How long does it take to melt copper?

Answer 1

The actual melting point of copper is 1083 degrees Celsius. For those of us who still use Fahrenheit, it's 1985 degrees. That is considerably hot by any standard. If you do melt copper, or any other metal, please be very careful and know what you are doing. I would use a kiln or foundry. You can, of course, look up which you would prefer, as there are many kinds. Once you have a heat source you're going to need the actual metal. As far as copper goes, you CAN use scrap, and perhaps, if you dare to break federal law, pennies made before 1982 which contain 5% zinc. The newer pennies are almost completely zinc covered in a thin layer of copper. However, if I were looking to go more high end on the copper, I would want a .999/99.9% purity. This will be hard to achieve with pennies and scrap, so the best bet would be to get copper shots. You can actually buy them at http://www.bullioncopper.com the cost is $3.70/pound, and there is a minimum of 10lbs to buy with a max of 55lbs. So, all in all, maybe $37.00 to get 10 lbs worth of 99.9% pure copper shots. As mentioned before, you'll want to wear protective gear when doing this. I'm sure you have burned yourself on grease from cooking before, and that's just a few hundred degrees. At nearly 2,000 you can forget that part of your body anymore. You're going to also want a crucible to melt your copper in. Most people go with ceramic that isn't glazed. However, you can also chose a metal with a higher melting point than your heat such as steel, or even better, iron. After you have it melted you need to cast it. Generally speaking most people cast copper into ingots or strips to be hammered out later. I myself prefer an ingot mold which is similar to a block. If you're going to use the pure copper and just melt the shots to resell then I suggest stamping the purity, when it was made, and the size, such as 1 lb. If you're just melting scrap to sell off, or to use it, then it isn't as important to stamp.

Answer 2

metal melts in extreme heat that the properties of that metal cannot endure. different metals melt in different melting points because they have different char

acteristics.

Answer 3

Depends on the Fuel, The furnace, the blower, weather and how much metal your using.

If your melting about 20 pounds of pure copper (99.99%) in a clay-graphite crucible, in a furnace with about 4 inches from the crucible, using bituminous coal and charcoal with a blower on low... about a hour and a half. That's at night with about 70 degrees ambient temperature outside. Thousands of changes affect the way copper melts and so you have to account for that.

Anyways, it takes a long time by any standards for any appreciable amount of copper to be melted.

Answer 4

just melt some pennies in a campfire.
With heat.

Answer 5

its usually not that difficult to melt copper you just need the right tools:)

Answer 6

Copper melts at 1084.62 Celsius degrees.

Answer 7

By heating it in a hajska