[Woodworkers] Copper metal working

[Jason Beam]

I like this suggestion of drilling on the lathe a lot more. The 
grabbiness of the copper is a lot less of a factor when you're feeding 
with the tailstock of a lathe.


Jason Beam
*Beamer's Brands <https://beamerweb.com>*
On 3/30/2021 2:18 PM, Richard Allen via Woodworkers wrote:
> I have turned copper on a wood lathe before.  I would take a 7/8” rod 
> about 2” long an turn a sphere at one end.  The end being held by the 
> lathe could be turned down to a suitable diameter so the sphere would 
> be attached to the rod as a single piece of copper.  Another option 
> would be to drill and tap the 1” sphere and thread some of your 3/8” 
> rod to screw into the taped sphere.  Copper drills fine.  Plan on 
> discarding the drill bit as sometimes the copper will “weld” to the 
> drill bit.  I would do the drilling with the 1” sphere in a chuck on 
> the lathe.  I would turn down the 1” sphere by mounting the 3/8” rod 
> in a chuck on the lathe.  Copper turns with a scraper.  It is a fairly 
> slow process but 10 minutes of scraper work and 15 minutes of sanding 
> and polishing should give you a sphere shape to your likening
>
>
>> On Mar 30, 2021, at 5:02 PM, chuck.steger--- via Woodworkers 
>> <woodworkers at lists.sawdusters.org> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>
>> Hope everyone is safe and healthy!
>>
>> I need some advice on working solid copper. I’ll give you some 
>> context on what I’m doing.
>>
>>  I designing and building a Heritage Box for someone. Everything that 
>> goes into the design and construction will have some elements from 
>> their cultural background. Their mother and grandparents lived and 
>> worked in a copper mining town in Chile and copper was a big part of 
>> their lives. To bring copper into the design, I will attach the legs 
>> to the box using copper rods. Since the legs taper, I will use 1/8”, 
>> 3/16”, and ¼” rods and leave a ¼” gap between the legs and box. But 
>> this is subtle and I wanted to add something else. So I want to add a 
>> copper sphere at the top of the box. I drew up the design full scale 
>> and the sphere looks good at ¾”. So, I started researching copper 
>> spheres and what I found are jewelry spheres ½” and less or solid 
>> spheres 1” and greater. I ordered the 1” spheres which are actually 
>> used for plating copper.
>>
>> So here are some of my issues/questions/concerns:
>>
>>   * Is there any way possible to reduce the diameter? I thought about
>>     some kind of holding contraption on a lathe and then using files
>>     but that just sounds like a bad idea.
>>   * The sphere weights in at 3 oz. Now that may seem light but it’s a
>>     little heftier that I wanted because I don’t want it to tip the
>>     box over when hinged open. The box footprint will be 8”x12” so it
>>     may be OK. I will build a prototype as I always do so I’ll find
>>     out. Also with a prototype it will be easy to see if 1” is too
>>     big. A ¾” hollow sphere would be perfect but I can’t find that.
>>   * Will solid copper drill OK? I would like to drill a hole for a
>>     rod to anchor the sphere to the box. I will epoxy the sphere to a
>>     cradle but a rod would be so much more secure IMO. And, given the
>>     weight, I would feel better.
>>   * Here’s another take …. Is there a way to cut the sphere in ½” I
>>     only have WW bandsaws so even with a metal blade, WW bandsaws run
>>     too fast, don’t they? The thought process here is maybe I take
>>     the two half spheres and attach them to the side of the box as an
>>     adornment. The design will be mostly Asian so spheres might look
>>     good.
>>
>>    So you can see the design is in total flux. I’ve started building 
>> the prototype out of pine.
>>
>> Chuck
>>
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>
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