Before starting:

Before we started this project, we took a look at what we had to do and then headed to the nearest home improvement store to get the parts we needed. Above is a picture of the pipe with the saddle valve attached before we started. Below is a picture of the parts we picked up at the store. (We did forget one part, as usual, and that was a 1/2" copper pipe to fit into the 1/2" T coupling.) The torch we used is also not shown in the picture below.


Cost: about $40, this excludes the 1/2" copper pipe (around $10 for 8 ft), and propane torch

Step 1:

We shut off the water before we did anything and then turned on a couple faucets to try to get all the water out of the pipe we could. Then we removed the saddle valve and cut the pipe as shown in the picture below using this sweet "Auto Cut" device we found at the store. It took just a minute or two to cut the pipe. We made sure to cut out where the hole was from the saddle valve and also to make sure it was the right size so that the T coupling would fit nicely.



This picture was taken after we cut the pipe, but all you do is snap the cutter on the pipe, twist it a few times, and the pipe is cut. Here is a picture of the cut we made:

Step 2:

The next thing we did was sand the edges of the copper pipe where we were going to weld on the T coupling. We also tried to get as much water out of the pipe as we could by using a couple paper towels.



This was the only sand paper I had around, which did the trick, but just a regular piece of thin sand paper should do the trick.

Step 3:

The next thing we did was prepare the copper for welding using what is called "flux". The kind we picked up cost about $5. All we did here is coat the inner edges of the T coupling as well as the outer edges of the pipe we just cut and sanded.

Step 4:

In this step, we cut a small piece of 1/2" copper pipe to insert into one end of the T coupling and then put the other two ends of the T coupling onto the ends of the pipe we cut and sanded. (Note: we did have to use a different pipe cutting tool in this step as the tool we used to cut the 3/4" pipe originally only works with 3/4" pipes. Luckily one of us had one!)

Step 5:

Fire up the torch and start getting those joints hot!!

Step 6:

The next step turned out to be the trickiest for us, but it worked out fine in the end. Once the joints are hot enough, just touch the joints with the solder and it should melt right away and flow right into the joint. Ours isn't the prettiest soldering job I have seen, but it worked. (You may want to check out some soldering tutorials on the web before trying this next step.)

Step 7:

In this step, after we have let the pipes and solder cool, we install the compression valve on the 1/2" pipe sticking out of the T coupling. Take a look at the pictures to see how we did this. The box that the valve comes in has instructions as well. (And no, that is not water leaking from the joint we just soldered, it is just our crappy soldering job. :))

Step 8:

The tutorial could end here, but since we were installing this compression valve to hook up to a swamp cooler as well, we will show you what we did from here.


Wrapped the connection with plumbers tape to be safe.


Connected the water line that feeds the swamp cooler and turned on the water.


All done!