i know from welding 101 that if you use a copper "spoon" behind a hole in a piece of metal the "spoon" will support the weld and not stick to the copper seen these "spoons" in many catalogs but i got my hands on a bunch of big old copper pipe fittings and was wondering if anyone has melted copper down before and what type of heat do you need all i have is a propane torch but could put mapp gas on wondering if this is hot enough.

I saw a guy melt copper once with a oxy acet torch with a rosebud tip, but he added some kind of flux to it too. Didn't turn out very well, lots of gas pockets and stuff. You can look in old fuse boxes from houses or other buildings, sometimes they have a big strip of thick copper in them, my buddy had one and it was about 3/8" thick x 2" wide x 5" long. Worked good for filling gaps.

What are you trying to melt them into? I have some furnaces here that we keep at about 1000C. I could melt your copper into a big metal button.

I would like a pic when you guys get done
with the button:D

A button is just a little dome-shaped "teepee" of metal, not really a button in the clothing sense. We melt the metal in crucibles then pour them into molds, the "buttons" are what get popped out of the molds.

Couldnt you just cut a small peice of the copper and heat and beat it into a usable shape?? eems faily easy expecially if starting with some pipe

You'd need near twice that 1000*F. to get a good pour of copper.
I've read that brass is the alloy of choice when performing that operation.
Some heavy sheet brass would be the ticket.
You could even form it for curves, etc and even braze on handles to hold on to your new 'back plates'.

You can buy up to 14 gauge (AWG) brass sheet on my business site ... (aaheemmm ... shameless plug :emb4: ) ...

www.metalworks.com (http://www.metalworks.com/Cop&BrasS&W.htm)

I have the tool that you talking about, but it is made of Bronze not copper.

Damn near worthless too. Seems like when you'd need it, it wont' fit behind the weldment.

Just learn to weld good enough that you don't need the crutch!

-Stumbaugh

Stumbaugh is right on. They do tend to be a bit useless, however they can be nice when working with thin sheet and you can get them back there. Learn to control your weld and the associated heat.

i took a piece of 1" copper pipe and cut it to be about 3" long. the, i took some tin-snips and cut it length-wise and un-rolled it. to flatten it, i just hammered it out on a piece of flat steel. i usually end up either clamping it behind where i am welding, or use a big magnet to hold it up there. it has worked fine for me.

matt

Originally posted by Jaffer
You'd need near twice that 1000*F. to get a good pour of copper.


Maybe we should make you some copper glasses. I said 1000*C. Either that or the laws of physics don't apply here because we melt Cu all the time. :flipoff2:

I actually have a bunch of old graphite EDM electrodes that I use for this purpose. They work really slick because, well they're really slick:p . They cannot be eroded by the heat of the weld absolutly nothing will stick to them and they are still conductive so you can ground right through them. They're really nice for sheet metal work.

Originally posted by FeCamel


Maybe we should make you some copper glasses. I said 1000*C. Either that or the laws of physics don't apply here because we melt Cu all the time. :flipoff2:

My mistake, Camel ... sorry. :emb4:
I usually never think in terms of Centigrade temps.
That's why I said "1000F"
And I'd like to have those copper glasses!

***********************

Melting point of copper ... 1084 C / 1984 F

Pouring temperatures for copper (casting alloy G-Cu) ...
Thin wall ... 1150 C / 2102 F
Thick wall ... 1290 C / 2354 F

Boiling point of copper ... 2927 C / 5301 F