This repair is for which many homeowners choose to call in a professional. The problem cannot be fixed by repassivation so it is best to avoid excessively heating the parts. After soldering, the board may have a rather large permanent warp, but the joints are in an almost stress. Wave soldering defects cracked joint on a printed circuit board. You may have a problem with the leaky joints in the cold water pipe, because once water enters a bad joint it contaminates the copper so the solder will not adhere to it, even though the surface of the joint where you put the solder is no longer leaking. Repairs can occasionally be as simple as tightening mechanical pipe joints or resoldering copper pipe fittings, or as complex as removing entire sections of pipe and replacing them. Discussion in plumbers talk started by dj01, jul 2, 2004. Although copper is relatively unreactive, it is not immune to caustic conditions. My question is how do you sweat solder when the joints are vertical. I recently had trouble soldering some 34 rigid copper pipe joints. Cold solder joints are a failure of the molten solder metal to wet to one or more surfaces. Wrap the nonleaking solder joint with a wet rag so you do not compromise it. Now im replacing it with a new piece of pipe and two standard slip joints one on either end.
Providing durable and reliable soldered joints in sheet metal. And yes, i now that dull joints were not a sign for a bad or even cold joint. Thermal mismatch between ceramic ball grid array cgba components and organic printed boards not only causes fatigue of the solder joints when exposed to thermal changes, but may also cause cracking of the printed board laminate beneath solder pads. How to fix a slow leak in a copper pipe joint ehow. You need one hand for the tool and the other for the solder, so put the piece youre soldering into a small clamp or jig so it wont skitter around. But there are a couple tips to keep in mind to make it work right the first time. If youre in a pinch and need to quickly repair a leaking. One joint had a pinhold leak, now i cant heat that joint hot enough to separate it, reclean it and try to resolder it. Ive been fitting some pipe this weekend using presoldered joints, and out of the 20 i fitted i have one that is leaking a crossover. The solder bond will be poor and the cracks may develop in the joint over time. Wrap the non leaking solder joint with a wet rag so you do not compromise it. In that case the equipment handles that outright, and you shouldnt be in there altering the process. Insert the pipe into the fitting and heat them with the torch.
If you have a leaky joint and the joint leaks at the solder connection, you can resolder or. If the union is leaking from either solder joint, disconnect the union and heat the leaking joint to melt the solder. After soldering, the board may have a rather large permanent warp, but the joints are in an almost stress free condition. Anyhow i have a question im sure many of you skilled electronics gurus will probably be able to answer.
Reliability of solder joints assembled with leadfree solder vmasayuki ochiai vtoshiya akamatsu vhidefumi ueda manuscript received february 12, 2002 to protect the natural environment, we will introduce the use of leadfree solder instead of the current tinlead solder in the assembly of printed circuit boards in electronics equipment. How to repair cracked or leaking pipes without cutting or. While sealants can provide watertight integrity on steepsloped applications. Be careful when soldering near wood framing, many a house fire starts this way. Cracking must be prevented to,marantee the reliability of the mounted devices. I had to hold the torch on the joint for 1015 minutes before the solder flowed. You wouldnt use hot air to solder two things you have hold still yourself. Some of the more notable problems related contact soldering irons and solder wire with smt were. Cracking of joints would normally occur due to the thermal expansion of a joint and this would relate to the original design of the product. Soldering provides reasonably permanent but reversible connections between copper pipes in plumbing systems as well as joints in sheet metal objects such as food cans, roof flashing, rain gutters and automobile radiators. Soldering with a propane torch is the easiest way to join copper and brass. Resolder copper pipe after water leaked plumbing ask metafilter. Major causes of solder cracks solder cracks on mlccs developed from severe usage conditions after going on the market and during manufacturing processes such as soldering.
Too much heat can melt the rest of the solder and cause a bigger leak. I just cut down the pipe further in and resoldered a new length of pipe on the end. I wanted to try before i did anything in the house. Expert panel responses that solder joint appears to have been defective from the getgo. Be careful when soldering near wood framing, many a house fire.
You need to get solder into the joint and from personal experience you cant resolder a leaking joint when there is water in the pipe even with a blowlamp, the. What happens if you sweat pipe copper pipe without flux. Soldering, unjoining, and resoldering copper terry. You need one hand for the tool and the other for the solder, so put the piece you re soldering into a small clamp or jig so it wont skitter around. If you are getting sprays of water parallel with the pipe right at the fitting than you have to resolder. Architectural sheet metal components such as flatseam roofing and flashings must be joined properly to maintain durable and reliable watertight assemblies photo 1. Apr 21, 2014 if youre new to soldering and even if youve been soldering for years youll likely run into some problems along the way, so lets take a look at some common soldering issues as well as ways of preventing and correcting such issues. Oct 01, 2014 architectural sheet metal installations are often subject to widely varying temperatures in service, and the resulting thermal stresses will expose any weakness in soldered joints, and will lead to cracking or failure of the joints. Providing durable and reliable soldered joints in sheet. Heat up the fitting at the leak site and be ready to dab a small bit of additional solder to the joint. Common soldering problems adafruit guide to excellent. Weep from central heating soldered tee joint digital spy.
