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well I hate to say it but if your planning on copper I hope you have a very large build budget.

Copper is one of the most expensive materials that a builder of homemade coffee roasters could think of for the drum, in thin sheets for the outside skin I would say yes. But copper will not stand up to the abrasive action of the beans sliding on it.

somemore info on what your wanting to build might help other in your search for a drum material, there have been people on here that have build everything from a 1/2 pound roaster to a 20 pound drum. Most are made of what is termed Mild Steel or A-36 if your talking plate, steel is simply Iron that has had most of the carbon removed and additives added to change the grain structure of the material to aid in the tensiel strength of the material and other properties such as abrasion resistance.

RK Drums used perferated stainless steel in there drums, a small 5 lb drum from them cost in the range of 250 dollars I belive I haven't checked their prices lately.

Are you able to do the Fabrication work yourself, if not then the cost of your roaster just went up by a factor of 5 or more.

Copper works great for making white sauce, but so does cast iron or stainless,

some idea of what your wanting to build would help?