[TheForge] Re: Copper plating as an outdoor finish

[Mike Spencer]

> I welded some 1/4" copper plate to my leg vice for a ground clamp
> connector.  It sure needed *alot* of heat.  Seemed like my 200amp tig
> was a little small.

Chris Ray once talked about (stick?) welding a big copper water
sculpture.  He said that he eventually learned from an experienced
welder -- the proverbial Old Timer -- that the trick was a pedal
widgit that allowed him to start the weld with a very high current to
compensate for the high thermal conductivity of the copper, then
quickly back off to a lower amperage to run the weld.  I forget what
he said he used for rod/filler.

This would have been in 1980 and the piece was a ripply wall of raised
copper sheet that the water flowed over like a waterfall.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                 						   /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca            						  /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/						  ^^-^^

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