Copper

[Strider]

Hello! I've just taken appart my belowed old cellphone charger (Nokia 3410, still works better than most other) since I have more than one charger. I expected to find like a mother board inside, but only thing I found is a small 1x1 cm panel with some converters and other stuff I don't know, then on the middle was like a cubic prison made of steel (?) that was puzzled together and glued. Inside that "prison" was a copper coil. There was two types of wire, one really thin, thinnest I've seen so far and a normal coppe wire, found everywhere. If I didn't harm the wires during taking apart (hamered it to heaven) I think it would run if not a + 100 meters in length. So if you gather more stuff like that, which is easy, you could get your self a lifetime supply of copper!! Just joking, I would like to do something with copper, make som jewlery, or decorate something, but I don't know what yet.

What's the cost of copper on the market?
How hot must I get it to melt the copper for further use? I kinda like having it, since it's clean and only metal exept gold with a different color


Thanks!

 

[butcher]

I am puzzled, sounds like you have a small transformer,from a power supply and want to reclaim the copper, as far as I know metal prices are low I am saving mine for better days, one way to get copper from transformer is use chisel and hammer cut copper winding, another is cut welds on soft iron laminates, angle grinder or dremel tool, then seperate laminates from coil. I use the laminates to make copperas (ferrous sulfATE) to precipitate gold from solutions.

copper oxidize's real easily in a melt, turning to green copper oxides, to melt copper you would need to have something to eliminate oxygen, corbon can do that, adding flour which in fire changes to carbon is used in melts, the carbon in melt join's with the oxygen to make carbon dioxide gas in fumes from melt, a glass flux, crushed bottle glass or silica sand will work for a flux, this melted glass shields your melt from air, and so oxygen, copper is not that easy to melt as would be if you made the copper into brass which is easier to melt.

 

[Strider]

I thought I just need a torch and blast it till it's liquid. What would go wrong if I did that?

 

[butcher]

some copper will melt but being fine wire and air you will have alot of it as green powder,

 

[Strider]

Damn, I thought that it'll melt easily. I was wrong Will it be better if I would use that mellting pot that' made of some really tough metal, at least tougher than copper?

 

[Oz]

What did you plan on melting in a pot made of copper?

 

[Harold_V]

If I understand you correctly, you're suggesting melting in a metallic vessel.

That's not a good idea.

Molten metals are strong solvents of other metals, so even if you happen to achieve success, you're most likely to experience a premature failure of the vessel. If nothing else, your material will be contaminated by the elements that get dissolved by molten copper. Remember, it dissolves metals, so they go into solution even though the temperature you achieve may be hundreds of degrees below their melting points.

Vessels for melting are generally made of refractory materials. If you're just experimenting, and want to melt a small amount, a small melting dish would serve the purpose. A reducing flame would serve to limit the amount of oxidization you'll experience when melting copper. It's not fun to melt and pour, for it reacts readily with oxygen. You can expect less than great results, with the copper being porous.

Harold