radios1
Elite Member
a milling machine will do this nicely.. ask a machine shop.
Cutting thick copper plate?
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4570Man
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No bigger than it is a jig saw would probably work and clean it up with a file.
Fallon
Super Member
As others have noted, copper is soft & will scratch or bend easily. I wouldn't put it in a high traffic area. Copper clad or plated steel maybe.
Ortimber
Platinum Member
30% of my business is machining copper. It does not machine well at all, with the exception of a few alloys specifically designed for machinability (tellurium copper). The cost of this would be significant. A water jet would be my choice for cutting shapes in plate.
dragoneggs
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Thanks for the explanation. I just assumed plasma would work fine due to good conductivity and relatively low melting point.
BukitCase
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The problem with that theory is that copper ALSO conducts HEAT as well or better than it does current; that can be useful, but not for cutting. The vacuum arc melt furnaces I used to work on in rare metals plants used copper crucibles, some up to 40" diameter and 16 feet long - titanium, zirconium, hafnium were done in these furnaces, niobium (2470 C) and tungsten (3400 C) in other types.
Copper's melting point is 1080 C, titanium's is 1670 C, and zirc is 1855 C - the ONLY way we got away with melting metals 800 degrees C hotter than the crucible could stand, was by using a high volume water jacket OUTSIDE the crucible. The water was recirculated thru cooling towers that used typically 200-300 horsepower fans to power the heat exchangers.
If it wasn't for copper's high HEAT transfer, there woulda been a constant mushroom-shaped cloud over the plant
We had a separate copper weld shop, usually kept 3 weldors busy - that was the LAST shop a REALLY good weldor worked in before retiring. AFTER they'd mastered welding nearly every other metal known to man... Steve
Copper's melting point is 1080 C, titanium's is 1670 C, and zirc is 1855 C - the ONLY way we got away with melting metals 800 degrees C hotter than the crucible could stand, was by using a high volume water jacket OUTSIDE the crucible. The water was recirculated thru cooling towers that used typically 200-300 horsepower fans to power the heat exchangers.
If it wasn't for copper's high HEAT transfer, there woulda been a constant mushroom-shaped cloud over the plant
We had a separate copper weld shop, usually kept 3 weldors busy - that was the LAST shop a REALLY good weldor worked in before retiring. AFTER they'd mastered welding nearly every other metal known to man... Steve
ArlyA
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I'll give a historical point here. When they where mining copper here in the Keweenaw which went from 1845 to about 1996. The mines would run into what called "flow copper" pieces that were occasionally quite large. These were nearly pure copper and some weighted more than 50 tons and of course, not fit into the lifts. So the mines would directed there miners to cut them into pieces that would fit. Doing the math, they figured out that all the time it took to cut them down was not cost effect, so they discontinued the practice and just mined around them.. Copper does not like to be cut.
Do like my industrial history.
Do like my industrial history.
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