Subject: Copper Plateing

From: [email-masked] (1111)
Date: 13 Jan 1994 18:07:06 -0500

Can anyone give me a recepie fir a solution for plateing
Copper using Copper Sulfate or some other easily found
chemical ?

---

From: okunewck@pds16 (Phil OKunewick)
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 18:58:05 GMT

>Copper using Copper Sulfate or some other easily found

Oh, copper plating is easy.  You can do it even without a battery.

Use sulfuric acid and a scrap of copper plumbing pipe.
Sulfuric acid is available from any battery supplier.

First, polish your object,
Clean it with an oil-based solvent,
and then ACID CLEAN THE METAL TO BE PLATED and the copper scrap!!
If it ain't clean, it won't plate well.
Muriatic (hardware-store hydrochloric) or sulfuric acid works well.

   Next, add some acid to a plating tank of distilled water (5%-10%),
connect a wire from the copper scrap to the object to be plated, and
immerse both.  You'll want to rotate your object occasionally to make
it plate evenly.

   Most metals will copper plate without outside current.  But some
metals won't - in that case, hook up a power source and current meter,
and adjust the voltage to produce about 1/2 - 1 amp of current.  Exact
current needed depends on the surface area, and I forget the equation.

---

From: [email-masked] (Marc F. Hult)
Date: 14 Jan 1994 20:03:14 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>

> current needed depends on the surface area, and I forget the equation.
Check out the current edition of "Midnight Engineering" for this 
formula and more very practical information on copper plating.

Marc F. Hult, Geology Dept., Macalester College, St. Paul, MN 55105  
[email-masked]    612-696-6441 (voice)  612-696-6122 (fax)