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Posted by Sacramento Dave on March 27, 2007, 9:12 am
>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?
>
Put a hole in them first. if you still can't them apart and sounds you cut
the caps off you might have to peal them apart . Are you sure they are not
brazed ?
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