Pipe sweating not working
Well I thought I could figure this out easy enough but something is going pretty wrong. Since I haven't done this before I decided to get a 24" copper pipe and some fittings from Lowe's to test on and thank God I did.
I have a bernzomatic propane torch, sterling water based flux, bernzomatic lead free solder, a pipe cutter, and a pipe scrubber (or whatever you call the wire brush).
So reading I saw that you heat the joint up then when the pipe is hot enough you place the solder on the joint and allow the solder to suck into the joint. I also read the different opinions on how much flux to use (I tried light and moderate). I also read that if the flame on the opposite end of the pipe from the torch is green you are still not hot enough.
Anyway, I go to heating and checking the solder to see if it will suck in. It never really did. I know I got that pipe hot enough because one of the fittings turned molten red and started changing shape. I tried 3 different times to no avail. I scrubbed the fittings so they were shiny well above the joint, even used some steel wool to finish it up. Then I went and got a piece of my existing pipe (peice from Lowe's was type - L) thinking maybe I got the wrong type. Nope. Two of the fittings were not even close to soldered. I was able to pull them apart with no effort once they cooled.
What am I doing wrong!?
HELP!