With the exception of Fig. 222, all soldering bolts used by plumbers are made of copper, because this material absorbs and parts with heat rapidly. For zinc work, steel bolts are used for soldering, as it is difficult to solder well on zinc with copper, because the copper parts with heat so readily as to easily melt the zinc. Fig. 222 is a plumber's round iron, made of iron. These are used in tank-seam work for keeping the mass of solder carried before the cloth in a semi-liquid condition. A number of these irons are kept hot in the furnace during the wiping of seams; and the helper brushes them clean, cools the handle, and hands them to the plumber, one at a time, as the iron in use becomes too cool to serve the purpose. It would be next to impossible to wipe a seam of much length without the aid Of round irons, because it is impracticable to get up heat from end to end of the seam at one time. The entire contents of a pot is usually spit out with a stick or a ladle by the time one foot of seam has been wiped. The surplus is then massed and kept in working condition with round irons until the seam is finished or the surplus used, when another pot of solder is handled in the same way. When meeting a wiped seam, the end first wiped is covered with chalk, and the finishing end of the seam wiped up to it; and then, without unnecessarily disturbing or working over the solder on the chalked portion, the solder is massed over the junction of the seam, made thoroughly hot and workable at all points, and the seam wiped to a finish, the chalk preventing the melted solder above it from adhering to the solder beneath. If this is well done, there will be no evidence of the meeting place when the loose solder is removed and the chalk cleaned off.

Fig. 222. Round Iron..

Fig. 223. Wiping Cloth..

Fig. 223 is a wiping cloth. These are made in various sizes - from 2 inches wide by 2 1/2 inches long for wiping small flange joints, up to 5 by 6 inches for getting up the heat on large horizontal joints. They are of moleskin cloth or a good quality of bed-ticking. From 9 to 16 thicknesses of bed-ticking is required, according to the size of the cloth, to keep it from heating through so quickly as to annoy the plumber by overheating the fingers before the joint is finished. Some plumbers like one material best, and some the other, according to the contour of joint they are in the habit of wiping. The moleskin cloth is the stiffest and is generally preferred for round joints; but it is somewhat unwieldy for either supply or waste pipe branch joints. These, when wiped with a swell in the neck as well as on the side, are difficult to make with moleskin. Neither material wipes well when the cloth is new, because lint and loose fibers gather solder, which scratches the surface and mars the finishing wipe. To get rid of these, the cloth is singed, soiled, greased, and rubbed on a board to press the fibers down and pack the filling about them so as to keep them out of the way as much as possible until removed by usage. New cloths, until they are thoroughly broken in, are employed on ground work and other joints that will not be exposed to view.

Fig. 224. Basin Wrench..

Fig. 225. Wrench for Polished Brass and Nickel-Plated Pipe..

Fig. 224 is a basin wrench, used for tightening and loosening basin-faucet couplings and lock-nuts, there being not enough room when the goods are in place to use wrenches of the ordinary kind.

Fig. 226. Three-Wheel Pipe-Cutter..

Fig. 225 is a special wrench for screwing up polished brass and nickel-plated pipe, the finish of which would be marred by a common wrench. Friction swivels, with link, for each size of pipe, are furnished with the wrench. In use, the gripping power of the swivel is proportional to the pull on the handle; and the grip necessary to turn the pipe, as it becomes tighter and tighter when screwed up, is increased regularly, without attention, by the natural increase of force on the handle. There are several kinds of wrenches used for the same purpose. The one shown. will do its utmost on the shortest piece of pipe it is possible to apply a wrench to.

Fig. 226 is a three-wheel pipe-cutter, with a hinged block carrying one wheel in a way that makes it possible to cut many sizes of pipe with one tool. Three-wheel cutters are handy to cut pipe off when in close quarters, as the work can be done without rotating the tool around the pipe, a travel of the cutter handle through an arc of about 120 degrees being sufficient to cover the entire circumference of the pipe with the wheels. Three-wheel cutters raise the burr on the outside of the pipe, which in a great measure obviates the necessity of reaming the ends to get the full nominal bore area, as the scrimp stock from which the ordinary merchant's pipe of to-day is made gives an actual interior diameter considerably more than the nominal, and the stock burred inward with a three-wheel cutter is just about equal in its reduction of the bore to the difference between the actual and nominal inside diameters. On full-weight pipe of proper outsid diameter, the burr raised outside is very annoying to the fitter when new, close-fitting guides are in use, because it necessitates filing off the burr to some extent before the guide of the thread-cutting stock will slip over the end. On the other hand, with scrimp stock, where the outside diameter of the pipe is generally somewhat less than standard, the burr often constitutes the only portion of the thread that has a sharp top and bottom, which is necessary at some point in the thread to insure a tight joint. With worn dies and those of poor design, the outside burr acts in favor of starting the die without undue labor - a point of material advantage so far as labor is concerned when cutting threads on pipe of sizes smaller than those for which lead-screw die-stocks are furnished.