This is really one of the best plating primers on RUclips. Simple and direct. No nonsense, so you can actually sit and take notes. You could be a teacher!
This video is: 1) Simple, easy to understand 2) goes straight to the point without intro, B.S. ads and other crap 3) is saturated with an amazing, needed information 4) no annoying background music 5) clear, clean sound 6) should be a tutorial for RUclipsrs who ended up in hell for making crapy videos and now have to go trough soul cleanse( yes its like bowel cleansing, but with added turbo, blue-flame colored fire and no handles on sides of toilet seat for one to hold on to). Me? Im gonna wrap myself in blanket and continue my couched, judgmental video observations, with my expert knowledge of everything.
Yeah, but without the silly girly girl voice! That's the only part I didn't like! The rest was interesting but the voice put me off. Love from Amanda in Melbourne, Australia ❤️ 😉
Very informative. My dad was a chromium electroplater (his trade). Sure, he also did Nickel, zinc and bronze plating, but his job was mostly around the chromium. Poly- and hexa-valent chromium are some scary things that you really shouldn't screw around with unless you know what you are doing. They WILL give you cancer (and when it comes to lung-cancer risk scale from the fumes, "Smoking 2-packs a day" doesn't even rate on that scale.)
Geoffrey Crocker I took your advice and have successfully Nickel Plated some screws for my 1928 Ford Model A Sport Coupe car. Thanks a lot for your most excellent and straight forward video which is easy to use.
Ordered the stuff to give this a go! I have some 3D prints that I want to plate and I don't want to spend too much, so this was an incredibly encouraging and straightforward video!
The prints will need to be conductive. I've seen a video where they sprayed on a conductive paint and plated that. Look up "Electroplating 3D Prints | Thermal Detonator"
Great video! a lot of antique cars people thought had chrome but was actually "nickel" that was highly polished. The magic is in the preparation and polishing. Thanks for the great video!
@@henniebouwmans7879 yes, it will work great with gold, but just remember that most gold is only .58% pure when it’s 14K or 78% pure at 18K. So, if you are wanting to do a 24K gold plate, you will want to use pure 24K .9999 Gold, or refine your own gold. Also with gold, you can either use Gold Anodes, or Stainless Steel Anodes when electroplating, which will save you a bit on pure Gold Anodes.
What a great video, thank you for the clear and concise introduction to electroplating. The commentary was humorous and informative. I'm looking forward to doing this with some antique car parts for the engine bay. It will look nicer than painting them silver!
very good video Geoffrey!! i'm going to give this a try. i need to nickel some parts made out of brass i guess, but i'm not 100% sure, could be copper aswell. if it's copper i can nickel directly right? if it's brass i need to copper it first before nickel?
@@GeoffreyCroker What am I doing something WRONG? I zinc plated my bolts and than deposited into a Nickel plating bath. But after the nickel plating it looks like the zinc coating somehow got removed. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thank you
@@Asian_Connection Check the video description, "Don’t try and plate over zinc plated parts with anything other than zinc. The zinc will destroy the nickel/copper solutions. I mean, don’t let me stop you experimenting, but that’s probably what will happen."
"Anything that pumps out less than an amp will do". A powersuppy which is capable of 1000A at 1.5V, and a powersupply which is capable of 1A at 1.5V will both provide exactly the same current if the load is more than 1.5 Ohm, I'd imagine that the voltage of the supply matters a lot too.
Hmmm. I was a science teacher 40 years ago. We taught from the Clearway resource book. This experiment was in there. BUT ... it said as a warning to use a very low voltage, < 2 V. If you use too high a voltage, instead of plating, the object will give off hydrogen bubbles and will turn black. I did this every time to show the boys not to turn the voltage up. So it's a mystery to me how you are getting a different result.
Hard chrome is different because it doesn't use chrome anodes that dissolve in an acid. The chrome is a ore which, after processing, is dissolved in water. Lead is used for an anode. With the proper facility, equipment and training it's relatively safe, but not recommended for home use. It involves some strong acids and the chromic acid bath and fumes are carcinogenic. Disposal of a spent bath is also a problem, it's not something you should dump out on your back yard.