The water has contaminated the surfaces, and there is little chance that you could successfully get solder to flow. In fact, a proper solder joint is less likely to leak than the rest of the copper. With christys slickwrap pipe repair kit, you can quickly make permanent repairs without. Mar 28, 2017 spots of green appearing on your copper pipe is an indication of pinhole leaks. Hi jeff, i just watched your video about how to fix a copper pipewithout soldering and was wondering if you could enter me into the contest for a home repair kit. At a minimum you need to heat up the leaking joints and pull them apart, and then resolder them.
Jun 12, 2006 turn your water off dry it with towel. Jul 01, 2015 this is one of the most typical failures in consumer electronics devices. I had the torch on that joint for over 20 minutes and the. To resoldier use solder with flux, keep in mind to heat up a little, the termal mass of the connector needs a little time. Shut off the water supply immediately to stop the flow of water. Even then, it was not a good clean flow of solder into the joint.
Hi in this article ill be thoroughly explaining how to solder copper pipe to get a nice leakfree joint. With manual hot air soldering, you generally dont want to blow on joints either. Spots of green appearing on your copper pipe is an indication of pinhole leaks. The insidious problem with dry joints in soldering is that the circuit frequently performs alright for a period of time, even years before failure. If youre new to soldering and even if youve been soldering for years youll likely run into some problems along the way, so lets take a look at some common soldering issues as well as ways of preventing and correcting such issues. However, if this board is then screwed into an enclosure, whilst being firmly forced flat, very large forces are exerted on the joints. Lead free soldering and bad looking joints electrical. Cracking of a solder joint on a plated through joint is uncommon. Analysis of package cracking during reflow soldering.
With a little practice it becomes very easy to make good solder joints. The tool may cool off quickly, but a freshly soldered piece of metal does not. Ive been working on a lot of chevygmc instrument clusters lately and they tend to all have cracked solder joints on surface mount components, mainly the resistors. Both issues repair using the same methods as new copper installation with the exception of removing a damaged fitting. Would be best resoldering if you know what youre doing. Also when soldering them they appear to have a more granular appearance as the solder is melted. Resolder copper pipe after water leaked may 14, 2011 10. Cold joints can usually be repaired by simply re heating the joint with a hot iron until the solder flows.
Do not re use your old copper fitting when you re solder the joint. Excessive joint clearance can lead to filler metals cracking under stress orvibration. Failing solder joints, a cracked fitting or a combination of the two will lead to a slow leak around joints in an installed copper plumbing system. This page introduces major causes and countermeasures of solder crack in mlccs multilayer ceramic chip capacitors. Jan 17, 2017 cold solder joints are a failure of the molten solder metal to wet to one or more surfaces. Resoldering a bad solder joint on power connector youtube. Impact of cracking beneath solder pads in printed board. I bought a couple feet of pipe, some fittings, and the benzomatic kit which i know isnt the best, but works well for a diyer like me. Once you do those two things, and provide a hot enough flame and allow for some way for the heated air to escape besides through the joint youre trying to solder then youre almost certain to bat in your soldering. At a minimum you need to heat up the leaking joints and pull them apart, and then re solder them. Of course when youre doing reflow soldering, follow the recommended temperature profile. Id like to avoid this so i dont have to deal with acetone, but i dont want the joints failing for some reason.
How to repair copper pipe soldering home guides sf gate. Soldering vertical copper pipe originally posted by pine. It is not very common for failures to occur today due to the experience and pre testing conducted by many leading electronics companies. Troubleshooting brazing joints the harris products group. You need to get solder into the joint and from personal experience you cant re solder a leaking joint when there is water in the pipe even with a blowlamp, the joint just doesnt get hot enough, it will certainly never work with a tiny soldering iron. I have a major plumbing problem and havent been using the house plumbing.
Repairs can occasionally be as simple as tightening mechanical pipe joints or re soldering copper pipe fittings, or as complex as removing entire sections of pipe and replacing them. May 14, 2011 re solder copper pipe after water leaked may 14, 2011 10. I should mention im soldering to a pcb and its the wire that tends to break, but sometimes i wind up with a sketchy, noisy, connection. I have a had great success in the past when resoldering joints in hard to get at places and the water will just not stop dripping. When a dry joint is found, the solder on the joint should be removed and care taken when re soldering it to ensure that a good joint is made. How to repair a leak with abs plumbing home guides sf gate. Once a joint is fluxed, you can leave it form months before soldering it. You can even use solder to join copper or brass to stainless steel, you just need the proper flux. The most common ways of making architectural sheet metal joints watertight are through the use of sealants or solder. Soldered copper joints cant stand in your way any more. I retired over years ago, so i could be out of date on the subject. If you are getting pinhole leaks that spray water perpendicular to the pipe this might be the problem.
