[TheForge] copper welding

[RIES NIEMI]

I agree that actually making something out of copper would probably be
better than making it out of steel and then plating it. All plating wears
off eventually, and then you have rusty steel.

A few years ago I had a job making a memorial out of copper, and we found it
tig welds quite handily. Takes a LOT of amps though- we had the syncrowave
250 turned up all the way, which is actually about 300 amps. Used hi-freq
start, like you would for steel, dc, and my welding supply had copper rods
which color matched just fine.
It was a combination of 1/8" and 1/16" copper plate, and some schedule 40
copper pipe, which is around 3/16" in wall thickness, and boy does it suck
up the heat. The copper gets so hot that you cant even rest your hand on it
with those big silver cutting gloves on, so we could only weld a little bit
at a time and then let it cool off.