I wanted to thank you as well. I have followed your directions and tried zinc and nickel. Both work very well and I am impressed at how simple and satisfying it was. BTW I was able to use roofing zinc strip that is used to resist moss. I had a roll in the shed. I also found that using ProForm Surface Cleaner Spray PF511 does an excellent job of degreasing with a plain tap water rinse.
I hope you get this thanks so much for all your helpful information I have my father's plane metal necklace cross charm that he wore it for a very long time and up to the day he passed away and I want to try and gold plate it but I'm wondering if I need to plate said charm with stainless first?
Kia ora Geof!. I'm from Colombia and recently bought an LR SIII 88" like yours, I'm thinking to built an "DIY pool" whit pallets and plastics in my garage for making Chassis and bulkhead electrolysis rust removal and later, making Zinc Plating. I investigate about Hot-Dip Galvanizing too, its a little expensive and I cannot make it DIY 😂 what do you think about that idea vs Hot-Dip Galvanizing the chassis and bulkhead of LRSIII? Greetings from Bogota. your channel is the best!
I'm an electroplater in Germany. Gold and Silver are almost always cyanidic, which make them very dangerous. Chrome-VI (Sorry for the missing + fellow chemists) can cause cancer. Because of that, you can only use existing equipment for that in germany. Chrome-III is less dangerous, but way more complicated. Another difficulty is that you can't use Chrome anodes, you have to use led or titanium anodes and add the Chrome through chromic acid. Sorry for my English :)
@@Martin-hc6cm Hey mate. How is zinc-nickel combo plating should be done? Make two separate proceses like zinc first and then the nickeling? Or maybe nickle it in the zinc electrolite?
Hey thanks for the vid. Are you worried about sodium ions from the salt becoming part of the plating and causing defects? Or does the sodium stay in solution do you think?
Very useful video.. Good work.. Does the thickness of the anode matters?? I have got 2 zinc anode that are relatively thick, about 1cm... Will it work?
How thick in thousandths can you make the nickel plate Geoffrey ??? How about plating parts that are two foot long ??? Any special setups Sir ??? Thanks, VF
Great video, thanks. I would imagine the same method would apply to silver plating if you can find the thin silver strips...? Would two silver one ounce bars work as well to create the silver solution?
First of all thanks for the video! truly great! I have a quick doubt: Is it possible to Graphene plate a metal? I`d like to do exactly whats on the video but using graphene oxide but i dont know if its possible. The idea i have is actually coat with graphene some copper/aluminium parts. What could i do to achieve this? Or it isn`t possible? Thanks!
What would be the difference in the process with an alkaline base (baking soda and table salt) solution for plating the same metals as in amperage, voltage and duration
How deep is the coating. How long would I have to leave it for a depth of about 0.002". How would I coat a small part of a larger component but leave the rest as is.
@@josemateovargasreina5541 I'm not 100% sure but it would slow the reaction down and the "speed" at which the positively charged metal ions are slamming into the the negatively charged cathode, which may help evenly coat the surface with less dendrite formation (less mountains and valleys microscopically) If you look at the physics 1) Amps are a measure of electrical current flow and 2) electric flow tends to take the path of least resistance 3) build up of available positively charged metal ions. At a higher AMP the flow would be more direct to the path of least resistance, meaning the point on the cathode/part closest to the anode/(closing the circuit) Now when you decrease the "flow" it will slowly act more dispersed and more evenly coat the piece due to the speed of the positively charged metal ion being pushed from the anode to the cathode. kind of like how you use a can of spray paint 18 inches away for best results instead of 1 inch away (higher flow and amp rate) This is also why it is important to flip your product to more evenly coat.
