. I have tried grabbing the
>very end of the cap with pliers and pulling twisting etc and it
>will not budge. I am positive they have been heated enough that
>there is no way that soft solder by itself is capable of holding
>them together. Solder touched to the pipe next to the joint
>readily flows but the joint stays rock solid. The pipe is not
>distorted so it is not a crimp type effect jamming them together.
>It is obviously plain copper pipe there are no threads. The only
>thing around the joints is soft plumbing solder residue, which
>easily melted when the joints were heated. No sign at all of any
>hard solder/brazing and they say they just used ordinary plumbing
>solder. Could they have been over heated enough with MAPP gas to
>effectively weld the copper? I don't want to heat them much
>beyond the flow point of plumbing solder if I can help it because
>they are pretty close to the wall, and I don't want a fire or
>destroyed solder joint in the wall. Anybody seen this before?
>
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