A little bit of solder

I got sidetracked a little from finishing the radio box with a little bit of plumbing.  The ensuite toilet valve needed to be replaced.  I had replaced the toilet when we moved in as the bowl was broken due to the house being frozen.  This was supposed to be a simple install as I had replaced one toilet ion the main floor.  That toilet flange was below tile so I had to get an extended.

The toilet flange in the ensuite was just above the finished floor level, so a lot of the wax oozed up through the bolt holes.  When I went to attach the supply line up to the tank, the fitting came off of the line.  This was an old supply line, that was apart of the valve, so I had to replace it.  The valve that came off of the 3/4" copper line was a compression fitting.  I was replacing the fitting with a soldered on connection.  This was going to be my second plumbing fitting that I was going to be soldering I felt confident.  Funny enough I had also learned a little from a recent Holmes show on how to solder and position the torch. 

The key to soldering a good joint is to make sure that the copper is clean and bright.  I made sure that I took the emery paper and sanded down the pipe.  From there I applied a liberal amount of flux and fitted the valve to the final location.  From my understanding the flux serves a couple of purposes. The first is to shield the metal from oxidation during the application of heat.  Oxidation would create a barrier from the sold from joining the two metals together.  The other is to help wick the solder up the joint.  As a person that is used electrical solder that has a rosin core this weting action is very different to me, this is acomplished through the capillary action of the joint. I applied the heat to the joint and since it was a very tight location I could only apply the heat at one side. Due to the heat on one side I had the solder on the other side, so that once the pipe was heated the solder was just sucked up into the joint. 

With a ring of solder around the valve I deemed it good and turned the water back on.  The moment of truth came seconds later as it held water.  I cooled the valve with a wetted wash cloth and hooked up the new supply to the toilet tank and went on my way.

Until next time...