The second pass he's doing is the lacing.. I do box gutters for a living, I solder everyday, first I sweat the seam to draw the solder under the seam, then I lace over top of the seam a second pass, to lace the seam.. Looked like a pro job to me in this video👍👍
Lacing is unnecessary. I rarely see it in historical work. The problem is people like this guy aren't preheating the copper before they drop the solder. He probably has to lace because his joints fail when he doesn't. The solder doesn't bond well to cold copper. Also, if you're not soldering on top of a wood deck, it's faster and better to use a torch instead of an iron. The iron takes several minutes to heat up, then you have to heat the copper up. Ironing is more fool proof though because you can't overheat the copper with it.
@@onetwothree4148 If it's a fold lock I'll only sweat it, but if I've pierced the metal with a drill for a pop rivet then I'll actually lace it. I think the lacing is more just kinda putting your signature on your work.
@@denverscott37 I mean, thicker solder is stronger. But lacing is mostly cosmetic. I'd rather heat the copper properly on my first pass. I do go back over and add more solder after, if it's a thick joint, but I usually do it evenly, rather than leaving stitches. Some of these videos on here show people stitching dirty copper. That won't be a strong bond at all
Dude, you’re a beast! I am a roofing contractor for 25 years and do most everything but never soldering copper because my skills were needed elsewhere. I am now learning and researching and have an eye and appreciation for good workmanship... you sir are highly skilled, bravo!
Been in this industry for a very long time, part of the reason I stick with it is there's so many different ways of doing things. I consider it every learning myself, why a second lap? Not bashing just curious, here in central Texas it's more of a sweat technique. If I had to label yours I'd call it a stitch atop a sweat. For strength I would assume, appreciate you sharing your skill.
Sweat and lace , that's how I do my seams in box gutters. The sweat draws the solder under the seam and the lace covers the seams afterwards, just for strength. I also use steel pop rivets on all my seams. .
@@denverscott37 definitely nice work, we've always riveted our joints in all honesty galvanized has pretty much been replaced with painted steel and galvalume so we've been using raw or painted stainless to minimize rust. Copper of course is usually stainless or brass mandrel with copper head, so few contractors utilize quality fasteners these days.
@@lionelhernandez34 I usually use ReziBond galvanized for pretty much all my metal work. It's slightly easier to use than the heavier guage stuff and I get nice clean bends on the sheet metal break with it. I miss the old terne metal we used to use back when I started 30 years ago. Follansbee was the name of the company that made it. They were in business like 150 years, but they closed up shop and stopped producing it for some reason.
Clean your iron more often. 1/3 ruby red and 2/3 water solution works great. Also I don't understand the multiple passes. One nice pass that is sweated into the joint is plenty.
it is best to use only a very thin row around the pipe and it would be good to bend your soldering hammer so that you can use it as a shovel. and it would be much better to use a collection tube for the outside of the gutter
@ Patrick Martin AGREED !!!!!!!! Soldering 101 ……First day "sweat/sweating" "capilary action" more material to material to soldering copper contact insuring heat transfer to achieve capilary action resulting in a superoior soldered joint. I must say with some hesitation ….? The work & soldering LQQKs better than 75% of whats out there "accepted" as high end work/craftsmanship in todays work force. :-/
Yep Terrible job! this guy is just gunking the solder globs on the outside!! This is a horrible job!! Looks pretty though kinda like a weld but it didn't get between the metal to form a bond. Amazed that they published this as if it was a good job!!
google a stitch or lace for solder...rookie comment there dude. the biggest problem in video is lack of pre-tin prep and sweat solder before applying the lacing.
I appreciate your work, but the iron is pulling the solder where the iron goes. The best soldered joints have the solder sweated into the joint, by heating the area beneath the joint. The solder should be flowing under the outlet lip, with minimal solder piled up on the outside edge. Piling solder on top of solder does not improve a soldered sealed joint of metals. It does make the water pond around the outlet though.
100% correct. They are not heating the copper up enough for it to wick under. His solder should disappear into the seam. Throwing hot solder on cold copper is a cold joint. It is a much weaker bond.
It looks good, but no need for the second pass. I would have fluxed under the lip then heated the copper pipe with a torch and let it pull in under the lip with capillary action (solder follows heat). I would have inspected underneath to verify the solder pulled all the way around. It would have used less solder, too. Personally, I would probably just use a lead-free plumbing solder, but your 50/50 rod is fine too for gutters. If you really wanted something closer to a weldd, I would braze it with SilPhos DynaFlow (Harris) or SilPhos/StaySilv 15%. That said soft solder is plenty good enough. The best soft solder would probably be StayBrite 8, but it’s overkill. For this even a cheap 95/5 plumbing solder would be superb.
Soft solder is better for this because it is slightly flexible. He should have cleaned it and torched it though. Irons are for when you're working above wood that could catch fire.
Also, this video shows you how to make cold joints. He is only heating the solder and he never heats the copper properly. That's probably why he adds an extra pass. The solder does not bond as well if you don't hold the iron on it to heat it up. You can see how the solder bubbles up with ridges where it meets the copper. That's not good.
Very cool. I don't see many copper gutters in my area. How long of a piece of gutter can you hang at one time? Do you end up soldering on a ladder when you have really long runs? Or is this limited to short lengths and few corners?(I hang 5" aluminum seamless guttering with corners that are sealed with caulking)
copper braiding is good on the Statue of Liberty & on a rooftop chimney caps, but outlets and corners for raingutters are alittle overkill. but still very nice work!
Your only sweating a 1/4" lip in copper outlets no need for the two passes. 1 pass with the proper heat in the proper place would of done just fine. Every time you move the iron outside the flange of the outlet your just un-sweating the flange weakening it. More solder doesn't mean a stronger joint.
yes it is gold soldering i had hoped when you deposited more solder you would go around and let it infiltrate the joint and carry heat..these are the joints that look pretty but are weak and crack in low temperatures..sorry man..you need to ditch that acetylene man
For non-built-in gutters, you could perfectly clean the copper and use pure silicone. It will last decades in direct sun. Not as good as solder, but a surprisingly good option for gutters.
beautiful and completely wrong!! Only looks good to People that don't know what they're doing. He is supposed to be bonding the 2 metals not globbing shiny pretty stuff on the outside this will fail and the short time.
Hola. No entiendo su pregunta?? Si pregunta por la piedra con la que se suelda. La puesdes conseguir en todo lugar que vendan material para techos y cobre
@@MrSolarstu , I looked around RU-vid and found this example of most excellent gutter soldering. The work was beautiful-hot enough to flow into one continuous stream of molten solder. Until I saw this pro's work I feared copper gutters were too difficult for the process. This spring I'm installing soldered copper gutters and will use this expert video as a guide.
@@MrSolarstu , sorry, I was commenting on another video-did some editing and changed my meaning accidentally. I've seen worse than this demo, but there is much better which is what I meant to reference. This guy isn't getting the parent metal hot enough for smooth-flowing solder. The metal itself should melt & flow the solder, not the iron. If it won't flow touched against the parent metal-the metal isn't hot enough, Keep in mind, the goal is for the molten solder to flow seamlessly between the two copper surfaces. Sorry for confusing the two. Check out a few more and you'll see the difference. I'm a certified welder, and have soldered for years, but never gutters.
hallo Freund . Zink ist nicht das Material arbeite ich .... ist Kupfer Schweißen dieser Art führen haben Kupfer zu reinigen eine bessere Schweiß zu haben
You are use to much of material for that "welding" only 1-2 centimeters of that bar are enough for that! I'm a gutters and metal roof Master and in that half gutter will stay water because of to much welding an the pipe