Re: My Primary Coil disaster

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "David Speck by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dspeck-at-relex-dot-com>

Bob,
Annealing copper is not difficult -- just heat it with a propane torch
and let it cool in still air.  It will become dead soft until the next
time it is bent.  A domestic gas stove or glassblowing ribbon burner
would also likely work as well.

A neat trick to remove corrosion from heavy copper wire without tedious
sanding is to heat the wire, and hold it above a small quantity of
methanol (methyl alcohol, wood alcohol).  Hot copper catalyzes the
degradation of methanol (MeOH) to acetaldehyde (something you don't want
to breathe very much of).  The reaction is exothermic and self
sustaining, as long as there is any MeOH left.  It also reduces all
deposits of copper oxide on the wire surface to pure metallic Cu,
leaving a beautiful pink, easily solderable surface on dead soft
copper.  I just dunk the copper into the MeOH to cool it and end the
reaction.  This usually ignites the MeOH, but if you use only a small
quantity (5-10 mL) in a narrow necked bottle, the risk is minimal.

Dave Speck

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Bob Bozarth by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jbdetails-at-prodigy-dot-net>
> 
>     Due to similar problems I'm sure happen to many "coilers", does anybody
> out there know how to anneal copper? I've seen aluminum annealed using
> acetylene, but not sure of the process. I noticed in an earlier post to this
> thread Ed Phillips said something about annealing copper with a torch.
> Personally, I would be really interested to hear some details on the
> subject. Any help there Ed?
>     Thanks,
>         Bob Bozarth
>         Experimenter