[Jewelry making - Article 00013] - Re: [Orchid] Casting copper recommendations?

[Ron Charlotte]

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>     I've been told a number of times that electrical copper wire is a
>     very pure, clean copper wire for melting. Does anyone know if
>     that's true? If it is, heavy gauge copper grounding wire is
>     relatively inexpensive and easy to find at any hardware store. 

    Yes, at least in the US, solid copper wire is pure to the 99.3 to
    99.9% ballpark, mostly in the higher range. The ones in the lower
    range tend to be specialty wires that have very specific uses, and
    you are _very_ unlikely to find them in a typical hardware store.
    The one thing that you must be aware of, is for various fabrication
    reasons, they do oxygenate the copper in the smelting process before
    drawing it into wire, so you may need to take that into account for
    alloying purposes. I often use the scrap from my job as an
    electrician to make my own bronze alloys, and have had little or no
    problems with it. 

Ron Charlotte -- Gainesville, FL


 
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