How to Connect Copper Pipe

1). Choose and purchase a section of either 1/2- or 3/4-inch copper pipe. Use a fine/medium black felt tip pen and tape measure to mark the pipe at the place where it needs to be cut and the copper joint installed. Position the copper pipe against the two small rollers on one jaw of a tubing cutter. Twist the cutter's circular handle to tighten the small blade on the cutter's other jaw, to the mark on the pipe. Turn the tubing cutter twice around the pipe. Tighten the blade and rotate the cutter twice more. Continue in this manner until the pipe is completely cut through.
2). Cut off a 4-inch length of 120-grit emery cloth from its roll using scissors. Emery cloth comes in rolls roughly 1 inch wide. Position the cloth around one pipe end at a 90-degree angle to the pipe and turn the cloth several times by hand until the pipe surface beneath becomes shiny. Do the same with one end of the other section of pipe. Insert a circular wire brush into a copper coupling and turn it several times. Also brush around both ends of the coupling with the wire brush.
3). Brush a thin layer of flux around both shiny pipe ends and all around the inside walls of the coupling. Push the prepared pipes ends fully into each end of the coupling. The coupling has a central inner ridge that stops each coupling from entering more than halfway.
4). Pull 10 inches of solder from its spool and bend the last 3 inches 90 degrees. Turn on the propane torch. Apply heat with the torch around the center of the coupling until you see the flux begin to melt. This takes roughly 30 seconds. Touch the end of the solder to one of the coupling's seams, where one pipe enters into the coupling. The solder should melt -- if it does not, apply more heat with the torch. Apply roughly 3/4 inch of solder around the coupling's one seam (watch capillary action suck the solder between the coupling and pipe). Solder the coupling's other seam following the same procedure. Wipe all excess solder and flux residue from both coupling seams with a rag. The pipes/coupling will be very hot.