Copper & Concrete Hat Rack

I had a couple ideas for hat racks, one out of copper tubing and one out of brass rod, both with concrete bases. Lowe's was out of brass rod, so copper it was.

I started with a bucket about the size of the base I wanted. I took a small section of pipe and silver soldered and end cap on it, then held it in place with a disc of foam core. I sealed the seams with hot glue.

I ended up having to cut the bucket off once the concrete was cured. If I were making another one, I'd either try to find a plastic bucket to use or experiment with some mold release.

I made the arms first out of some tees, 45 degree elbows, end caps, and short lengths of pipe. I got to practice my silver soldering with this project.

I connected the arms with more lengths of pipe then cleaned up my solder joins with a sanding drum on my Dremmel tool (well, a whole bunch of sanding drums).

Finally, I sealed the concrete with several coats of spar urethane then used contact cement to put a felt disc on the bottom (although hot glue probably would have done just fine).

It takes a bit to get the feel for silver soldering, but once you do it's a pretty inexpensive way to join metals.

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This project was completed May 5, 2018.