Even if you don’t think yourself as a professional plumber that doesn’t mean you can’t fix your plumbing problems on your own. Here are some essential tools that you will need if you want to do some real plumbing. You’ll never know when the pipes are going to leak and cause you problem.
1.Torch
You’re going to need a torch for soldering, heating, sweating and melting. For copper plumbing it is recommended to use MAPP gas instead of propane. MAPP gas burns hotter so all your work will be faster and easier. Invest you money in a good torch head like the BernzoMatic TS7000. With the TS7000 you can adjust the flame easily. it’s a reliable and well-made torch head which will save you lots of plumbing time.
2. Metal Brush
It’s an essential tool for cleaning the inside of copper fittings and tubings. It can also be used to clean the outside. A good brush only cost about $8 so get a pair or two for extras.
3. Abrasive Cloth
An abrasive cloth is excellent for deburring and roughing both metal and plastic tubing. If you’ve never used an abrasive cloth before you should try it. It really makes your plumbing job easier and faster.
4. Tubing Cutters
Obviously you’re going to need this for any real plumbing work. You should find a cutter that can make clean and straight cut. It should also work for small and large diameter tubing. As for smaller tubing the cutter should be able to cut without bending or changing the round shape. You will also need a midget/mini tubing cutter type, the one you can use when there’s no room for a full-sized cutter to work.
5. Jet Swet
Jet Swet is a temporary plug that plumbers use to stop the water in the pipe temporarily while they’re working on it. It makes their work easier because they no longer need to shut off the main water supply to do start their work. It also useful in the case where water won’t start dripping from the pipe even after the main water supply has been fully shut off. In short this tool makes sure that no water will mess up your plumbing work.
6. Soldering Kit
You don’t need to spend a fortune for a good soldering kit since you can buy one for about $40 like the Weller D550PK. The soldering gun heats up quickly so you can start soldering in seconds. It also has two lights so you can keep soldering in places where lights are low.
7. Soldering Flux
If your soldering kit doesn’t come with this you can easily buy it separately. Applying flux to pipes is very important when you want water-tight and clean pipe joints.
8. Brush
A brush is used for applying flux to copper joints before soldering them. They’re cheap so you should buy plenty of them.
