Copper welding??

[Tunz]

I've built a copper decoration piece for the tail end of my cafe seat and have also made a small copper spade that i wanted to fasten to the tail piece to give it a bit of a 2-D look...anyone know what would be the best way to "weld??" the two copper pieces together? waht kind of prepping do I need to do as well?

Also, i want to cover up some of my tack welds on my cafe seat so i can paint it. I am thinking of just using body fill, but i know my XS vibrates like a bitch and wouldnt want the bondo to crack!! anyone have ride an XS with bondo on the tail piece and have it crack?? Or does anyone have another suggestion?? I thought some fiberglass strand would be good for strength as well, but then i would have to bondo over it anyway....

thanks!!

 

[tWistedWheelz]

As far as copper to copper welding, use some copper brazing rod and a torch! If you use 15% silver solder it will braze easier and require much less heat resulting in less distortion. It is expensive to buy a pound so try going to an HVAC company and ask to buy one rod, its cheaper that way and you should only need one rod!

 

[Tunz]

right on - thanks for the tips man!

I looked round the shop and found some solder for tin work...just wondering if i could use that with a regular blow torch to to seal up my seams a bit?? think that would work...i am really broke right now haha

 

[tWistedWheelz]

right on - thanks for the tips man!

I looked round the shop and found some solder for tin work...just wondering if i could use that with a regular blow torch to to seal up my seams a bit?? think that would work...i am really broke right now haha

Seal up seams on what? If it is steel, then a torch and an old wire coat hanger will work as your filler rod. Cheap and easy, only thing is if the metal on the edge of the seams are thin, it will want to warp on you. Heat it up slow and keep touching the rod to try to get it to melt together, the metal will have to bee red hot first!

If you are soldering copper, only copper solder will work! NOTHING ELSE!

 

[Swagger]

If it's not a weight bearing piece regular old 60/40 electronics solder is a good option because it's cheap and for non-structural/pressure/load bearing it's plenty strong. Also, you can get plumbers silver solder at most hardware stores for fairly cheap. You cna use a propane torch and it's simple to use, just get yourself some paste flux.

You're likely to get the stuff where you don't want it but it can be heated and wiped away then scoured with a scotchbrite pad. The other bonus to soldering is that once the piece is held together, gloppy or not you can then fixture it as needed and resweat the solder and it'll flow into a nice pretty fillet on all the joints. You can do that in your oven at home or with your torch. Once it cools, scour it and buff to whatever sheen you want.