Pretty well the same way that a sighted person does it. Electrical soldering is probably a little more difficult because the components are so small and landing the tip of the iron and the tip of the solder without accidentally dropping some where you don't want it and keeping a wire, the solder and the iron all where they need to be without seeing takes a lot of dexterity, patience and skill.
Soldering pipe on the other hand is pretty gross by comparison. You clean and flux the fittings and press them together then strike your flame. You can pretty well feel the joint with the end of the torch to locate pretty accurately where to apply the heat. The flame makes a different noise when the hot point is in contact with the copper but although this is the most efficient heat transfer it is not absolutely necessary and not necessary all of the time, it will just take longer to get the pipe hot enough for the solder to flow. As described in the article Ray sent, I pull a couple of turns off of the roll of solder, bend 3 or 4 inches over then fairly rapidly start some couple of inches away from the fitting I slide the bent over point toward the fitting until I feel it touch. If the pipe is hot enough the contacting end of the solder melts and you can feel it shrinking, just move it left and right a little so the melting solder will run around the joint and into the joint. I try to remember to keep a wet rag handy so I can cool the joint rapidly enough to inspect it without waiting half a day. If in doubt keep the heat on the joint. If it gets too hot it will only spatter and waist a little solder but it is fairly cheap and only hurts a little if it splashes on you. That is my short version of the process. I admit I have a little more trouble with 3/4 inch pipe because of the larger surface area it is necessary to wash the joint with more heat and usually works best to play the flame around all sides of the joint which can be a little more challenging, particularly in situ. I try to assemble as much as is practical on the bench so I don't spend a lot of time on a ladder up under the floor or between joists. I tend to be a little impatient though and sometimes apply the solder a little early. Nothing for it but to start all over again. I hope this helps. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: Shane Hecker To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 6:12 PM Subject: saughtering was Re: [BlindHandyMan] I hate plumbing! How does a totally blind person go about saughtering? Just wondering as I've never done it nor seen anyone do it before. Shane ----- Original Message ----- From: Bob Kennedy To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 5:57 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] I hate plumbing! Always the odd ball, I like plumbing. It has gotten a bit harder to solder since they have done away with led in the solder but I can still sweat a pipe together. For those that don't like risking a fire in the house, they now make a solderless compound for copper pipes. It is much like the C A form of epoxy I use to build golf clubs with. It comes in a can and you brush it on like the stuff used with PVC. Great idea for places where a torch is dangerous. I'll find the link and send it along later. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Ferrin To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 1:45 PM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] I hate plumbing! The question is who if anybody likes plumbing actually. Oh the joys of owning a home. David Ferrin www.jaws-users.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Rossi To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 1:39 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] I hate plumbing! This weekend was spent in battle with the pipes. The war was waged on two fronts, the kitchen faucet, and an unused toilet in the basement. the faucet had the upper hand for a while, but it now lays in many pieces at the bottom of my trash. Score one for the blind guy! This was an old faucet with three separate mountings, one each for the two taps, and one for the faucet itself. I spent a lot of time under the sink with the mother of all basin wrenches trying to get the nuts off the taps to no avail. I tried taking them out from above, but there was no way to grab onto the little collars, which also happened to be puttied to the sink surface. Much to Teresa's dismay, I, screaming that I would exact my vengeance on the faucet, ran to the basement and retrieved my Dremel. Several broken cutting disks later, after much prying, cursing and snarling, the taps and faucet were removed from the sink and the sink surface was not marred from the Dremel. Of course, after I slid the new faucet in place, the flex tubes attached to the faucet were not long enough to reach the shut-offs under the sink. That meant, not surprisingly, another trip to the store, but that had to wait until Sunday. Sunday morning I took a closer look at the toilet in the basement. This is a cruddy old toilet stuck in the corner of the basement with a plywood wall on none side and a partial plywood door. These are very common in Pittsburgh. The guts of the tank were completely rusted and broken and since the shut-off to the toilet didn't actually shut the water off, there had been a paint can wedged into the tank to keep the fill valve closed. I had upgraded the paint can to a 20 pound dumbell but figured I should probably fix the shut-off and take care of the tank guts while I was at it. Off to the store. We found some flexible tubes to extend the faucet lines and I installed them as soon as we got home. Had a lot of trouble getting the sprayer attachment threaded onto the under-side of the faucet, but Teresa eventually got her hands in there and got it tightened down. New faucet, with a single handle, works fine, of course, the brand new, $108 faucet has an itty bitty drip. Back down to the basement to lead the attack on the toilet. Turns out that the water connection to the tank was pretty clugy. Check this out, step by step: Long Copper pipe literally hangs down from the ceiling joists, threaded fitting sweated onto end of Copper pipe, shut-off screwed onto fitting, short, threaded, black iron pipe screwed into shut-off, elbow screwed into black iron, horizontal copper sweated into elbow, elbow sweated into other end of horizontal Copper, Some kind of fitting, possibly compression, bodged onto elbow, finally into tank. I managed to get the shut-off replaced with a ball valve without too much trouble. I managed to get the guts of the tank changed with a lot of work, having to cut and tare out some of the old parts. I could not get the funky assembly described above to go back into the new tank connection without leaking rather impressively. So, we are at a draw at the moment, but I intend on replacing most of that assembly with a flexible hose. Nearly panicked when in an attempt to identify what branch of my house plumbing has a slow leak, I turned off a shut-off and it proceeded to gush water like a hose. I got the main valve for the house shut and messed around with the shut-off for a while and cranked it open again and it seems to be happy for the time being. I'm starting to contemplate replacing all my shut-offs with ball valves. Replacing everything with PEX actually sounds very good at the moment, although I think Teresa might hang me with the PEX if I attempt a job like that. Certainly not before the deck railings are done. I hate plumbing! -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (412) 268-9081 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ---------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.4/1226 - Release Date: 1/15/2008 6:19 PM [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
