Tips for 3/4 ball valve sweating?
Hi Folks, I always seem to have trouble getting a good sweat connection on ball valves (or stop valves for that matter). They either leak, or I end up melting the inside seals! In the small chance that I get one that doesn't leak, the connection looks darn ugly. I'm cleaning the male pipe with fine sandpaper, and a wire brush for the valve. They're then wiped w/a clean wrag. The solder is Lenox lead-free, the flux Lenox general purpose petroleum based. The valves are BK Mueller for what it's worth, new. I always apply the most heat to the valve, about the last 3/4 of where the pipe enters. Once I see the copper blowing off a green is when I remove heat and apply solder. I've tried applying heat 1/2-1/2 between the valve and pipe, but not much difference. The problem seems to be that the valve ID is too large. I never have problems with T's and elbows that have a nice tight fit. These valves spin easily and will slip off the pipe if help upside down. The solder seems to wick between the fitting, but never comes up to the lip. The more I apply, the worse it seems to get (by that point I think I've 'poluted' the copper to where it won't stick anymore). I typically wipe the connections clean with a damp wrag to clean up the appearance. This goes against any electronics soldering that I've done, which would result in a cold solder joint, but it seems to be common with friends/co-workers. Any tips? I'm building a manifold for our service room and this is becoming a PITA (and expensive). Thanks greatly, Jamie PS - using MAPP gas 'figured a picture or two may help more than anything... slipnfall my suggestions
1. good initial setup -- the only diff. i do is use sandpaper for cleaning BOTH sides of the joint ..... 2. make sure you manual turn valve so ball/seal is not sitting against the brass when it heats up 3. apply more liberal flux to both male/female parts to solder 4. have flame on FULL FORCE -- nice strong blue flame -- hold pretty close to copper pipe (6 away max) 5. heat ONLY the copper pipe... not the valve.... 6. within 15-20 seconds it should be ready to start pulling solder inside..... just let it pull it in... don't over feed ... 7. while hot make sure you have it pulled in all around.... easy to miss the back side. good luck rf Major difference in process here: heat just the pipe huh? I'll give it a shot and let you know how it turns out! I can't see how the solder would adhere to the brass valve, but I suppose it gets hot as well. Excellant advice! It's not show quality, but the solder wicked in just as it should have. Some 'tips' that have come to mind (though these are mostly common sense). -use that wet wrag you have laying around to keep adjacent/nearby valves cool while sweating elsewhere. -to remove/replace my valves, I heated them to where they would slide off, then [re]heat the pipe and wipe as much old solder off as possible. Sand area thoroughly until you can see copper showing through. Make sure it's smooth with no bumps. Wipe away dust before re-applying flux. -watch how far down into a valve body you apply flux: where the flux goes the solder just may very well follow. On dismantling my valves I found solder all the way down to the seal!! -be sure to sand/clean/flux the faces of female fitting as well. This is that 1/16 surface area on the face of the fitting. This ensure a good concave fillet surrounding the fitting. -*do not* move valve gates while warm or hot, you'll likely muck up the seal, even on adjacent valves. Thanks kindly, Jamie I wrap the thick part of the valve itself with a wet rag, then hit the valve end with heat, playing some onto the copper pipe too. Seems to work good. For what it's worth, years ago when first attempting to sweat ball valves I got so frustrated that I switched entirely to threaded ones! Then I learned about using a hotter torch (Mapp gas) and wrapping the valve to keep it cool.
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