Cleaning copper

**rewire** · 11-09-2011, 06:43 AM

buy a granulator if your serious. gonna need volume to pay the bills though.

**Mulden** · 11-16-2011, 07:39 AM

Illegal in the UK too. Plus burning PVC releases mondo toxins into the environment. Utility blade or granulator all the way. Boo to burning.

**claudedog1234** · 03-25-2012, 03:32 AM

Ketchup will do the trick everytime.

**Tresixth** · 06-30-2012, 04:44 PM

In the amount of time and money for materials wasted on burning and cleaning. A utility knife to strip the insulation would have you done with more money in your pocket. The only money put into the work, being a knife and a single blade for it.

**dirtymoney** · 07-02-2012, 05:22 AM

I am in the metal detecting hobby and clean my modern pennies in a rock tumbler with lime away (so I can cash them in/spend them). It shines them up like crazy. The pennies have to be rid of dirt & other stuff though. I use liquid soap and water & tumble them in aquarium gravel to get the dirt off..... then rinse off the gravel & tumble them with lime away. Might be worth a try.

edit: I once saw an old large brass silver burnisher that operated the same as a rock tumbler. If you ever found one of those while out scrapping I bet you could use it to tumble-clean copper if it is cut into small enough pieces (like say... about a foot).

Edit again... I just found a pic of what i am talking about... can be seen here... http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...bler-polishing

Edit: again... found some pics of a similar one... gives you an idea of how it operates better than the other pic. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...achine-239535/

**BarrenRealms007** · 07-02-2012, 08:16 AM

A quick dip in dilute HCL and then wash the material off. The ash should not be acidic it should be on the base side. We can use wood ash to neutralize acids.