I used to work in an electroplating facility in Syracuse, NY called Anoplate. This setup is pretty primitive but the basics are there and yeah, that's how it works. I used to work on the nickle line and the black chrome line. Ever notice how some metal parts are black but super shiny? That's black chrome. Anoplate had a contract with GM to do the plating on their car parts and I was the only person allowed to do the black chrome on them. So if you've ever seen a Corvette made between 2003-2006, that hood ornament was made by me.
@@twill9278 You could electroplate a brass finish on something but as brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, you would probably have to put a layer of pure copper on first and then plate the brass on top of the copper for better adhesion.
I was super keen to give it a go.... then I realised, we only eat Vanilla yoghurt. And it's Organic, which would probably cause some sort of explosion!
Back when I worked as a photolab technician we would drop copper pennies I to exhausted film fixr . after a few minutes it would start to grow little silver whiskers , they werent pure silver as the copper contaminated the silver. A simplified explaination of this is your film has light sensitive silver salts that are needed for exposure and are removed during processing being dissolved in the fixer (typically sodium thiosulfate) a typical recycling strategy was to flow the solution through a steel wool filter then send it to kodak. At one of the labs I worked at they did not recover the silver from the one hour film processors so I put a ball of oooo steel wool into the waste tank, the silver dissolved in the fixer would exchange for the iron in steel wool and after a while you would have silver wool. Doing this for 4 years I ended up with 8 pounds of silver after refining. Every girl I went out with for years got a handmade silver ring also I made a crossguard for a longsword I made. Fun times
A friend who worked as a photo lab technician told us an interesting story about the day they demolished the old darkroom, and tore out the copper sink drain...
This is the best detailed video on RUclips. Thank you so much for taking your valuable time to make this. Very detailed and simple to understand the process. Great job!!
Workshop hint: If you have a taper threaded fitting or plug for a hydraulic port which is slightly undersize (or more likely, you tapped the hole a whisker too deep) you can recover the situation by plating a heavy layer of copper onto the fitting. It is soft enough to conform to the mating thread on tightening, and provide a leakproof connection.
@@eve_squared Indeed. I forgot to mention that it doesn't matter that the copper (if a heavy deposit is formed) will be composed of thousands of tiny peaks and valleys, like a cat's tongue. It all squishes down as the taper-thread joint is tightened due to the remarkable ductility of pure copper.
@@Gottenhimfella honestly it's a great trick to know especially if you have a shop air system since compressing air can get expensive with leaks. It reminds me of that video of the researchers getting vacuums measured by atoms per cubic meter by sealing it with copper gaskets.
In the 1970's I worked for an electroplating firm (since bankrupted by fines from unsafe disposal of chemical waste). We used to 'jiggle' the items being plated to make the bubbles break free of their surfaces. In some case it was a vibration and others it was moving the whole rack of items side to side. We also plated nut and bolts in huge nylon drums that rotated to keep them moving and contacting at different points. We did the lot: Nickel, copper, zinc, silver and even gold. If it could be electroplated, we electroplated with it! One friend of the owner brought in a pair of P100 headlamps off his pre-war Rolls to be gold plated to make them shine with a yellow cast to the beams. Meanwhile I'm assuming that citric acid might be as good as vinegar (acetic acid) as you can make it to the concentration you require by dissolving more or fewer crystals in the water. I usually have half to a kilo or so on hand for home brewing purposes. It's also good for cleaning copper utensils and ornaments.
@@bigbomb5904 For zinc it will be too much amperage and form grains. You might get away with moving the anode and cathode (positive piece and negative piece) further away
Copper does plate to bare steel. You need a copper sulfate solution and a piece of copper for an anode. Copper sulfate is available as root killer and comes in crystal form. The plating procedure is identical. Parts that are triple chrome plated are copper, nickel, chrome. The copper is applied first to help fill in any pits in the surface.
Hi Paul the copper isn't to fill pits though this might be a by product of it. The copper is to prevent corrosion as chrome is porous, nickel less porous and the copper prevents water etc reach the steel. As you probably know many companies don't triple plate and the playing won't last anywhere near as long.
