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Master Soldering help needed for a clean solder

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Electronurd

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Hi plumbers, I am popping here today to ask how do I solder a clean join? For example I am currently in the process of creating a lamp for my living room out of copper pipe. I started to solder today and realised I'm crap :smile5:. I cleaned the pipe and the elbows and fluxed, but no matter how hard I tried the solder went everywhere and I ended up with proper messy pipe joins.

I would like to create something like the following:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322443512149

as you can see the joins are spectacular and look very clean and nicely done. My question is how??

thought I'd ask plumbers as you may know?
 
Use the flux sparingly and only a small amount of solder, you only need to hold it together it's not water tight you're after is it !

Use propane, lead free solder warm the fitting and tube, allow the heat of the metal to melt the solder, NOT THE FLAME.

hope that helps, You can of course use leaded solder but make sure it's clean
 
Post up some pictures of what you had done, don't worry if its bad. That will give some idea of where you are going wrong. Also tell us what equipment you have and the materials your using.

Also if your doing this you may want to post up on the electrical forum to confirm electrical/earthing requirements.
 
Last Plumber said:
Use the flux sparingly and only a small amount of solder, you only need to hold it together it's not water tight you're after is it !

Use propane, lead free solder warm the fitting and tube, allow the heat of the metal to melt the solder, NOT THE FLAME.

hope that helps, You can of course use leaded solder but make sure it's clean
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply.

Is there a reason to use flux sparingly?..

I have been using butane? Not propane? Heat is heat right? Obviously I'm wrong so tell me lol.

What's the difference between lead and lead free solder in my case?.
 
Last Plumber said:
Use the flux sparingly and only a small amount of solder, you only need to hold it together it's not water tight you're after is it !

Use propane, lead free solder warm the fitting and tube, allow the heat of the metal to melt the solder, NOT THE FLAME.

hope that helps, You can of course use leaded solder but make sure it's clean
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply.

Is there a reason to use flux sparingly?..

I have been using butane? Not propane? Heat is heat right? Obviously I'm wrong so tell me lol.

What's the difference between lead and lead free solder in my case?.
 
mache said:
Post up some pictures of what you had done, don't worry if its bad. That will give some idea of where you are going wrong. Also tell us what equipment you have and the materials your using.

Also if your doing this you may want to post up on the electrical forum to confirm electrical/earthing requirements.
Click to expand...


Here is a sample join:

View attachment 29127

I'm not embarrassed, would just love my joins to look better than the above.

I'm using a butane gas torch.. cheap. Lead free solder and flux with some pipe cleaning paper.

Thanks for your help.
 
It takes time and practice

Sounds like you need to heat the fitting more as the solder should suck into the fitting

Clean and flux both (pipe and fittings) once assembled wipe excesse flux off

Heat from front add solder from the back about 1mm (length) of solder should do
 
Last edited:
ShaunCorbs said:
It takes time and practice

Sounds like you need to heat the fitting more as the solder should suck into the fitting

Clean and flux both (pipe and fittings) once assembled wipe excesse flux off

Heat from front add solder from the back about 1mm (length) of solder should do
Click to expand...

It does suck into the joint. I can see it doing that, but I'm also using 3mm diameter solder is that too much?
 
ShaunCorbs said:
It takes time and practice

Sounds like you need to heat the fitting more as the solder should suck into the fitting

Clean and flux both (pipe and fittings) once assembled wipe excesse flux off

Heat from front add solder from the back about 1mm (length) of solder should do
Click to expand...

It does suck into the joint. I can see it doing that, but I'm also using 3mm diameter solder is that too much?
 
Electronurd said:
It does suck into the joint. I can see it doing that, but I'm also using 3mm diameter solder is that too much?
Click to expand...

Yes doesn't need to be much as its not holding anything just a physical connection
 
Or any good epoxy
 
I do not want to glue. I prefer to solder as I kind of like the look. Gluing is fine for some joints but not for others.

Do you recommend getting a smaller diameter solder wire?
 
The lamp you are trying to emulate isn't soldered, that's how you don't see any snots (runs of solder), at a guess I'd say it's glued.
nosolder.jpg
 
JCplumb said:
The lamp you are trying to emulate isn't soldered, that's how you don't see any snots (runs of solder), at a guess I'd say it's glued.
Click to expand...

Well that's what I thought and so I sent the seller a message to ask before any potential purchase and they did confirm that all joins were soldered.
 
Once it's at the right temperature you only need to touch it and you'll see it flow.
The reason I said use flux sparingly was because you do not want to allow solder to run on the pipe outside the fitting. If I were doing your task I would flux inside the fitting with a flux brush and put just enough on the pipe to cover the length of the full socket.

If poss, try to solder with gravity on your side !
 
Last Plumber said:
Once it's at the right temperature you only need to touch it and you'll see it flow.
The reason I said use flux sparingly was because you do not want to allow solder to run on the pipe outside the fitting. If I were doing your task I would flux inside the fitting with a flux brush and put just enough on the pipe to cover the length of the full socket.

If poss, try to solder with gravity on your side !
Click to expand...

Excellent tips. I'm going to try again today but practice on some crappy bits first. I'll post any pics I have if they turn out ok.
 
Electronurd said:
Excellent tips. I'm going to try again today but practice on some crappy bits first. I'll post any pics I have if they turn out ok.
Click to expand...

Yes do that, I'd like to see the finished product !

I realise you want to solder this to perfection but just in case you do have a bit on show, Emery ribbon ( fine grit), will remove solder easily and polish the copper nicely too.

That might make it even easier for you !
 
Last edited:
I mean the stuff you use in engineering, do you know which I mean ?
It comes on a roll
 
Last edited:
That will probably do but the stuff I meant is finer ( not like sand paper ).
 
Last Plumber said:
Yes do that, I'd like to see the finished product !

I realise you want to solder this to perfection but just in case you do have a bit on show, Emery ribbon ( fine grit), will remove solder easily and polish the copper nicely too.

That might make it even easier for you !
Click to expand...

Well no matter how much I try I still get a slodge of solder somewhere on a join... without fail. Can solder sledges be wiped off?

Here is a picture of what I mean... there's always a splodge. The join is fine... but the slodge is annoying.

IMG_0154.jpg
 
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