Sweating Copper

[chipshot]

I sweated a male adapter onto the tub spout yesterday. Everything was great except the spout is a bit long. Can I remove the adapter by heating and turning with a wrench? I need to cut a little off and I think the cut will fall where the adapter covers.

[Gary Swart]

You can remove a fitting using heat and pliers (vise-grips). It is difficult to reuse fittings and most people don't advise it anyway so just use a new adapter.

[chipshot]

You can remove a fitting using heat and pliers (vise-grips). It is difficult to reuse fittings and most people don't advise it anyway so just use a new adapter.

thanks, I'm using the pre-soldered fittings....now you can tell me why those are bad ;) . That way I can hope for the built in solder to work while I practice adding my own.

[jadnashua]

The hassle with reusing a fitting is that it is hard to control the thickness of the solder after you take it off - it is often not easy to slip back onto the pipe because solder pooled on one side after taking it off then solidifying, not because the fitting is bad in any sense. This also makes it hard to verify that you've slipped in onto the pipe fully. My unprofessional opinion.

[Gary Swart]

Yeah, I think that's basically the reason. I have reused a fitting or two when I didn't have a new one, and it is just a PITA to clean the old solder out of the inside so that it will slip on to the pipe. I have used a large drill bit (by hand) to ream them, but it's still the pits. I sure a "real" plumber wouldn't want to mess with them because of the time envolved.

[hj]

A "real" plumber will reuse some fittings because he knows how to do it simply.

[chipshot]

How would a real plumber do it simply?

[jadnashua]

If you rap it on a hard surface while it is still hot, most of the excess solder will come out making it easier to reuse. Is there a better method?

[jwray]

A "real" plumber will reuse some fittings because he knows how to do it simply.

HJ - can you share the professional secret with a "weekend warrior"?

I found this old post while searching for a tip on reusing a fitting. I have a sitution w/ a T where I had to remove the pipe from one side to fix a mistake I made. It would be a royal pain to have to take the other 2 legs off the T and replace the entire T.

I do have the pooled solder problem that is keeping the new pipe from going into the fitting. I've been sanding, but it's difficult b/c it's in an awkward location.

Thanks,

Joel

[dubldare]

I've had very good luck reusing fittings.

There are a few things to keep in mind.

The first is yourself. It's quite idiotic to try to save a $0.75 fitting if you damage yourself in the process.

You should have safety glasses, long sleeve cotton shirt, cotton gloves and a cotton towel for this. Have your flux, solder, sandcloth and fitting brushes as well. If you don't have a fire extinguisher also, leave now.

Heated flux burns easily and can be hard to control, even for the best of us. Plus it'll give you some pretty mean welts if you don't watch out.

Generally, you want to keep the fitting 'wet'. This means keeping some flux on the fitting while heating the solder. This will help in liquifying the solder without overheating the fitting.

Female joints can be desoldered by heating the fluxed fitting and using a fitting brush to remove solder. It's a process that usually takes a few heat cycles to accomplish.

To remove solder from an end of pipe, flux, heat and wipe with the towel. Once cool, sand before resoldering.

All this being said, I wouldn't recommend this on any fitting that's already in place. It is far too easy to compromise the existing joint(s) in the effort to save the bad.