Thread: copper wire for pins??

I bought an ounce of pure copper for the heck of it a couple years ago...still looks the same in regards to the oxidation though. I'm sure it would work just fine for anything but a pivot pin. One guy on here made a set of scales out of some copper pipe & they looked really cool...

With my imited experience with copper wire (25 +/- yrs) I find this interesting. Copper wire can be just like any other metals as to how they are processed.
In standard building wiring most solid and stranded copper wiring is what is considered "soft drawn" wire. For outdoor arial / overhead distribution wiring, it is considered "hard drawn" wire.
Not knowing the physical properties between the 2 types, I do know the "field" differences. Particularily, if you tried to use a soft drawn wire in an arial application, it would sag on hot days and tighten up on cooler days. Basic expansion and contraction properties. With a hard drawn copper, not as much expansion / contraction occurs.
Hard drawn copper would be optimum for such pins, But I have not seen any smaller than 8 AWG (American Wire Gauge), which is roughly 1/4". Not to day that it is not out there, but standard building wire is much softer and bends real easy compared to arial cable.
Just my .02 cents worth.
Kilowattkid

Originally Posted by shooter74743

I bought an ounce of pure copper for the heck of it a couple years ago...still looks the same in regards to the oxidation though. I'm sure it would work just fine for anything but a pivot pin. One guy on here made a set of scales out of some copper pipe & they looked really cool...

That was me . Thanks for the nice words.

I don't know if this is a true story or not but I heard once that a guy pinned a razor with a piece of uncooked spaghetti. It worked fine until he rinsed the razor. It could happen!!

ROTFLMBO LOL LOL LOL

I worked as a plumber's apprentice for a little while. The brackets we used to hold up copper pipes had to be insulated due to the fact that dissimilar metals touching can speed corrosion when you add moisture or a charge to the mix.

Granted I do not personally know which metals react this way, yet when I considered your question I decided to look into the subject and found this...

http://www.engineersedge.com/galvanic_capatability.htm

I imagine if you follow those guideline, corrosion should not be an issue. All you'd have to worry about is how soft the copper is.

OK boys, listen up. If you are still hell-bent on pinning with copper, go here for washers = http://www.superiorwasher.com/sites/...es/sw_logo.jpg
http://www.thomasnet.com/products/wa...2301407-1.html

and go to your local hardware or home center for copper nails which should be appreciably harder than copper wire. Don't forget to thank me..............I spent some time on this research.
And it looks like I will be spending more time finding copper sources for suitable pinning supplies but I think brass pins are quite sufficient especially with ss washers..........

Jerry
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