Joining copper pipe

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johotech, Mar 17, 6:42pm
A week's worth of questions and a pipe is yet to be joined. Hillarious.

singing1, Mar 17, 7:32pm
I agree. do an apprenticeship mate.

skin1235, Mar 17, 8:25pm
anneal the ends first, cleans it and softens it in one blow

when turning it down make sure the shoulder that steps to the next size is well polished - its that section of your swage that actually does 95% of the work

the bottom sections could well carry 5 plus mt of head, and it will fluctuate with heat changes, so all joints will have to be damn good

the entire pipe will need insulating if it is 'head' pipe, and that insulation will need weatherproofing
theres a difference between 'head' pipe and mere overflow pipe, one sets the pressure, the other just gets waste water to a convenient point

johotech, Mar 17, 11:15pm
Good advice on the swage. But 5m of head is SFA. Less than 10PSI. Even 10m of head is only about 1 bar, or just over 14PSI.

johotech, Mar 17, 11:24pm
Trying to "tin" it and then join it will be a right pain. No professional would ever try and do that, so why would you bother?

Just anneal the end you are going to swage, and clean the outside of the male end with sandpaper. It will solder fine with standard 2% silver brazing rods, or you can go to 5% if you want better strength and gap filling ability. They are available as "self fluxing" which will help you considerably.

Not sure how well some kind of camp cooker you mentioned will work, but you seem adept at dealing with difficult procedures, so I'm sure you'll cope.

crackerjack19, Mar 20, 3:05am
To get more heat into the area that is going to be brazed together the pipes can be put over a camp cooking stove and as copper conducts heat very well the extra heat can be supplied by one of the small torches that are now readily available for soldering. Avoid being burnt by the hot pipes use the locking type pliers (probably need at least two pairs) with minimum of pressure. This is where the kiwi in us all takes over.?

trade4us2, Mar 20, 3:43am
The camp stove is hot enough for soldering.
Here's the swage and the clamp I made from scrap out of the bin. They work fine.
https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/371139016.jpg
This swage diameter is now too small, so I will make another at exactly 15.0 mm.
It would be easier to solder or braze it up at work, but then I would have to try to carry 10 metres of copper pipe home somehow.
I could pay a plumber several hundred dollars to do the job, but it will cost me nothing to do it myself.

biddy6, Mar 1, 2:56am
Good on ya trade4us2, after all this MB is called diy.