My main water shut off is not stopping the water. The gate valve just keeps turning. I found a video online of somebody replacing their gate with a ball valve and I'm gonna try to follow that. So I'm gonna cut though the pipes and solder on the new pipes/valve. Any tips or suggestions on where to cut and how to do it before I get started.

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You can try cutting the pipe just behind the gate valve. Use a copper pipe cutter. You can use a small diameter piece of tubing attached to an air compressor and blow out the remaining water in the pipe. Or you can use a plug insert like a jet swet plug. IMPORTANT: If you use the jet swet plug you will need a full port ball valve.

Here is what the jet swet plug looks like. They are a little pricey, but totally worth it!!!




Here's a video of how the jet swet system works...
[www.youtube.com]

When you go to sweat the new ball valve on there are 3 rules that need to be followed... 1. Clean your copper, 2. clean your copper, 3. clean your copper.

Apply a very thin layer of flux to the valve and to the pipe. After you fit the new ball valve onto the pipe, wipe off the excess flux with a clean rag. You can use propane or MAPP gas. I would recommend MAPP (yellow bottles) because it gets hotter. MAPP can easily be found at your local home improvement center. Even though propane is cheaper, you will have to wait longer for the joint to get hot enough for the solder to liquefy. Remember to keep the flame on the fitting, not on the pipe. The solder will follow the heat.

There is more than cleaning copper joints that should be addressed.

1. The curl of the copper caused by the tubing cutter needs to be reamed to remove it. (Prevents quicker erosion of the tubing)

2. Cleaning is the first step. Properly heating the joint i.e. starting the heating process on the tubing next to the cup and then moving to the fitting, then sweeping back and forth from tubing to fitting making sure you follow through the cup to the center of the fitting. This allows the tubing to receive the proper heat in order for the following capillary attraction to take place:

Read: capillary action, capillary attraction. Physics. a manifestation of surface tension by which the portion of the surface of a liquid coming in contact with a solid is elevated or depressed, depending on the adhesive or cohesive properties of the liquid.

Depending on the size of the copper tubing you may have to go to using hotter acyletane and oxygen mixture to make the joint hot enough for success. Good luck and I suggest viewing more than one video on this subject if you are new to soldering and brazing.

You'll have to turn the water off at the meter first, loosen the union on the reducing valve to drain the pipe of water. I'd probably use a threaded valve and brass nipple to connect back to the reducing valve.