Copper Plating

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

After soaking a great many boilers in my Suphuric acid bath pretty much everything I put in there comes out with a liberal coating of copper without any additional charge being added. It can make an old manky boiler look like an absolutely new one after a couple of days! I have a plating bath and over the years have plated lots of things. A mistake many people make is too many volts and amps. Low volts, low amps and plenty of time works for me. I used to use an aquatium water heater to help things along but turns out thet arent acid proof for long.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Chris V on 26/02/2020 14:28:59:

What should I then use to degrease before pickling again, methylated spirits, turpentine??

Washing soda?

Neil.

[Chris VParticipant @chrisv]

Thanks Neil, good to have several options!

Chris.

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Chris,

From your original post I suspect many platers still in business exist to plate taps etc and as such don't plate with copper, just nickel and chrome. What you would need is someone who does car bumpers, but I have not seen one who offers a postal service.

Don't forget plating is only as good as the finish you start with so your item will need to be mirror shiny to start with.

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

If you are plating with a copper electrode on one side and the workpiece on the other, the solution (of coppoer sulphate) will stay as it is during the process, so you can bottle it and use it next time. Using anything else (such as a paint brush) will have two effects – first the copper in the solution will become impure as metals from the brush etc are dissolved, so it won't work so well next time, and secondly, the plating will not be pure copper and so might not stick or look pretty.

Use distilled water (or de-ionised – eg from a dehumidifier) and avoid contacting the solution with anything metal (except pure copper) for best results. Do not, eg, use an old kitchen spoon to measure out the crystals; a plastic spoon is OK though.

Finally, do not use too high a voltage – best to use a charger or a torch battery, at 3 volts. 12v might look quicker but will it stick?

Cheers, Tim

[Chris VParticipant @chrisv]

Thanks Tim, more good tips and yes i'm going to try next with 2 x 1.5v batteries.

Cheers

Chris.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

If you are using primary cells, use hte biggest that you can get. But even D cells may not last too long before becoming exhausted.

Might be better to strap several together in series /parallel to give 3 volts and a gretar capacity.

Howard

[Chris VParticipant @chrisv]

Thanks Howard, yes my plan is to link 2 together,

Cheers

Chris.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Chris V on 29/02/2020 17:30:38:

Thanks Howard, yes my plan is to link 2 together,

Cheers

Chris.

Primary cells are pricey: From 'Solved examples in Electrochemistry – Example 10'

0.2964 g of copper was deposited on passage of a
 current of 0.5 ampere for 30 minutes

Not much copper will be deposited by a D-Cell! An ordinary Alkaline cell is about 1.5 Amp Hour capacity, meaning it will deposit about 1.8g of copper spread evenly over the immersed area, and cost about £2. (Actually unlikely to empty the battery because the voltage will drop as it discharges.) Could get expensive if it takes several attempts to get the process right and a decent thickness of copper is wanted. Electricity from a power supply is much cheaper – mains electricity is about 13p per kWHour, enough to electroplate at 1000A at 1V for an hour.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 29/02/2020 18:14:43

[Jouke van der VeenParticipant @joukevanderveen72935]

Chris,

Go to PF Products Finishing (pfonline.com) and search there for copper electroplating.

They give a lot of information about plating conditions. Also for plating in a copper sulphate electrolyte.

You find there parameters like concentration, voltage and current density.

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

Yet another one..

**LINK**

[Chris VParticipant @chrisv]

Thank you S.O.D.

Yes I can see that (&poundand am grateful for all the advice from everyone even with some of it conflicting! (-:
Having bought plugs and another wall wart and failed, probably for many reasons, my next try will be with batteries as advised by others as battery holders are already ordered. If I get some sort of positive result then mains power will be the next step.

Thank you Jouke & Joseph.

Ive looked over both links, the first rather went over my head but I'm picking tips up all the time.

My new container will have 7 ltrs of de-ionised water to take both the parts I'm wanting to plate together. Power will be a choice of 1x AA battery or 2x AA. There will be more space between the items and the annode.

Ive yet to figure out how much crystals I should add to start off with?

Cheers

Chris.

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