[Jewelry making - Article 00783] - Re: [Orchid] Copper questions

[Michael Honeycutt]

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    Copper tubing can be purchased from many places. It is also sold in
    different forms that must be handled differently. There is soft
    copper, frequently used for plumbing, generally sold in rolls that
    go up to about 1/2 inch in diameter. This stuff is already annealed
    and can be bent in a number of ways. I've even gone about it by
    slowly wrapping it by hand around a form like a piece of pipe. There
    will be limitations on how tight a radius you can obtain this way.
    Old timers were also known to plug one end of the tubing, fill it
    with fine sand or table salt, plug the other end once full, and then
    proceed to bend. This put a filling inside that will easily submit
    to forming but that also prevents tube collapse, 

    Another type of copper pipe sold comes in larger diameters ranging
    from 3/8 inch up to semi huge ( I've found pieces 4 inches in
    diameter but never seen it in stores.) I would recommend plumbing
    contractor supply houses. Often this is "hard copper". It is usually
    used for long straight runs of pipe in construction and is soldered
    together with "sweat fittings". This stuff is not annealed and
    frequently will break if bent. It has been used for wind chimes and
    so on. It can be annealed though, by following the advice already
    given in this thread. Once annealed, it too can be formed in a number
    of ways. Just remember the tendency of work hardening. If properly
    annealed it should be fairly easy to bend. Tubing can be bent by
    either inserting an appropriately sized spring into it or
    surrounding the copper with a spring. Just make sure that it is a
    spring that gives a very close fit to the diameters you use and that
    the spring isn't all stretched out. You are trying to provide
    support to the copper. 

    It's a slow, occasionally bothersome trick to fill a tube with
    tablesalt but I've seen it done for bending and it worked very well.
    And don't be afraid to anneal the copper frequently. 

Mike


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