Where did I go wrong? Copper pipe sticking inside of fittings during dry fit, or not going in at all

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Mnoone

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I recently replaced the main valve to my house and reran a lot of the cold water lines. Maybe 40 joints. All sweated. Most 3/4" copper (type L) with a small amount of 1/2".

To prepare for a joint, I'd cut pipe to length (with a Ridgid 101), ream it out (with a Husky pencil reamer) , clean the outside of the pipe and inside of fitting with a 4 1 in brush tool. For a while I was chamfering the outside of the pipe with a Ridgid 223S but eventually I found that that was actually creating a lip after the chamfer. So I stopped chamfering with that tool and instead used some open mesh sandpaper to chamfer the outer lip a bit.

If I tried to test fit the pipe into a fitting, often times it just wouldn't fit. Then I'd find some fittings where it would fit and some not, so I had to play around to find a combination that worked. And then sometimes the pipe would get stuck in the fitting (before I had even put flux in). When I was ready to make the joint I'd wipe flux onto the inside of the fitting and outside of the pipe and reinsert - and sometimes I wouldn't be able to get them to go together.

I've sweated joints before and never had this issue. But I was having this issue on 50% of the joints I'd wager. Some bits and pieces got so stuck I had to destroy one of the other piece to get them separated. I had this happen both with fluxed and non fluxed pieces.

My final joint I had to make was using a 3/4" coupling with no stop. I had to move the coupling all the way onto one pipe. It really wanted to get stuck so I decided to try sanding down the outside of the pipe a bit with some open mesh sandpaper. I would sand for a minute then do a test fit - if it was too tight I'd remove the coupling and sand again. What I found interesting was that the coupling was leaving lines on the pipe when I test fit it. And I could spin the coupling and it would just increase the contract of the lines, but that they'd stay in the same place. So from that I decided that the pipe was not quite round so I started standing those lines extra, then doing another test fit and going after any new lines created. This proved effective and I could eventually get the coupling to go on with minimal resistance and it left no lines.

But - why was all of this necessary? The pipe looked round to the naked eye. I think it may have just been slightly larger OD than normal and so any imperfections in the roundness was an issue? How can I avoid this in the future? I'd say this issue doubled the amount of time it took me to finish this project, so it was really, really frustrating!
 

Breplum

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Something is amiss. In plumbing well over 47 years and once in a while, either funky fitting run or strange limited batch of pipe would give a problem like you describe. I'd guess your pipe batch.
 

Jeff H Young

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I've had this issue several if not many times . Dull cutting wheels doesn't help the pipe and the fittings maybe the stack of pipe was dropped hard. One of my last big jobs few years ago I had a bunch of 2 1/2 or 3 inch me and another guy were fitting and brazing they kept sticking one got fitting got wasted . So I cut with a band saw and took anglegrinder to knock burr off and sanded heck out pipe. A lot of people don't like using band saw but I use a wrap around and cut my big copper that way . Small copper can have issues too , the pipe , the fittings ahh good times!
 

LLigetfa

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My guess is there is grit left behind from the sandpaper. Try wiping the joint clean with a dry soft cloth.

Sandpaper sheds grit too easily. Maybe try fine emery cloth instead.
 

dabate

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I recently replaced the main valve to my house and reran a lot of the cold water lines. Maybe 40 joints. All sweated. Most 3/4" copper (type L) with a small amount of 1/2".

To prepare for a joint, I'd cut pipe to length (with a Ridgid 101), ream it out (with a Husky pencil reamer) , clean the outside of the pipe and inside of fitting with a 4 1 in brush tool. For a while I was chamfering the outside of the pipe with a Ridgid 223S but eventually I found that that was actually creating a lip after the chamfer. So I stopped chamfering with that tool and instead used some open mesh sandpaper to chamfer the outer lip a bit.

If I tried to test fit the pipe into a fitting, often times it just wouldn't fit. Then I'd find some fittings where it would fit and some not, so I had to play around to find a combination that worked. And then sometimes the pipe would get stuck in the fitting (before I had even put flux in). When I was ready to make the joint I'd wipe flux onto the inside of the fitting and outside of the pipe and reinsert - and sometimes I wouldn't be able to get them to go together.

I've sweated joints before and never had this issue. But I was having this issue on 50% of the joints I'd wager. Some bits and pieces got so stuck I had to destroy one of the other piece to get them separated. I had this happen both with fluxed and non fluxed pieces.

My final joint I had to make was using a 3/4" coupling with no stop. I had to move the coupling all the way onto one pipe. It really wanted to get stuck so I decided to try sanding down the outside of the pipe a bit with some open mesh sandpaper. I would sand for a minute then do a test fit - if it was too tight I'd remove the coupling and sand again. What I found interesting was that the coupling was leaving lines on the pipe when I test fit it. And I could spin the coupling and it would just increase the contract of the lines, but that they'd stay in the same place. So from that I decided that the pipe was not quite round so I started standing those lines extra, then doing another test fit and going after any new lines created. This proved effective and I could eventually get the coupling to go on with minimal resistance and it left no lines.

But - why was all of this necessary? The pipe looked round to the naked eye. I think it may have just been slightly larger OD than normal and so any imperfections in the roundness was an issue? How can I avoid this in the future? I'd say this issue doubled the amount of time it took me to finish this project, so it was really, really frustrating!
I have been having same issue. I've done a similar job with similar 1/2 inch. Copper fittings and pipe , cut using rigid cutter. Joints slipped in nice easy no issues, fast forward eight years, buying all same material and new cutter....fustrating as hell. Dry fits either get stuck togather impossible to remove, or dont fit at all. Yes, i noticed cutting pipe with dull or improper spinning can leave ridge , even avoiding these _ spending way to much time fussing with ends to make them fit. I had some pipe from previous job and I swear it may be just so ever less as these peices slip in beautifully, with room for solder to sweat between the fitting. I wish I had to do the current job. At least I'm not the only one going crazy on this.
 
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