My skill level is that this is my first one ever <g>!
It was an old water supply pipe that used to stick up through the kitchen floor, supplying, I assume, a washing machine in days gone by. But it was stopping me getting on with the floor.
It was in an awkward spot, under ground floor, about 3 feet clearance, but ALL the services are in that corner, so had to spend time moving and pinning wires so that I didn't burn them.
So I shut off, worked out where I was going to cut it, then gave the old pipe a thorough clean, coarse sandpaper, fine ditton, wire wool. On the basis that it would be a lot easier to clean before I make the cut.
Then used a pipe cutter to cut. Some water came out, and never completely stopped. Used 15mm wire brush on inside of fitting, wire wool on outside of drian tap. Dried with towels, put on clean rubber gloves to handle fittings, brushed thin smear of flux (people say don't use too much).
So tried to do it as clean as possible, which is what everybody says is important.
Put them together and burned. Only thing is, while I was doing some steam came out, as there was still a small amount of water in the system and drop by drop it seemed to be coming this way.
Saw the thin ring of solder appear (solder ring fitting) and stopped. There haven't been any blobs of solder dropping so I assume it's all in there. And when I filled up I left the drain thing open for a bit, so there wasn't air trapped in it.
Is it worth running water through it to wash out any spare flux?
Also, is there any difference in the quality of copper pipe/fittings? If so, what's the best make to go for.
Cheers
