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<font face="monospace"> Nothing's working. I talked to two
different <br>
experts, one a plumber the other a bike mechanic. <br>
both are surprised and both guess that the copper <br>
sheets (12" wide copper rolls I bought from R. H. <br>
Leahy in SF) must have a tiny amount of oil that's <br>
embedded a couple or atom's distance into the <br>
surface of the copper. <br>
I've tried various fluxes, washed 'em with <br>
borax, lye, sodium carbonate (all high base), and <br>
with alcohol, paint thinner, acetone, and muriatic <br>
acid. I've scoured 'em with fine and with coarse <br>
sand paper, by hand and with an electric hand <br>
sander. <br>
My heat sources have been a propane torch and <br>
also a 950 degree soldering iron. I've used tin-<br>
lead and also silver solder. <br>
<br>
The result is that the solder burns and <br>
browns with what seems like little disks from <br>
popped bubbles and all solders bead up and roll <br>
off. <br>
<br>
Somebodies know how to work with sheet copper <br>
to make rain gutters, art, etc. <br>
I've looked into copper glues, and reviewers <br>
warn that some products are of poor quality, other <br>
products work but cannot withstand mechanical <br>
stress.... <br>
I'm gonna try adhesive copper tape, maybe <br>
double it up if I need the strength. <br>
<br>
<br>
</font><br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/25/2015 11:58 PM, Cere Mona Davis
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAKtSE-uRHJp69OfpmGV5+2hseazaPEEZRrNDYE2ntD_=CzLF9g@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<p dir="ltr">There is a special kind of flux for solding to
copper. . Seen it at ace hardware. Alternately, you can
possibly try borax with a little water. </p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Oct 25, 2015 4:37 PM, "jim" <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:jim@well.com"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jim@well.com">jim@well.com</a></a>>
wrote:<br type="attribution">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
I've soldered electronics and plumbing and<br>
am stuck trying to solder copper sheet metal.<br>
I've used a soldering iron and a propane torch.<br>
I've used alcohol, acetone, and paint thinner<br>
to clean the copper as well as fine and coarse<br>
sandpaper to clean the surfaces. I'm using<br>
electronic flux (haven't yet tried plumbing<br>
flux).<br>
The soldering is not working: solder does<br>
not flow or adhere to the copper, and there's<br>
a brown residue that appears after heating.<br>
Using a torch for forty or fifty seconds<br>
results in flame that does not immediately<br>
expire.<br>
<br>
Anybody got tips?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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