1. Chrome? No. Chromium will kill you. You can replicate chrome at home with a Cobalt-Nickel mix. 2. Yes copper can be plated directly onto steel - I am aware. But this vinegar mix and most of the other DIY copper plating kits work better if you flash the part with nickel first. Commercial platers use entirely different and much harsher chemicals and copper plating directly to steel is normal for them. 3. The next person who tells me that I'm responsible for telling everyone how to dispose of waste properly can punch themselves in the face. RING YOU LOCAL COUNCIL/WASTE DISPOSAL PEOPLE AND ASK THEM. There's probably a hundred businesses in your local town that have to regularly dispose of chemicals/oils/poisons/paint. Hint - they're not asking a guy on youtube if they should mix it with soap and mermaid scales and then sprinkle it on the neighbours broccoli...
Most so-called chrome plated things are actually bright nickel plated anyway. If you get original parts replated that's typically what they'll use too.
Thank you I had no idea this was so easy. I’m actually regretting some builds in the past now knowing I could have so easily nickel or copper plated them
Could this be done using an alloy? Would the two metals transfer equally into the electrolyte and would they then be deposited equally on the cathode workpiece?. Perhaps making up the electrolyte using one metal followed by the other? I am thinking in regard to brass plating using copper and zinc.
Best beginner guide on this I’ve see, thanks for doing this. You saved me from buying an overly expensive plating kit. I’m off to get some jars, yogurt 😉, vinegar and salt.
If you weigh the metal your going to plate before and after the plating you'll find out how much its been plated. Also if the copper isn't pure not to worry as the impurities most likely will not be transferred to the target material. Electrolysis is actually how they purify copper, as impurities will not travel through the solution (or at least nowhere near the rate that copper will).
Amazing tutorial. Straight to the point. Those bell-dings are louder than a babies scream and I thought my ears were going to bleed. Extremely grateful for your help, and I keep revisiting this tutorial to see if I missed anything.
I do this all day long at my job and I've been looking for a way to show my kids what daddy does at work....this is amazing, I will doing it to show them this weekend. Awesome "for dummies" style video, I had no idea it was this easy to do at home, I'm gonna be showing them on this long holiday weekend we have. Great video, Sir, you got my sub for sure!!
Hey J, I’m getting ready to try gold, black rhodium and silver plating for my job. We have a lot of old bracelets, rings etc... that all have small pave set stones. Any tips for a beginner, I’m kinda going in this blindly aside from a few yt tutorials. But nobody shows plating with a lot of small stones. Any experience in that field? I appreciate any help. Thank you! -Jay
@@aspectratio6580 So what is a good plating thickness for something that will see some outdoor weather and how do you measure the thickness? With a micrometer or set of digital calipers or ?
@@creative8569 Hi! I just found your comment while trying to figure out if I could use this method for silver plating over brass. Did you have any success?
Really?!!! I think it's irritating as f#*k. Good vid, pity about the "Tony" voice (from The Shining (1980)). At least that's what it reminded me of (..."Redrum! Redrum! Redrum!").
I'm glad I watched this. I was initially going to do brush plating and buying everything I needed to do that, but you showed me how to make metal salts instead of buying them premade (at incredibly inflated prices, based on the process I just watched.) Going to try this with some conductive coated 3d printed parts. :)
Thanks for the clear tutorial! Thought I would share something I found out that may help others avoid my mistake. I ended up getting small square blocks of nickel to use as an anode. I suspended them in the electrolyte with copper wire, I thought (wrongly) if the part thats getting plated can be hung with copper wire so can the anode... DO NOT DO THIS. It makes sense now but as the nickel was dissolving so was the copper wire suspending it. I ended up with a nickel/copper solution which turns parts a nasty blotchy dark grey colour. I started again making sure it was only zinc submerged in the solution and I am getting great results.
Jeff Stone from what I can tell on the anode side it should only be the metal you want to plate that should be submerged. If you also submerge wire of a different metal on the anode side you’ll get a mixture of both metals in the solution. It doesn’t matter on the other side that’s holding the item you’re plating.
