How to Solder Copper – If you ever visited a workshop, you may find someone who was doing the soldering. For you who are not familiar with this activity maybe confuse. However, the workers maybe think that profession is fun. For you who are interested to know how to solder copper. The article will help to make you understand how to solder copper.
Soldering is an efficient and common way of combining the metal component. Before this article explores how the way to solder copper. Let’s see what is soldering first? In order, you can do it by yourself at your home.
Commonly, soldering is a process of melting the metal and of mixing it into other metal components. It is important to note that, soldering is different from welding. What are the differences? In welding, the components are melted simultaneously while in soldering, the softer metal with a lower melting point is used to combine it together.
Now be ready for soldering. This article gives the copper pipe as an example. The process of soldering copper pipe is easy. However, it needs more effort and different equipment compared to soldering electronics. Here below the steps.
How to Solder Copper Water Pipe Step by Step:
In the first step. Use the blowtorch. For soldering the copper pipe, you can use a propane torch and not the board. This tool is available at home stores. actually. The special solder of irons can also be used, however using a propane torch is more efficient and cheaper.
Try to get the best solder. Most producers are usually making a special solder for soldering a pipe. This solder has a thick cord and usually has a diameter of about 0.3 cm. Solder pipe contains acid. Avoid using the solder lead to solder pipe. Read the label to decide the composition. Solder pipe is usually composed of tin, and it may contain antimony and copper.
Turn off the water. You need to do this before starting to work. This is important to prevent the risk of flooding or wet room. But before you turn off the water you need to prepare the water in one place and put it near to you. It needs when the fire burns something.
Cutting your copper pipe. For installing a new copper pipe, try to use a “tube” cutter for cutting the pipe to a diameter of 1.25 cm. This cutter can be bought from stores. Do it slowly. The ‘tube” cutter will be more effective in a slow movement. If you are too fast, you will damage the pipes. For larger copper pipe, you can use a chainsaw as the cutter.
After cutting your copper pipes into some pieces. Now your job is to clean the pipe. To do this, you can use the emery cloth or other abrasive stuff. Now, it is time to solder your copper pipe. Turn on the propane torch and heat the pipe that you want to solder. After the copper pipe is ready, you can fasten the tip of the wire’s solder to the place where you want to solder. These wire will be soon melting.
Finally. Hold the solder on the other side of your torch. Solder will flow around the pipe. Let it cool, and you can continue to the next section if necessary.
That’s all about the steps of soldering copper pipe. Hopefully, this article brings a positive contribution to the readers. You can visit here to look video on how to solder copper water pipe.
