Turning 50lbs of Copper Wire into a Bronze Guitar

I take 50lbs of copper wire and attempt to build a bronze guitar out of it

[BurlsArt]

Will build a gold one next if anybody’s willing to front the cost

[anonwhathaveyoudone]

Up next: hand forged damascus steel guitar

Jokes aside this is the most insane thing you've done so far and it's super impressive.

[Gutszomb]

I think it's ready to gig. The perfect guitar for your roadie to throw to you mid concert 💀

[HappyBoxer-nbmb]

Good on you for not editing out the screw ups. Shows the reality that these builds never go as smooth as other creators make it out to be

[chrisrenfroe]

First time viewer, love the fact that you showed your mistakes, and how you fixed them. You are a real craftsman.

[PeterCleff]

I'm pretty sure this guitar is still lighter than the average les Paul. Great video!

[thingnumbertwo]

Moved on from the caveman days of creating a guitar out of stuff found in the forest. Burl is evolving.

[Jakahoe]

Love your work man - to answer the implied question around 5:10 about how adding two soft metals makes a harder one: it’s the atomic structure that matters. Copper and tin are both ordered lattice structures, which is naturally quite soft. When you add tin to copper, the larger tin atoms replace copper within that lattice and that makes it harder for the copper to flex.

If you’re more into visuals, imagine the copper is a bead necklace and the tin is a baseball right in the middle. Coiling it up would be made much more difficult by the baseball. It’s just that same mechanism at the atomic scale.

[mgpvii]

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!! What was most impressive for me was your perseverance to continue with the project despite the setbacks and errors. A testament to the human spirit.

[godzpowr]

Literally "Heavy Metal". Amazing tone. So clear and bright. Just can't hold it but what a work of art. I bow to thee kid sir!

[MapBot]

You had some trial and error, but you really did a fantastic job with this casting. I'm a metallurgical engineer in the casting industry and you've obviously done your research on the casting process.

One thing to keep in mind in the placements of your gates/risers is thermal mass. Your gates need to have enough thermal mass near them to remain open and feeding the casting. Another thing to keep in mind is the linear distance to fill in a thin-ish casting like this. The more distance required to travel, the more the metal is going to cool, elevating the likelihood of a poor fill or defects. You made the right correction with your second body mold. You also want to minimize the amount of turbulent flow into the casting, which causes gas entrapment, sand erosion/inclusions, and cold shuts, which you had a fair amount of in your neck and body casting.

One thing you could do to prevent the blowout issue is use very thin wire, or even a drill and drill bits to add venting to the mold in the areas most likely to entrap air, but also clamping your mold halves together, or weighing down the top of the mold to prevent the cope from floating on the fill.

[gothridercreations]

I will never complain about sanding a radius ever again!!! Great work man

[wouterkabouter]

I love your channel man. I was genuinely interested and engaged throughout the whole video, and thats pretty rare these days on YouTube.. And all that without any stupid cliffhangers and "stick to the end" tricks, props to you!

[Hal]

Beautiful sound. The sustain is unreal!

[RavenLovesArt]

"But I like shiny things" - my thoughts exactly

[JoeTheGuitarGuy]

It’s always a nice day when Burls art uploads. Building guitars the unconventional way, but making true pieces of art in the process. Keep it up Burl.

[dylanm]

My recommendation is to cast hollow next time. I know it's cheap to sand cast, but being able to make your pieces out of wax, dip them in refractory slurry and cast each piece will make the guitar lighter. Then you can tig weld them together, clean them up and you a more desired result. Maybe you can do a promotional piece with a local foundry, where you promote them and get to use their facilities to make a guitar? Also, fifty-pounds of bronze if pretty expensive and not practical in terms of playing long term. However, beautiful piece none the less.

[withersoul]

What's the riff from 20:47? Sounds good af

[madnessbydesignVria]

I think the mirror polish with the voids is cool. It shows the imperfection of the medium, but the skill and attention of the artist. Sounds cool, too... :)

[SynchronizorVideos]

The density of pure copper is 8.9 g/cc. For comparison, iron is 7.9 g/cc, and pure aluminum is 2.7 g/cc. As soon as I saw the thumbnail, I knew this guitar was going to be a heavy SOB.