@@blairwightman I see, yeah, that one flew past me at first. Looks like the best way suspend the nickel or whatever is used to do the plating is to allow some of it to be suspended out of the solution to hook up to, kinda like this gentleman does using strips that can be bent over the top of the jar or vessel that's being used.
I am dying to try this, but my local grocery stores do not carry Yoplait Natural Greek Yogurt so I cannot get a container. I will have to find somewhere online to order some before I can try my hand at plating metals.
Since this video was released , there has been a shortage of these containers . In desperation , people have turned to using other brands of yoghurt but with CATASTROPIC results e.g. the sinking of the Titanic and the election of Donald Trump .
I used an old toilette seat cover, works as well........you just have to smash the top cover with a hammer over your oven, so the plastic melts and gets concave........the ring cover is usefull later as a frisbee to play with your dog or neighbour.
If I remember my high school chemistry correctly the gas being released in the bubbles is hydrogen? If you capture it with a dome over the container you can power your car with it, it might even take you millimetres far...
zinc plating = galvanizing....VERY VERY VERY resilient in the weather...however they usually dip the part in molten zinc rather than electroplating..but very very cool!
![Tee Grizzley - Blow for Blow (feat. J. Cole) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wNLN5xsx5dc/mqdefault.jpg)
This is really one of the best plating primers on RUclips. Simple and direct. No nonsense, so you can actually sit and take notes. You could be a teacher!
Pretty sure every chemistry teacher I ever had did the high pitch voice thing too
He is :)
This video is:
1) Simple, easy to understand
2) goes straight to the point without intro, B.S. ads and other crap
3) is saturated with an amazing, needed information
4) no annoying background music
5) clear, clean sound
6) should be a tutorial for RUclipsrs who ended up in hell for making crapy videos and now have to go trough soul cleanse( yes its like bowel cleansing, but with added turbo, blue-flame colored fire and no handles on sides of toilet seat for one to hold on to).
Me?
Im gonna wrap myself in blanket and continue my couched, judgmental video observations, with my expert knowledge of everything.
You sir, are doing a service for humanity and we humans are thankful for that
Exactly.
Yeah, but without the silly girly girl voice! That's the only part I didn't like! The rest was interesting but the voice put me off. Love from Amanda in Melbourne, Australia ❤️ 😉
I like the siil voice. When I read troll comments, I will read them in that voice from now on !
@@Freedbird BRILLIANT!!!!👍🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Very informative.
My dad was a chromium electroplater (his trade). Sure, he also did Nickel, zinc and bronze plating, but his job was mostly around the chromium.
Poly- and hexa-valent chromium are some scary things that you really shouldn't screw around with unless you know what you are doing. They WILL give you cancer (and when it comes to lung-cancer risk scale from the fumes, "Smoking 2-packs a day" doesn't even rate on that scale.)
Geoffrey Crocker I took your advice and have successfully Nickel Plated some screws for my 1928 Ford Model A Sport Coupe car. Thanks a lot for your most excellent and straight forward video which is easy to use.
Ordered the stuff to give this a go! I have some 3D prints that I want to plate and I don't want to spend too much, so this was an incredibly encouraging and straightforward video!
The prints will need to be conductive. I've seen a video where they sprayed on a conductive paint and plated that. Look up "Electroplating 3D Prints | Thermal Detonator"
what way did you go with the power supply? i've had an issue finding something like what he uses in the video
Great video! a lot of antique cars people thought had chrome but was actually "nickel" that was highly polished. The magic is in the preparation and polishing. Thanks for the great video!
To check the thickness on any plated part ,tape the test piece on 2 sides .When the tape is removed you can determine the plating thickness.
@@henniebouwmans7879 yes, it will work great with gold, but just remember that most gold is only .58% pure when it’s 14K or 78% pure at 18K. So, if you are wanting to do a 24K gold plate, you will want to use pure 24K .9999 Gold, or refine your own gold. Also with gold, you can either use Gold Anodes, or Stainless Steel Anodes when electroplating, which will save you a bit on pure Gold Anodes.
