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Grrr... I am still a suckass solderer
mahuti:
My dad's done a fair amount of pipe soldering... he said anytime there is still water in the pipe it won't solder cuz it just won't get hot enough. He always uses bread to suck up any residual water. Doesn't work as well if it's just for repair and not for install. As far as solder for these projects... it helps if you heat up both wires for a few seconds. Won't take as long to get the solder to apply.
LPZ:
I see where you are coming from with the water. I drained all the water from that particular pipe and heated it with mapp gas and still it was hot as hell and I still couldn't sweat the joint. You could heat a tanker full of gas with a torch in one spot and it won't blow up. If you want it to blow up, heat the portion of the tank where there is no liquid gas touching the tank. It is called a BLEVE when it explodes. Bleve stands for:
Boiling
Liquid
Expanding
Vapor
Explosion
Credit that to my firefighting days. Anyway too much info for this thread.
LPZ
Luckydevil:
A few soldering tips for you...
1) Clean your two wire ends with rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball before applying flux.
This makes sure they are clean of impurities and lets the solder flow much better. I'm not sure if it is the manufacturing process on some wires, but I've had wires that were brand new and had some sort of coating on them that prevented the solder from flowing properly.
2) Get a third hand... these things rock (and they are cheap too). Just remove the magnifying glass and use the two clips to hold your wires for you. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=319
3) If your soldering iron tip is acting up, take some sandpaper to it (when cold of course) and remove the top layer. Then retin the tip and it should be good as new.
Hope that helps.
krick:
Make sure you have an iron no more than 25 or 30 watts. For delicate stuff, many people recommend 15 watts. I've tried 15 watt irons and I haven't been able to solder for crap with them. I keep coming back to my trusty old 30 watt model.
If the tip is black, lightly sand and re-tin the tip of the iron. If it's not shiny and silver, you won't be able to solder with it. Google for instructions on how to properly tin the tip so you do it correctly. It's not as simple as it seems.
Just before touching the iron to the spot you're trying to solder, I find that if I touch the solder to the tip and remove it (creating a tiny spot of wet solder), then touch that wet spot to the joint, it helps the joint heat up much faster and I can feed more solder in almost immediately. I think the hardest part of soldering is doing it quickly enough that you don't melt wire insulation.
Keep an old wet washcloth nearby and wipe the tip of the iron off religiously while soldering, especially if you touched the solder to the tip like I mentioned above.
Get a metal solder stand designed to dissipate the iron's heat while it's waiting for the next use. This will greatly help keep it from overheating and burning up the tip.
I got a cheap metal soldering stand from Bob Roberts..
http://homearcade.org/BBBB/ss.jpg
...the sponge is worthless but that's what I have the wet washcloth for anyway.
mahuti:
--- Quote ---If the tip is black, lightly sand and re-tin the tip of the iron. If it's not shiny and silver, you won't be able to solder with it. Google for instructions on how to properly tin the tip so you do it correctly. It's not as simple as it seems.
--- End quote ---
Ha, so you say. Mine's totally jacked and still works like a charm. Still and all... probably good advice.
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