Hi,
I am building a small cupola for a weather vane and would like to put copper on the roof, but I have no idea how to do this. I’ve looked for some information on the web and for books but, so far, have come up empty. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
George
Replies
I'll bet Sphere and Seeyou can!
Forrest
I did one last winter. The HIP roof was plywood. I used copper drip edge all around. Cut 4 triangles of copper with allowance to crimp over the drip edge AND stand up a 1" lip on the hips.
I then tooka 2" wide strip and folded live a VEE and inverted that over the stood up parts, used tongs to flatten them closed and riveted with copper rivets to keep the whole deal closed.
The weathe vane had an adjustable foot for getting it plumb and straight, I smashed down the hip seams to get it flatter, screwed on the vane base, and Lexel caulked the screw heads.
You may want to make a template befor ya go cutting the triangles and have tongs or a brake for bending up the hips.
Easy as pie, but I do a lot of copper.
Parolee # 40835
It's not very big. I used a 1/4 sheet of ply to make the 4 sides of the hip roof. So, you put the V over the adjacent upturned ends of two panels, pound everything down flat to one side, drill holes for rivets and pop rivet the seams. After everything is pounded flat then wrap the ends over the drip edge? Do you solder anything, like the rivets to make them waterproof? What are tongs in this context? Wouldn't a wooden mallet work just as well for pounding things flat? You didn't mention anything about fastening the copper to the ply, other than wrapping around the edge. Is there any other means of attaching the copper.
George
What you want to do can be tough without the proper specialty tools. At the very least, you need a pair of "tongs" (hand seamers), left and right cut snips (reds & greens), and probably a pair of scissor-type hand shears. I normally use a "D" style drip edge to start out with at the eave. Tough to make without a brake of some kind. Instead, you could hand bend an "L" (1" on each leg) and nail it to the bottom of the sheathing. Cut triangles 1" larger than your plywood sheathing along the hips and 1 1/2" on the bottom. Bend the bottom flange down and hem it under the "L" you previously installed. Squeeze it tight. Stand the 1" flange up along the hips. Cut some 1" wide by 4" strips. Bend them 1/2" over the flange you stood up and push them tight against it and down against the sheathing. Nail the strip to the sheathing. Do this at least twice on each hip. After you've done all four sides, bend all the flanges over 180 degrees at 1/2" off the roof. Then mallet them flat so the cut edge is covered. Note: This not how I would do this project, but how you can do it with the least amount of tools.http://grantlogan.net/
Well given the lack of some of the tools and knowledge, I will probably just go the shingle route. I can't see ever needing the tools again so buying them doesn't make sense. Is this the type of thing I could bring somewhere to have done?
Thanks for the information!
Look for a good sheet metal shop in your town, or someone who does cupolas.
How big is it? Copper comes in 3' x 10' sheets for the 16 oz. stuff that's typical for the field of a roof. Seeyou in Lexington, KY, may be able to make the parts and ship them to you. He did that on a pair of round turrets in California. That job turned out beautifully, there are pictures of it around here somewhere. Here's his web site:
http://stores.logancustomcopper.com/StoreFront.bok
-- J.S.
Could try copper clad plywood or a copper laminate