My first soldered joints - how they look?

[Johnysmall]

The OP took me back to my college days.

1mm of solder allowed around the fitting to gain an 'A'

Almost impossible with soldered ring fittings.

 

[Gasguru]

Try turning the blowlamp down a bit

 

[mk2phil]

thanks for the comments guys.

With regards to being too hot, I had the blowlamp as low as I could get it without it blowing out. Although I was using it in the back garden which meant I couldn't see the tip of the flame very well (if at all!). Perhaps I was holding it too close?

Should I aim for the tip of the blue inner flame to be touching the copper, or the outer flame?

Now it seems that the reason the pipe is discolouring is because I was indeed heating the pipework equally to the connection itself, seems as though this is bad practice and that I should be mainly heating the connection itself.

Also, if you guys were to use yorkshire fittings, would there be any discolouration of the pipe/connection after you'd finished - or would it still look like normal copper pipe without any of the discolouring?

 

[Onetap]

They look good, much better than my first efforts. Do a few thousand more and you'll start to get the hang of it .

I regularly see much worse than any of those, done by allegedly 'professional' plumbers.

 

[JohnD]

old steelmakers say that sunlight spoils steel

this is because in bright light you can't see the colour change as it gets hot. You also can't see the flame.

You may find you can see better indoors as you continue practicing.

 

[Onetap]

Although I was using it in the back garden which meant I couldn't see the tip of the flame very well (if at all!). Perhaps I was holding it too close?

The wind will blow away a lot of heat, probably why it tookso long to get hot.