@@johnhines374 thanks john
OMG TY
Thank you, now I'm retired I'm dabbling in all the stuff I didn't do as a kid, really enjoyed your video.
What a great video, thank you for the clear and concise introduction to electroplating. The commentary was humorous and informative. I'm looking forward to doing this with some antique car parts for the engine bay. It will look nicer than painting them silver!
very good video Geoffrey!! i'm going to give this a try. i need to nickel some parts made out of brass i guess, but i'm not 100% sure, could be copper aswell. if it's copper i can nickel directly right? if it's brass i need to copper it first before nickel?
I think Nickel can go over either no problem.
i just covered a copper pipe with nickel
Can you replace copper ? I have copper knobs on stove , the plating is wearing off .
@@GeoffreyCroker What am I doing something WRONG? I zinc plated my bolts and than deposited into a Nickel plating bath. But after the nickel plating it looks like the zinc coating somehow got removed. Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thank you
@@Asian_Connection Check the video description, "Don’t try and plate over zinc plated parts with anything other than zinc. The zinc will destroy the nickel/copper solutions. I mean, don’t let me stop you experimenting, but that’s probably what will happen."
You are brilliant thats all i have to say.
@@BillFromTheHill100 it’s called being nice, maybe try it some time instead of being an internet bully.
Oms engineering works
Asdfgh
So are you man
@@walkmanstudios9733 very kind of you
I thumbs upped as soon as I heard "But where do get nickel from??" 😂 Thanks for the walkthrough. Science project for my kid... incoming!!
I've watched this a few times now just for the entertainment value.
Finally someone knows how to make a simple intro video for electroplating
This video saved me from buying a $400 electroplating rectifier. 🙏🏻
You could build an electroplating rectifier lol
The best tutorial I've ever watched
Hi, thanks your educational video, I have been able to successfully nickel plate some keys I made as a locksmith. thank you
Thanks a lot. I now have a copper and nickel solution for electroplating without the extra cost.
Is it just me or does this guy give off massive sass and smartassery vibes
This is seriously the best video! Soooo informative with a bit of humour! I love it lol "but what about the salt" hahah
"Anything that pumps out less than an amp will do". A powersuppy which is capable of 1000A at 1.5V, and a powersupply which is capable of 1A at 1.5V will both provide exactly the same current if the load is more than 1.5 Ohm, I'd imagine that the voltage of the supply matters a lot too.
Fantastic post Geoff. Very insightful and entertaining. Well done 👍
Bogs Dolloks, muts nuts and more that I can't think @ this moment in time!!! TFS, GB :)
As soon as you were done pouring the vinegar... I got thirsty and wanted a drink
Hmmm. I was a science teacher 40 years ago. We taught from the Clearway resource book. This experiment was in there.
BUT ... it said as a warning to use a very low voltage, < 2 V. If you use too high a voltage, instead of plating, the object will give off hydrogen bubbles and will turn black. I did this every time to show the boys not to turn the voltage up. So it's a mystery to me how you are getting a different result.
Question, can you use stainless steel containers to but the parts in which will be galvanized?
"Plating at home! Sweet, wonder how you would do hard chrome."
-if you try to chrome plate you will die-
"Oh... Okay then."
Hard chrome is different because it doesn't use chrome anodes that dissolve in an acid. The chrome is a ore which, after processing, is dissolved in water. Lead is used for an anode. With the proper facility, equipment and training it's relatively safe, but not recommended for home use. It involves some strong acids and the chromic acid bath and fumes are carcinogenic. Disposal of a spent bath is also a problem, it's not something you should dump out on your back yard.
I think this might be the perfect video. Well done mate.
This video is very helpful. I have some knitting needles that were plated in chrome but have become used
This is a wet process but the humor is very dry, which I appreciate.
Q: (..in high-pitched voice) Can I plate aluminum?
You can add some root killer, that contains copper sulfate, to help with copper plating.
