Way to much time spent on one joint. The swage is not deep enough, that the reason the joint kept falling apart. You have what we cal a cold joint because the tubing never gets hot enough to melt the filler without the torch being right on top. This may end up leaking later on. I don’t think you would get away with this on 1 1/8” copper. Save all the excess time and just use nitrogen for brazing, or stay Brite #8 for shouldering. Good experiment though.
The other option with no nitrogen is Staybright 8 and Stayclean flux applied lightly on the male joint. Requires much less heat, no oxides are produced and no annealing of the copper. Because of the lack of annealing the copper pipe is stronger than a brazed pipe. Because of the reduced heat, it is less likely to damage valves or txvs. With no oxides, there is far less chance for txv failures.
Yes you are correct and in fact, this is our usual method. Only one problem, we've been getting linesets from our suppliers which are not round, and there are huge gaps that we try to close but sometimes we can't. The solder will easily flow through the gaps and pool up inside the tubing. Not much problem with the liquid lines (3/8 inch) but for some reason the larger suction lines (3/4 inch and larger) seems to be a huge issue.
Well done. Nice to see the finished product. The air in Earth's atmosphere is made up of approximately 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen. You absolutely could do this in an line open system.
LOTS of VRF going in around here lately. And they don't use filter driers. Just strainers. It's scary when I see all the brazed piping done (using standard accy/oxy and 15%) and find out that they don't purge with nitro!
can this be done with the copper tubing in mini split line sets? a contractor put a nail through one of the copper tubes on one of the units. I'd rather not replace the entire run of copper tubing. Thanks and great vid!
I don't like being a safty karen. But for Gods sake young man use safety glasses. My tax dollars go to paying for disabled people that had no choice in preventing their disability. And im not opposed to disabled people recieving all kinds of assistance. But people that are not taking the first step at safety on the job need their butt kicked. Im old and hard of hearing having a lifetime of noisey jobs. Hearing protection wasn't a thing that was tought or supported in the industries i worked in. All those safety films were designed to save companies money by preventing injurys. Look at it this way. Protect yourself. Dont give a crap why industry wants you to protect them. Do it to protect you. They don't give a crap about you per sey. But trust me when you get old you will be glad your nickname at work isn't that old 1 eyed bas+ ard. When metals get hot impurities will pop.
