- [Jeff] Well, here we are in our bathroom
and we're here doing tiling
and we've come across a dilemma
which I'm sure many of you come across from time to time
and that is we were going to solder
this extension of copper pipe here onto the end
of the pipe coming out of the wall.
This is the water supply for the toilet,
and the toilet will go right here.
Problem is, is look at this,
we've turned off the water at the main
but yet it continues to drip.
This is even an hour later it's still dripping like this.
So you'll never ever ever be able to solder
copper pipes together when you have water in the line.
So what we're going to do is use an old plumber's trick here
and as you can see we have some white bread here,
and what this does is this just buys you
a few minutes of time.
You shove this down into the pipe
far enough away from where you're going to make
the solder connection here and this will stop
that water flow long enough for you to make the connection
and you only have about a few minutes,
so you gotta have all your tools close by and ready
and we're also gonna use this,
this is for my Shop-Vac and we're gonna suction out
whatever water's still in the pipe after we plug it
to make sure it's nice and dry.
Then we're going to use our tools here
to clean off the pipe, deburr it,
and clean the inside and the outside,
and make sure that we have flux on there,
and then we'll put this pipe on there,
and then we'll solder it and hopefully this will work.
Okay, so now we're going to insert
the bread into the pipe.
And we're going to stick it back there far enough
with a pencil here, and that looks like it's done the trick
so now what we're going to do is vacuum out.
(vacuum whirring)
Okay, now that it's stopped I can move this guy.
Ready? - Yeah.
- [Jeff] Okay, so now we're just gonna clean this,
clean the pipe, pull this off first.
(cleaner brush crunching)
And then we're gonna clean the inside of the pipe.
And you notice I'm using gloves because I don't want
the oil from my hands to get in there and ruin the joint.
You absolutely cannot let your hands touch those parts.
I'm gonna do another quick brush here
since I passed the cloth over it.
Just gonna move it a little.
Now I have a nice clean pipe there.
Gonna apply just a little bit of flux,
just a thin film is all you need.
Go as deep as you're gonna go into the coupler with it.
I'll put a little on the inside too,
probably doesn't need it but.
Okay, so now we're ready to get our attachment,
put it on there, and fits in there nice and good now.
Now we're gonna put the flame right here on the coupler
because the solder will suck in to where the flame is.
You don't wanna heat it out here,
you wanna heat it here on the coupler
and when you start to see it bubbling on the flux
then you know you're ready.
Okay, so the rule of thumb with your solder
is you wanna use whatever the diameter of your pipe is,
that's how much solder you would use,
so it should be a half inch of solder
for each side that we do here.
Okay, so we're gonna go ahead and fire it up,
and give it a try.
(flame whirring)
Okay, see the sides back there.
I'll do the other side.
The other side's closer to the water
so it'll probably be a little harder to heat it.
(flame whirring)
Now that it's all done,
we're gonna let it cool down a minute
and then we're gonna use a cool wet cloth
to wipe off the whole joint of the pipe area there.
I don't like to touch it too much until it's solidified.
You wanna just leave it alone,
let it come back down to temperature.
Let the solder harden up, and then you'll be fine.
Okay, so now I'm gonna come in here and just wipe it off.
And there you have it!
Gives it a much better appearance,
a little more professional when you wipe it off afterwards,
and we are done.
So we have this bucket here up against the wall.
- [Man] Turn on the water!
- [Jeff] And we're gonna shoot the water out
and see if that releases our plug.
(water gushes)
And there it is, there's our bread floating in the bottom.