5 year old me wondered this learning from my dad, and I was just reminded by a video that I have no idea how the solder gets sucked into to the fittings. Why does it go into the joints? What is flux? I know how to sweat pipes together but I don’t know why it works. Does anybody know why?
In: Engineering
Matter usually likes to stick to itself. This is why solids and liquids exist at all, but it also means that different things can stick together just by touching. Liquids touch a lot, they conform to microscopic defects in the surface they’re sticking to. So, liquids stick to objects really well. You’ve seen how water sticks to surfaces.
Well, water likes to bead up, but if you have a surface that’s even stickier to water, it will smooth out to get as close to the surface as possible. The same is true for liquid solder on clean copper, and the flux helps to make and keep everything clean.
Solder is picky about what it sticks to, it needs very clean copper or brass. The flux cleans the metal as it boils off and the solder fills the small space between the pipe and fitting via capillary action
Latest Answers