Best copper sheet alloy for forming on lathe

I think thermo-cycling causes hardening too. Copper gaskets on spark plugs get hard with use and won't reseal unless you anneal them soft again.
We used to put them all on a wire and heat with a torch until cherry red, then hang them up and let them cool. Buff the soot off of them and they were like new.
 
piper184 said:
I think thermo-cycling causes hardening too. Copper gaskets on spark plugs get hard with use and won't reseal unless you anneal them soft again.
We used to put them all on a wire and heat with a torch until cherry red, then hang them up and let them cool. Buff the soot off of them and they were like new.
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I do the same thing to re-use the copper washers used with my car's oil-pan drain bolt.
 
Red heat is what I recall for annealing copper. One would really be working copper to get it that hot, I'm not sure it would be possible, especially with its high thermal conductivity.
 
Is frugal another word for un-wastefull?
That must be why most of my projects come from the scrap bin as opposed to the steel distributor.
:)
 
After a comedy of errors I think I'll make a jig with a roller on the end like this guy uses.
I also found out .040" is pretty robust. It takes much more pressure to form.

 
Janderso said:
After a comedy of errors I think I'll make a jig with a roller on the end like this guy uses.
I also found out .040" is pretty robust. It takes much more pressure to form.

Click to expand...
IIRC, metal spinning lathes are extra heavy duty and for thin materials they use long tools to get leverage and many times it’s a two people task. Try searching the How It’s Made YT channel (don’t use the YT app, can’t search a single channel like you can on the website).
 
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