short stub out and fire protection?

Hey guys,
I have a little problem. Somehow, I stupidly made my copper stub outs too short, they are only ~1.5" from the finished wall now (tile). I figured that a joint only needs 1/2" depth to soldier properly, which puts me at 1" or less from the finished wall. How can I soldier this without fire going into the wall and burning down my whole house?? I had an idea about shoving "steel wool" into the tiny space between the pipe and the tile/wall, but it caught on fire as soon as the torch touched it. Maybe it isn't real steel wool? I pulled it out quickly and stopped everything... So what can you guys recommend?

One more thing- I'm using this:
http://www.hardwarestore.com/media/product/200259_front200.jpg

I was heating on the chrome plating, but couldn't get the soldier to flow after 5 mins on a lowish flame with MAPP gas. Should I clean off some of the chrome coating from the outside?

Use a conventional compression fitting with an escutcheon and with 1.5" sticking out, you'll need to cut some off!

There is steel in steel wool (usually) - it readily burns because it is so thin, the heat enables it to combine with the oxygen in the air to burn (turn to rust) quickly.

Solder will NOT stick to chrome so you have to remove ALL the chrome from the solder surface. Another thing is that I would NEVER use that valve for ANYTHING. What happens when it has to be replaced? There are several ways to prevent burning, but ANY "wool" type material will usually burn.

Yep- I assumed I'd have to do compression fittings, which wouldn't be a problem...I think I'm going to do that, instead of risking messing up my project.

I already bought these valves, so I'm out ~30 dollars, but I'll just throw them in my plumbing surplus box for another day .

Any compression valves you can recommend? I read somewhere the brasscraft (HD) ones are pretty bad, and left some people's houses flooded- is that true?

I used to think alot of stuff from HD is crap quality, but when I buy from supply houses around here, they are just as bad, if not even worse cheap chinese quality parts.

I've not had any problems with Brasscraft, but Dahl appears to make some nice stuff, so you could search that out. Keep in mind that many companies have more than one line, and some are better than others. For example, you can buy Brasscraft with plastic stems, brass stems, multi-turn, and quarter turn, plastic handles, metal handles, etc.

Years ago I was involved in Cub Scout in Hawaii. Once we had one of those roundups....forgot what they called it there, and they had demos/training on all kinds of outdoorsy stuff. One class was how to start a fire. There was this old hawaiin guy and I figured 'this will be cool...how they started fire back in Kamehameha days"...... he took some steel wool out of his pack, took the battery out of his lantern...put the steel wool across the terminals....instant Kilauea!!!!

jimbo said:

Years ago I was involved in Cub Scout in Hawaii. Once we had one of those roundups....forgot what they called it there, and they had demos/training on all kinds of outdoorsy stuff. One class was how to start a fire. There was this old hawaiin guy and I figured 'this will be cool...how they started fire back in Kamehameha days"...... he took some steel wool out of his pack, took the battery out of his lantern...put the steel wool across the terminals....instant Kilauea!!!!

Click to expand...

I never saw Kilaueha live, but I've had lots of Kahlua! I only visited Maui and Oahu so far

Thanks for the help guys. Got the compression valves on and Toto drake installed this weekend, what a nice toilet! I didn't have space for escutcheons so I bought 3 large washers and tacked them to the wall with some silicone

Guys- one quick question. For these compression valves, and compression valves in general- what's the likelihood of one of those valves failing catastrophically? I.e. I come home one day and water is gushing out the 1/2" line because the water pressure pushed the valve off?

I'm guessing not very likely, but I just wanted to know for my peace of mind! thanks!

I have NEVER had it happen if the valve was tightened properly. I have had some which slid off easily when the nut was loosened slightly, but that is a different situation.

THanks. For some reason something about these compression valves just makes me nervous, although they've been on since Sunday without a problem.