I love how you selected batteries brand : Dick Smith !
Beautiful video and very perfect illustration.
Nice video informative and some interesting commentary Thanks ! And you didn't show us how to open the box
Love your videos over here in the UK, very informative. Don't suppose you know what the post plating stage is to dye the parts gold do you? Thanks
Passivation
I wanted to thank you as well. I have followed your directions and tried zinc and nickel. Both work very well and I am impressed at how simple and satisfying it was. BTW I was able to use roofing zinc strip that is used to resist moss. I had a roll in the shed. I also found that using ProForm Surface Cleaner Spray PF511 does an excellent job of degreasing with a plain tap water rinse.
hahahah I loooveee the little "but what about the "voice
Nice one dude! Great work
This video and its author are superb.
Very cool, I've just bought a plating machine.😊
I hope you get this thanks so much for all your helpful information I have my father's plane metal necklace cross charm that he wore it for a very long time and up to the day he passed away and I want to try and gold plate it but I'm wondering if I need to plate said charm with stainless first?
Kia ora Geof!. I'm from Colombia and recently bought an LR SIII 88" like yours, I'm thinking to built an "DIY pool" whit pallets and plastics in my garage for making Chassis and bulkhead electrolysis rust removal and later, making Zinc Plating. I investigate about Hot-Dip Galvanizing too, its a little expensive and I cannot make it DIY 😂
what do you think about that idea vs Hot-Dip Galvanizing the chassis and bulkhead of LRSIII?
Greetings from Bogota. your channel is the best!
Hahaha. I think you are a crazy person 😆😁. Electrolysis might go ok, but electroplating something that size would be a new record!
Amazing informative video but the bell dings set dogs in panic mode so I'm unable to actually watch it all the way through at home
This video is funny as hell
Welp. I'm doing a science experiment this weekend.
Great job on tutoring this,..my question as several others here.:
Do you have a tutorial on gold chromatic/plating..
I believe that in gold plating the gold is in a solution with cyanide (at least in the plant that I worked at) so that wouldn't be ideal for home use.
High level acid like...
I'm an electroplater in Germany. Gold and Silver are almost always cyanidic, which make them very dangerous.
Chrome-VI (Sorry for the missing + fellow chemists) can cause cancer. Because of that, you can only use existing equipment for that in germany. Chrome-III is less dangerous, but way more complicated.
Another difficulty is that you can't use Chrome anodes, you have to use led or titanium anodes and add the Chrome through chromic acid.
Sorry for my English :)
@@Martin-hc6cm Hey mate. How is zinc-nickel combo plating should be done? Make two separate proceses like zinc first and then the nickeling? Or maybe nickle it in the zinc electrolite?
Great video,, do gold plating next.
Hey thanks for the vid. Are you worried about sodium ions from the salt becoming part of the plating and causing defects? Or does the sodium stay in solution do you think?
Very useful video..
Good work..
Does the thickness of the anode matters??
I have got 2 zinc anode that are relatively thick, about 1cm...
Will it work?
Thanks for the video!
What is the minimum quantity of nickle that e bay will supply?
I wish i watched it sooner before covering everything in nail polish xD
Great job, well done sir
What happens if I touch that conducting liquid during conduction?
Then that finger gets electroplated
Gold finger
Great on point instructional video thank you.
Tried it with chrome works well
awesome video!
How thick in thousandths can you make the nickel plate Geoffrey ??? How about plating parts that are two foot long ??? Any special setups Sir ??? Thanks, VF
Great video, thanks. I would imagine the same method would apply to silver plating if you can find the thin silver strips...? Would two silver one ounce bars work as well to create the silver solution?
First of all thanks for the video! truly great!
I have a quick doubt: Is it possible to Graphene plate a metal? I`d like to do exactly whats on the video but using graphene oxide but i dont know if its possible. The idea i have is actually coat with graphene some copper/aluminium parts. What could i do to achieve this? Or it isn`t possible? Thanks!
