Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
A person told me, if you take copper plate and put it below a hole you want to fill with a welder. The copper will help to keep the weld in place. Once the hole is filled and it cools, tap the copper plate and it will fall off. He said the weld won't stick to copper.

If this is true, what thickness of copper plate do I need?
Thanks,
George
 
Yes, it's true, and it's a handy trick for holes in mower decks and such. Thickness of the plate will of course depend on the thickness of what you're trying to weld, but if you've got some 3/32" or even thinner stuff lying around that will work fine for most of what you're apt to do with this.
 
Where did you get your copper? The guy who told me about it said he got his at HF, but they didn't have any.
 
Just scraps I had lying around. Got most of my copper sheet scrap from an old farmer's garage sale many years ago--I have no idea what he did with it.
 
I did much the same the other day , a hole in a stabiliser bracket had wallowed out . I took a piece of copper pipe and hammered it into the oval hole . I was then able to weld all around it and make the hole perfectly round . The pipe just knocked out easily after leaving smooth sides .
mvphoto9973.jpg
 
I've done the same with aluminum. just because I have more aluminum laying around than copper.

Thicker is better, less likely to burn through and will transfer more heat away if it's trying to burn through. Thinner will work if you need to contour to a curved surface.
 
I use a brass drift for most of my patch jobs, it is 1/2 and plugs small holes great.
 
I use a copper hammer I have. It's just a piece of 4" solid copper round bar with a handle on it. Works good if your trying to fix a curved part. I suppose a brass hammer would work as well.
Martin
 
That's odd. I just finished welding holes in a sheetmetal tank and put pennies on the other side of the holes and it didn't help.
 
Harbor Freight sells a tool made for this purpose. It is a square piece of copper with a handle.

I purchased one but have not used it.
 
Pennies newer than 1982 are only about 2.5% copper, with the rest zinc. As noted, you can use metals other than copper, but looks like zinc isn't one of them!
 
It works well. The best place to get some copper is your nearest scrap yard. Try to find old flat buss bars, or something like that, along with various diameters of round stock for use in curved or odd shaped places. Like someone else said, the thickness you need will be determined a lot by the thickness of what your welding on (ie how much heat your putting into the part, and therefore the copper). In most cases something like a piece of 1/4 inch would be great, but if you can find 1/2 inch it would be even better.
 
I worked in a shop that did chromium carbide overlay. One of their customers wanted some kind of paddles hardfaced. They didn't know what to do to be able to hardface right to the edge without it spilling over. I suggested making a copper form to fit around the paddles so the overlay wouldn't run over the edge. They went with my idea and it worked great. They were using 7/64" open arc wire so it was plenty hot.
 
I"be used a piece of black carbon about 1-3/4 ". Thick. Works great for filling holes in car frames when doing a HotRod build. It leaves the back of the hole perfectly. Smooth! Just my .02 cents worth......... Jim in N M
 
(quoted from post at 21:34:13 08/10/14) That's odd. I just finished welding holes in a sheetmetal tank and put pennies on the other side of the holes and it didn't help.

Not enough thermal mass and insuficient heat dissipation area. It's not the material, it's what the material does.
 

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