Source for Inexpensive Copper

[etp777]

Friend of mine gave me a few bars/pieces of copper this weekend. He does phone/cable work for local company there, and they have big grounding bars for their equipment. 24", pure copper(for best conductivity). They have a bunch of holes drilled in them already, but their are sections long enough for bolsters with no holes, or you can use sections with smaller threaded holes(ream out hole big enough for whatever pins you want to use). If you want them for guards, turn it 90deg, cut out correct size around one of the bigger holes(or the smaller ones), and use that hole as a start for filing/miling out slot for tang.

These do have a coating to stop corrosion, but it's easily ground off. Have 4" of good 1"x1/4" or so copper now, plus another misc. piece, all free.

Actually, just remembered there was another piece, that he had thrown into fire to see if we could metl it, that I wsa supposed to pick up too. Oh well, have more copper than I'll be able to use before I see him again.

 

[Mike Hull]

I don't mean to throw cold water on your good fortune, but make sure it's not beryllium copper. The dust/fumes from that stuff is very poisonous.

 

[pso]

Berylium copper is used to make the contacts in relays and switches since it is springy.

The copper bus bars that ept777 is talking about are most likely just plain (inexpensive) copper that is sometimes tin plated to prevent corrosion. It is very common in large electrical equipment like what we build here at work.

For an inexpensive (or free), look around some scrap yards that deal in this kind of equipment or find a manufacturer of "electrical switchgear". They may be able to direct you to the metal fabrication shop that actually makes the stuff for them. Sometimes, it is wrapped in plastic or some other kind of insulation. Try to avoid the fiberglass wrapped stuff though.

Phil