Help with copper welding

**strube1369** · 06-07-2010, 08:57 AM

I notice you have an OA torch. You might consider brazing. Lotta info here: George Goehl's Metal Sculpture step by step instructional video series. Just an idea...

Originally Posted by KHK

My daughter is wanting to make some yard art out of copper. I have never welded coper with any sucess. Any help or pointers is appreciated.

**KHK** · 06-07-2010, 10:11 AM

My daughter is wanting to make some yard art out of copper. I have never welded coper with any sucess. Any help or pointers is appreciated.

**Gadget** · 06-07-2010, 02:17 PM

I used TIG to weld some brass fittings and had some success. I used stripped 14 gauge copper solid wire as a filler and it seemed to work pretty well. Copper melts fast so I suggest using pulse to keep things under control.

**jbman45** · 06-08-2010, 07:10 AM

I have worked with copper a bit and never have been happy with what is a traditional copper weld, copper seems to have such a narrow range of tolerance on temp and melts out of shape at the weld point, but as stated in other notes maybe pulsing would help control that issue. I have found both regular and silver solder to be just great methods for joining copper, silver being the best and strongest.

If it's absolutely necessary to have "copper" color and not use solder; next good option is brazing with brazing rod which gives you a little more room to work than you would have if you used copper to join copper.

Good luck and give us all some pointers if you find a good process....

**weldingtwopotatoes** · 06-10-2010, 02:32 AM

Hello all, it's been a while since I've been on the forum, the new forum looks great. Any way’s, I started messing with welding copper last year and I've tried just about every combination I can think of. I have been determined to find the best ways to weld copper because in my opinion it is the coolest looking metal when making decorative pieces for the yard and such. Here's a run down of my experience with it.

To start off I'm just going to say if you want to keep your sanity just solder it. I know it's not welding and I always hated this option because I wanted the pieces to be solid copper and I didn't want the look of the solder to disrupt the piece. Some benefits of soldering over welding are cleaning the heat tint from the copper after soldering is fairly easy and way easier than what's needed to clean copper after it's been welded or brazed. Copper keeps its strength when soldered. Soldering is generally faster.

So in my opinion if you can make soldering work use it, you can make the soldered joints add to the look of the piece if you polish them and if you put the joints at strategic connection points you can often make them add to the look of the piece.

Now on to welding and brazing.

Things to consider when welding or brazing copper. The copper will need a lot of cleaning to get it back to a copper color. You need to read up on using acid to clean copper (this is a whole process in and of its self). The copper will lose its strength and will be very weak once you’re done. When welding copper you need to move fast, once a puddle forms you have to haul otherwise you will burn a hole through.

TIG: This is probably the best method for welding copper, I have a Longevity 520D and I’ve been able to do some good looking welds on copper with it. When I first read online about welding copper the suggestion of using high amps was thrown out several times, however I found the opposite to be the best. Set your amps low, you will need to preheat the piece or wait while the arc heats it up enough to form a puddle which can be awhile depending on the pieces size. However once the piece is up to temp you have more time to work with it before it burns a hole through. If your amps are set high you’ll get a puddle right away but I couldn’t even move fast enough to stay ahead of it and it would burn a hole.

MIG: This works ok but doesn’t look very good. It would probably look better if I had a better machine but with my crappy Harbor Freight welder I couldn’t get very good results.

O/A: Similar to TIG welding but I prefer the look of the TIG weld better, produces good results though. Works best if you have a Smith style micro torch.

Brazing: Unless you want the look of the braze just weld it because you will have the same amount of clean up and the copper will become annealed and weakened just like welding it. Easier to manage than welding though, but if your going to have a filler metal just solder it. There are reasons for brazing copper I’m only talking about for decorative pieces here, unless you specifically want the look of the brazing I would either go all the way and weld it or just solder if for the ease.

If you’re going to work with copper cleaning the stuff is more of a problem than anything else. If soldering you can just use over the counter cleaners like Brasso and such. If welding or brazing over the counter cleaners aren’t going to cut it. Pickling with acid is the way to go, this is a whole topic in and of its self, Google it, there is a lot of info on this out there.

Other cleaning methods are blasting but you will get a rough texture which sometimes can be cool. Or buffing which is very time consuming but looks awesome.

Just A heads up. If you’re someone who finds the journey to be just as much fun as doing the thing itself, welding copper can be fun but otherwise it’s just a frustrating waste of time. I’m sure I missed plenty in this write up, it’s 1 in the morning and I happened to see your question about something that I’ve been working on for the better part of a year now. Have fun.

**KHK** · 06-15-2010, 11:37 PM

thanks for all the advise!!

**JJW** · 06-16-2010, 03:59 AM

For copper artwork I would suggest brazing the copper with Phos-copper rod from "Harris".
With copper to copper joining, no flux is required.
The joint will be a darker bronze than the base copper,
but I think it would be fine as long as you were not going to polish it all shiny.
For art work get the least silver content phos-copper rods to save money.
Good Luck,
JJW

**weldingtwopotatoes** · 06-20-2010, 01:14 AM

I forgot to mention that when you have a close fit, fusion welding is quite easy to do but when using a filler use deoxidized copper rod. You should be able to get deoxidized copper rods at your local welding supply. I purchased mine online from weldingdepot.com.

**KHK** · 06-20-2010, 11:53 AM

I have not tried to weld copper yet. All the help is appreciated!!! Thanks to ALL

**weldingtwopotatoes** · 07-16-2010, 01:19 AM

I got a new copper polish and it is by far the best. I was told about Wright's Copper Cream sometime last year but I couldn't find it locally. Many local stores had Wright's Silver Cream but I couldn't find their copper cream anywhere in a hundred mile radius and that's not a joke. Finally I said to heck with it and I ordered a tub of it online, and all I can say is I should have ordered this a long time ago. This cream completely changes the game for copper clean up. I previously wasn't able to get these results without using some nasty chemicals. I hate using dangerous acids, which is why I have been on this quest to find the best over the counter so to speak copper cleaner. Wrights still requires some scrubbing on the worst of oxidation or corrosion but it is knight and day to the other copper cleaners that you can find at the local hardware store.