SpudFiles

Like others have said... you are using the wrong kind of solder.

Around here builders do all the copper water supply lines in a house with a Bernzomatic torch. I've a few joints on occasions. When done properly, with the right flux and solder, the copper should still be bright copper color and the solder should be bright silver. The only stains you should have are from leftover flux, and that should remove easily with a wet towel. The parts need to be shinny bright clean before welding. Usually people use wet-dry sand paper and sand until the pipe is shiny copper color. You have to do the inside of the female and the outside of the male parts. Lazy people sometimes use strong acid to clean the copper. Muriataic acid (hyddrochloric acid, 3~6M) will remove the oxide layer instantly.

OOOOOOOOO Acid!(First experment of the year: blow through the straw in the beaker of lime water and see if there is CO2 in your breath, blow was misunderstood by some, and dont even ask what happened when we made batterys ) Be careful with it

I just use some steel wool to clean it. Then I apply some acid flux, heat the joint with the weaker part of the flame until it (the flux) starts to boil, then apply the solder.

Probably easier than cementing PVC once you get the hang of it

The reason Cosmic's copper looks so horrible is

cos when i do it all i get is the copper turning red then black

It's oxidised from the intense heat!

I have had copper melt on me without flux and it wasnt close to being THAT bad...Only time I had copper in a condition like that was when heating a rod, droping it and picking it up by the wrong side, I swear that was darn painful and I had copper colored skin for a few days!

It would hurt either way, copper conducts heat well, which means a fully hot rod. Always use tools.

He said it himself, The copper is turning a crap colour when He heats it...

Cosmic, Have you tried again yet?

wow.. i leave the thread for a day and i have enough info to right a book thanks guys
and the fittings were shiny before i tried, maybe i over heated or something.
anyway im going to get new ones today.
and i will get a roll of solder, cos that seems to be what you recommend. i think the stick might be for oxy soldering?

hey Psycix cheers for that vid, i really think i have a small clue what im doing now the guy takes about 30 seconds to heat it - took 5 mins and the solder he used melted on contact - mine didnt "melt" as such, it just went sticky and ... hard to explain. thanks all you guys, you been a great help

EDIT: there are two pages sorry didnt see the second one, yer i see that i was heating it way too much, haha i feel like a bit of a tit right now..
at least i know what im doin now cheers fellas

EDIT EDIT: no i havent tried again, i need to get new fittings and solder, i will post a pic of my fantastic soldering when its done

Cool .

To be honest I have only ever tried once. I used regular electronic solder (what I had 8)), and a butane pencil torch. Did the trick...

The flux, solder, and propane torch should definitely do the job.

Good luck!

you used regular solder?
coincidence : i just used that, i saw one of my mates dads at the hardware store and he said it would work, and it did.
but it didn't get sucked in by capillarity it just rolled off, so i took the fitting half way off the pipe, got some solder on it, pushed it in and twisted it. i took the pipe out again to make sure there was enough solder on it and it seemed fine. will it still hold?

I don't see why not... I guess the reason the other solder works so well is due to flux.

The flux is what makes the solder flow, so if you were to flux the parts and then regular solder, it should suck it in nicely.

If you buy a small bottle of the runny flux, it should last you a long time. I'm not one fore buying things that I don't need much of, and that is expensive. But when there is safety involved, It's money well spent.

I used to glue PVC with super glue, it was cheap and did the job. However, there was no guarantee. I went out and bought some PVC primer and Cement, cost me a bit, I definitely think it was worth the money.

What are you building BTW? I would love to use copper for a gun, if New Zealand's prices weren't so darned expensive.

another friend from across the Tasman.
i think thats the right sea anyway
dont worry, we are suffering here too 25$ for a meter of 15mm pipe
yer i spose safety is a bit important
im making a copper piston gun, 10mm bore. and if it works i will make up a nice body for it, modeled on the sniper from halo.

Cool . Yeah it's the Tasman .

I don't get why that and PVC cost so much... Mass shipping cant cost THAT much... .

10mm What you gunna fire outta that?

anything that fits 8)
but the ID i dont know..
all i know is that plastic schrader caps fit well, and i know that a nail through the back of one of those and filled with hot glue makes a good dart

Cool

Good luck mate, I'm working on a mini hybrid made from 19mm brass fittings.