The homeowners revenge!

Got the old joint out, built the new one and put it in. 16 joints to solder. Most of them last night, and the rest after work today. Not exactly pretty, but so far, it's dry. Of course, the valve on the hot water heater was bad, and wouldn't shut. Instead of forcing it, I just emptied the tank and shut off the cold water supply. That's an easy fix, but will have to wait for another day.



A few lessons learned...

• Clean the copper where you are going to solder.
• Make sure everything is dry. Damn near impossible to solder wet copper (although I've hear the MAPP torches will work).
• Before connecting to supply lines, dry fit and then put as much of the joint together as possible. Making a dozen some odd solders while standing on a ladder between floor joists, isn't much fun. The less soldering on a ladder, the better.
• Once you have soldered pieces together, the copper will be very hot and take 10-15 minutes to cool to the touch. Keep this in mind, when you tell your wife the whole thing will take "About an hour."