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Build an outdoor shower
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Add an outdoor shower to your cottage to rinse off after a dip in the lake
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By Paul Lewis, photos by Roger Yip, illustration by Len Churchill
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Soldering Success
Soldering pipes on this project is easier than it looks, as long as you create sufficient heat and are meticulously clean. Start by polishing the inside and outside surfaces of each joint with sandpaper until they shine; polish the solder, too. Brush a thin coat of paste flux onto both halves of each joint to clean them further.
Before you put on your safety glasses and spark the propane torch, if you can, orient the joint so the edge faces up, to help the solder flow. Hold the lit torch in one hand, and the roll of solder in the other. Heat your joint until the flux begins to bubble and smolder. Touch the solder to some area of the joint that's not directly in the flame. The heat of the pipe (not the flame) should melt the solder. If no melting occurs, keep heating the pipe. Add more solder until a thin ring of silver appears around the entire perimeter of the joint.
Before soldering the shut-off valves, unscrew the entire valve stem and remove it. This keeps the washer and valve stem from overheating while you work. Replace these parts when the metal has cooled. -Steve Maxwell.
Bending the Rules
It was important to my design to have a graceful arch of copper suspending the shower head. Trouble is, bending copper pipe isn't easy. It's soft and kinks the moment you try to coax it into even the slightest curve.
I'd seen springs designed to slip over the pipe to prevent it from collapsing during a bend, but these were too short for the 24"-diameter curve I had in mind. My solution was to pack the pipe with sand (to support it from the inside) then cap the ends (to prevent the sand from squeezing out). Next, I cut two 12"-diameter circles from 3/4" plywood and screwed them together to make a bending form. I then screwed this form to my workbench and added a small, rounded hardwood block next to the plywood circles, leaving a 3/4" gap.
By inserting the sand-filled copper pipe into the gap between the block and the discs, I was able to lever the curve into the pipe without too much trouble. Start with small bends at first, working your way back and forth along the length of the pipe until you reach the desired radius. Multiple small bends work much better than trying to do the big bend all at once.
My first attempts used a 24"-diameter form, but since the copper springs back a bit from each bend, it is impossible to get the correct bend unless the form is smaller than the desired radius. A 12"-diameter form worked just right. -Paul Lewis
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