Soldering onto an existing fitting

[Doggit]

Excuse me Aquaheat, but apart from the heat gel, I think I pretty much described the job the same way as you did; it's great looking smart and professional, but sometimes you have to try and put things across in a manner that a beginner will understand.

I did think about suggesting the heat gel, but reasoned that the OP may not be experienced enough to use it, and could well get it all over the place, and give himself even more problems. And with the pipe in the wall, it's obviously a ground floor rad, so the upper rads will need draining, but there's obviously no method of draining the lower rads properly, hence he's going to have to eventually cut into the corner of the elbow to get the water out before he can desolder it.

And sorry Dan, I should also have suggested you isolate the rad valves as well, and then undo the pipe at the rad to drain down as much water as possible from the pipe in the wall.

Please learn to play nicely Aquaheat.

 

[dan1w]

Cheers for the suggestions. This wall is going to be concealed by a kitchen. I'd still rather not go chasing the pipe up the wall in case I damaged it.

I won't have access to anything to freeze it, but I have bungs and an old vax wet and dry vac which maybe could be adapted to suck out some water.

 

[dan1w]

Job done, in the end I bunged the header tank and done one side at a time.

I chased the pipe up and on the other side chased horizontally cutting off the existing elbows. For times sake any potentially wet joints were done in speedfit as it will be concealed by new kitchen units and the rest in copper on the other side of the wall where it will be visible.

Two 10mm chrome speedfit service valves (seem to be the only ones) on the other side for when rad goes in later.

Thanks for all advice,

Dan

 

[nortonj]

Got any pics of the finished article?

 

[dan1w]

Got any pics of the finished article?

Could have got away without the speedfit but I'd already bought it in case of drippy joints. Haven't done any soldering in about two years which was a bit nerve wracking.

It isn't pretty but seeing as the kitchen's going over it it serves its purpose.

Tomorrow onto first time installing strap on boss and using solvent weld so any tips there feel free to share, then running pipework to what will be the sink and that's my plumbing work done thankfully. Not my favourite trade, way too messy.

 

[Madrab]

Trick with solvent weld is just make sure the surfaces are clean. If the soil pipe that the boss is going onto is very shiny then roughen up both glueing surfaces with a little sandpaper and clean. Fit all the waste pipe together & clip it and then mark the joints with a pencil so it all goes back together the same way

 

[Doggit]

You shouldn't need to do the sandpaper trick, as the solvent in the glue just melts the surface and then hardens. The pencil mark tip is a good one though, as you should glue both parts, push them together, and then turn the 90 degrees to evenly spread the glue.

 

[Newboy]

I'd love to see you rotate a solvent-weld strap-boss 90° to spread the solvent!