Preparing copper prior to solder

chriselevate · 14 Jun 2018

Just a bit worried that I've seen the plumber (who's fitting my new bathroom) not using a abrasive strips on the copper or a deburrer on the inside of the fittings prior to soldering. Just asked him why and he said that as they are new they don't need it and his flux does the job.

Any thoughts on this please?

Thanks

Dan Robinson · 14 Jun 2018

If it's clean then is fine. Deburring is nice but not essential if cut with a pipe slice.

chriselevate · 14 Jun 2018

Ahhh phew! So shiny new copper that hasn't oxidised etc will be fine just to flux and solder?
Thanks for that

Crofton Gas · 14 Jun 2018

Flux has a cleaner in which is activated by heat, so oxidised pipe is fine, as long as it's not old or dirty. Most plumbers will use a pipeslice which leaves minimal burrs anyway

CWHEATING · 14 Jun 2018

Paranoid much?

chriselevate · 14 Jun 2018

Yeah paranoid a lot. Don't want any problems with it and I've always thought that prepping the pipes in this way was necessary with all pipes. Glad it's not

ReganAndCarter · 14 Jun 2018

chriselevate said:
and I've always thought that prepping the pipes in this way was necessary with all pipes. Glad it's not

That was the case years ago. Older fluxes were grease based and a lot milder. They didn't really clean the pipe, just stopped it oxidising while you heated it with torch. Modern fluxes are a lot more aggressive - either straight out of the tub or when heated with the flame. They're cleaning the pipe as well as preventing oxidisation.

The thing with these modern fluxes is its more important to clean them off the joints after soldering and flush through pipes. Otherwise they can eat away at the copper causing pinholes. Apologies if this has given you something else to worry about.

chriselevate · 14 Jun 2018

That’s great thanks. I’ve seen him apply a little flux after a solder and the use a wet wrag to wipe it off so that’s cool.

Thanks for the input. Just glad it’s all good so far.

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Preparing copper prior to solder

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