Equipment and Materials

This work is done with an acetylene torch. You will need an oxygen tank and an acetylene tank, a set of regulators, and hoses and handle. Any garden variety Oxy-Acetylene set up will do, and a lot can be done with the smallest available tank sets. Use a #1 tip.

The brazing rod we use is called "Zero-Percent Phos-Copper". It is called "zero-percent" because it has no silver: it is an alloy of ninety-some percent copper: the rest is phosphorous that is in the rod as a fluxing agent. When the rod is over-worked the phosphorous boils out and the rod become grainy, and hard to work; but more about that later. Phos-copper comes in many shapes and sizes, and while any shape or size will do; for our purposes the standard 36" X 1/8" round phos-copper brazing rod is best. Here after we will refer to the brazing rod as "phos".

Sheet copper is sold not by gauge or by hundredths of an inch, but by ounces per square foot. When I first began making things out of copper (in the 1960's) I used 16 oz exclusively. While 16 oz is adequate for any of the projects we will start with, I would recommend that a beginner use 24 oz copper. 24 oz is a bit more resistant to heat warpage, a bit more resistant to overheating, and almost as easy to cut and bend.

We will need some tin snips. Any snips will do, but standard aviation snips are best. Yellow handle means straight cut, so get some yellow handled aviation snips.

You will also need some gloves, a ball peen hammer, various pliers, and some dark glasses or welding googles or what is called a cutting hood. A cutting hood is a flip up face cover usually used when cutting steel with a cutting torch. I usually use a cutting hood. The shades come in various darknesses and I like a midrange. At the beginning of each project there will be a layout of the necessary hand tools.

You will need a fire-proof, heat resistant, work surface. An 18" X 24" piece of 1/4" steel plate works great. All of the beginning projects will require no more workspace than a card table.

Tools and materials are easily found by internet or yellow pages.