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I don't have a guide. If you have 5-6 joints to solder at once then how would you measure that? Just do it by feel and eye.What do you guys use as a guide to say you've used enough sodder per joint...when you visibly see that the solder has capillary'd around the whole fitting or amount of solder? I tried using diameter of fitting as a guide for a while but found it was too much...15mm of solder for a 15mm fitting etc.
You could put kinks in the solder, each kink approximate to the length/amount you want to use.
An English demo of end-feed soldering whilst on the job:
https://www.facebook.com/cityplymplumbing/posts/535464623276294
I'm not ashamed to admit this, but I've never seen soldering done like this - I was taught to run the solder all around the joint and use about a diameter worth of solder.
I know I'm not great at soldering, I think there is a skill to getting it right .. goddamn it his joints look amazing! So after you've heated the pipe you just hold the solder in one spot and let science )capillary action) do its thing? I'm DEFO gonna try that!!!
As for the yank - blow me even my joints don't have bogies like that!! Biggest greenies I've EVER seen in m'life!
Remember that capillary action will take place no problem if heat is enough all around the fitting and flux is there. While solder can stay liquid it will go all around the inside of joint.
I still believe in doing minimum of each side of a fitting or whole way around it, just to be sure.
I prefer to use a rag to wipe the joints on leaded solder, but with unleaded it is harder to do & I try to be careful just getting it spot on first time. On Yorksire fittings you are really just supposed to gently heat them until a neat ring of solder appears. Guess most of us add a bit of solder. Habits are hard to break.
Do you/anyone brush a bit of flux around the fitting once you've applied the solder? The guy I shadowed does it and his joints are always neat and leak free - but when I tried it a couple times I think I end up making holes in the solder and then have to redo it :/
normally about 10-15 secs after soldering saves wire wooling it after-wards
Ahh, I think I've been doing it too soon then, soon as I've put the solder on I turn off my torch and brush the flux over it..
I wouldn't cool the fitting with flux or water just after it is soldered. Might weaken the joint. Brushing some flux over it and then giving the whole fitting a short blast of heat again to melt the solder leaves it guaranteed to be sound again if left alone to reharden
I wouldn't cool the fitting with flux or water just after it is soldered. Might weaken the joint. Brushing some flux over it and then giving the whole fitting a short blast of heat again to melt the solder leaves it guaranteed to be sound again if left alone to reharden
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