Welding Tips and Tricks

Of the many metals we weld, I believe the welding of copper is intriguing and one that many know nothing about. I want to add the welding of copper to the library and encourage others to help this thread along. I have a lot of research and there are other threads I have posted in with this same information. Wanted to compile it all in one location. This will cover both the MIG and TIG processes. I will add to this as I find more info and will probably change things around as it makes sense.

•AWS A5.7/A5.7M:2007, Specification for Copper and Copper-Alloy Bare Welding Rods and Electrodes
•AWS A5.6/A5.6M:2008, Specification for Copper and Copper-Alloy Electrodes for Shielded Metal Arc Welding

Here is a article from the Copper Development Association and AWS on welding copper and copper alloys.
http://www.copper.org/publications/pub_ ... /a1050.pdf
http://www.copper.org/applications/mari ... lloys.html

Rick Pickford's YouTube channel has videos he directed on welding copper-nickel that are interesting as well.
https://www.youtube.com/user/rickpickford/videos

Videos from Jody Collier
http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/bra ... steel.html

Videos from Wyatt Swaim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYpYGbC2Drg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4DqALJZsLo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsEK6unScg4

Videos from Kevin Caron
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjKu_Mm0Hp8
-Jonathan

Great!

I've not had occasion to weld copper yet, but I'd like to give it a go, just to have one more skill in the toolbox.

Steve S

When welding copper be prepared to move once it heats up. You have to watch your stops as porosity is really easy to come by.

I poke holes copper and glue them back together all the time. I braze Copper to copper headers for HVAC and they quite often come with steel or red brass NPT/FPT connections. I also braze brass distributors to copper leads, with copper pipe spun closed with brass Schrader valves in the end. I use Ocy-Propane with a liquid fluxer piped in the gas line. I have so many videos and pictures, now I have a place to talk to people about them.

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You want a good mix, even heat ( sometimes preheating heat sinks with a rosebud) and the hotter your torch is, the faster you have to move. Cold welds roll on the edge like milk on the cold metal and hot joints over oxidize and flake and pit and you'll normally blow a hole in it and won't bond worth a damn until you clean it off or use a ton of flux and everything runs and drips and you burn your ears and croch out of your pants because somebody couldn't fix a leak and your half in a framed in flatbed while the driver is hassleing you and your tired and worked through your lunch to get it shipped only to find out ten minutes before your supposed to go home that there is an internal leak too and have to reline it, braze in the return bends, test it and hoist it back on to flat bed with the crane. Sorry, just got home from work. Went in to weld up some tubing carts and drain pans and ended up playing operation in a framed in coil. Brazing sucks, don't do it. If you can do it, and some are naturally good, then everyone wants you to fix all the stupid spots they can't get at. The idea of brazing is still fascinate ing to me, but it can get frustrating to no end until you get that leak. Fixing a steel NPT connect on copper, good luck. The bronze won't flow evenly so it wants to just over lap and sit on the old beads once it turns molten. Brass to copper for distributors is a rough go to. Any kind of braze repair is rough because of oxidization. Do it right the first time if you can.

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