The problem is at some time you have to sweat a joint close to. So a good torch with propylene gas is the best starting point to getting good solder joints in plumbing all the time. Wave soldering defects epec engineered technologies. So can someone tell me, with what type of solder wire or what product i can get nice shiny solder joints. Its in a tight spot and im wondering if it would be possible to fix without separating the joint. Large visible cracks and the insidious micro crack are usually blamed on the soldering process by component vendors and the components them selves by the users. Cracked joint on a printed circuit board wave soldering defects. You can reduce the amount of visable flux by tinning the wires first with rosin flux solder, then solder the tinned wires to the connector terminals.
Nov 12, 2018 as with many other problems, roger has seen it all before and has a solution, so here is our how to fix a creaking floorboard video and it only takes around. Water has seeped through small holes in the surface to react with the outside layer, causing circles of patina. If the copper pipe you are dealing with is old enough the pipe may be eroded enough to be too thin to solder well. Application of excess soldering flux during fabrication of soldered joints has been found to be a significant cause of corrosion failures in copper water tube 16. Astm b828 describes the proper procedures for preparation and joining tube ends to fittings by soldering.
Failure in solder joints introduction summarising the information in. This area is prone to rust and cracking after it is in service. If youre looking for more information, we highly recommend stanleys. As someone said earlier start soldering the joints furthest away from each other. I doubt you are making them too hot, it is too hot if you get the copper glowing orangered or if the pipe or fittings are deforming. When the solder begins to boil, remove the torch and touch the tip of a coil of leadfree solder to the joint. A wetting failure is usually indicative of an oxide layer either on the board. Analysis of package cracking during reflow soldering process makoto kitano, asao nishimura, sueo kawai. Reliability of solder joints assembled with leadfree solder.
It must be dry when you do the soldering or it will leak. How do we fix a leaking pipe that has already been soldered. Of course you have to clean off both copper surfaces and use flux for lead free solder. The black pipes you see under your sink and in the basement are made with a plastic called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or abs. Using the emery cloth, sand about an inch up the ends of the copper pipe and make sure there is no dust or grease left. Once you do those two things, and provide a hot enough flame and allow for some way for the heated air to escape besides through the joint you re trying to solder then you re almost certain to bat in your soldering. The solder should flow, not have to be coaxed into the joint. This problem even occurs with manufactured equipment. The water has contaminated the surfaces, and there is little chance that you could successfully get solder to flow where it needs to to make a seal. Spread flux on the outside of the pipe and inside of the fitting when both have cooled down and youve cleaned them. If brazing alloy does not flow into the joint, even though it melts and forms a fillet. After soldering mic cable, do you clean the joints to remove excess rosin flux. Do not reuse your old copper fitting when you resolder the joint.
Slip the union off, spread new flux and resolder it. The photos that follow show some common soldering problems, with suggestions for repair and prevention. Application of excess soldering flux during fabrication. How to sweat solder copper water pipes for a watertight seal. Could selective soldering provide more consistent solder joints and thus reduce or eliminate the cracking. Keep in mind, in a 2 bath home there may be over 100 solder connections, most hidden from view. The copper water pipe in my garage cracked, so i cut out the bad pipe, and got a new small copper pipe with. Because all of these joints are really close together, you will probably have to redo them all. Resolder copper pipe after water leaked plumbing ask. Cracked sections of copper pipe are typically removed and replaced, or the crack is soldered shut. The joint has failed due to expansion and contraction of the lead in the joint.
How to fix a leaking brass union home guides sf gate. How to fix a leaky copper pipe with putty home guides sf gate. The pipe must be drained of residual water, clean the area and put a dab of flux at the leak spot. Soldering vertical copper pipe the key to soldering is heat. Originally posted by pine the key to soldering is heat. I have a had great success in the past when re soldering joints in hard to get at places and the water will just not stop dripping. An improperly cleaned joint may appear to not leak because it is tight or a. First just to say great work for those of you who actually show dital pics of installs,tools and fittings. The actual sources of cracks include both solder processing and to a lesser extent, defective components. Also, soldering fumes are definitely bad for your health, so ventilate. Many cold joints such as the one pictured also suffer from too much solder.
You probably had just a small whisker of solder making the connection and after a year of vibration in. If youre unfamiliar with soldering, youll be able to solder any. Making repairs to leaking galvanized or iron piping systems can require cutting and threading the pipe. Repair tiny holescratch in copper pipe home improvement stack. Failing solder joints, a cracked fitting or a combination of the two will lead to a.