Greqt video. Thank tou. Have you tried rhodium?
I want my pieces quarter plated, and I need to do it on a dime.
This video is awesome 👌
What would be the difference in the process with an alkaline base (baking soda and table salt) solution for plating the same metals as in amperage, voltage and duration
yes ther is a barrier not having vinegar ANDY VINEGER
where would I find a power supply like that?
thank you a lot.You have helpt me .
Great vid!!!
How deep is the coating. How long would I have to leave it for a depth of about 0.002". How would I coat a small part of a larger component but leave the rest as is.
What if you wanted to electroplate two layers. Would you have to polish the first layer ?
"Its green... like green Gatorade"
My first thought: "Its got electrolytes"
_It's got what electrochemical surface treatment plants CRAVE_
@David Galyon Yeah, well, I've never seen no electroplated parts come out of no toilet.
Welcome to idiocracy er I mean the free UK
@@davidharris5736 Australia 😴 get it right...
Its got what plants crave
That "but where do i get the nickel from?" Was beautiful.
And the "but what about the salt" lol
Okay, all of the voices are beautiful
You're right, they were fantastic 👏
Top tier voice acting, 'twas a thing of beauty indeed.
Fantastic great intro to electroplating
The lower the amp, the more the detail.
Cool, but why?
@@josemateovargasreina5541 I'm not 100% sure but it would slow the reaction down and the "speed" at which the positively charged metal ions are slamming into the the negatively charged cathode, which may help evenly coat the surface with less dendrite formation (less mountains and valleys microscopically) If you look at the physics 1) Amps are a measure of electrical current flow and 2) electric flow tends to take the path of least resistance 3) build up of available positively charged metal ions. At a higher AMP the flow would be more direct to the path of least resistance, meaning the point on the cathode/part closest to the anode/(closing the circuit) Now when you decrease the "flow" it will slowly act more dispersed and more evenly coat the piece due to the speed of the positively charged metal ion being pushed from the anode to the cathode. kind of like how you use a can of spray paint 18 inches away for best results instead of 1 inch away (higher flow and amp rate) This is also why it is important to flip your product to more evenly coat.
Gaaaaayyyy
I used to work in an electroplating facility in Syracuse, NY called Anoplate. This setup is pretty primitive but the basics are there and yeah, that's how it works. I used to work on the nickle line and the black chrome line. Ever notice how some metal parts are black but super shiny? That's black chrome. Anoplate had a contract with GM to do the plating on their car parts and I was the only person allowed to do the black chrome on them.
So if you've ever seen a Corvette made between 2003-2006, that hood ornament was made by me.
Would this method work for brass?
@@twill9278 You could electroplate a brass finish on something but as brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, you would probably have to put a layer of pure copper on first and then plate the brass on top of the copper for better adhesion.
@@R3troZone
Thanks. I'll give that a try.
I have pure copper decorative coins
what electrolyte/electrodes do you use for black chromium?
@@s9k328 I don't remember the details. It was almost 20 years ago at this point.
how did you know my voice sounds like that when asking questions?
Gaaayyyy
I’m watching this for a third time just so I can hear you say “but where do I get the nickel from?”
@@AEON. Probably illegal - don't tell your patriotic friends.
@@AEON. I will only bend down for quarters - small change gets swept up and thrown away, it actually feels good to throw them out.
Easy from a roll of nickels.
I watched it again so I could hear him say "a bit smutty."
An anode is a sacrificial block of either zinc or aluminum alloy available at boat yards
It only works if you use a natural Greek yoghurt container. DO NOT use flavoured yoghurt containers.
I was super keen to give it a go.... then I realised, we only eat Vanilla yoghurt. And it's Organic, which would probably cause some sort of explosion!
Does it have to be authentic Greek yoghurt? Or can you use Greek style yoghurt?
@@MrJimmyjammmy It has to be original and from '' FAGE ''
OMG - I used a VANILLA flavoured Yogurt container . The reason I know is , I ate some of the plastic - it was definitely VANILLARish .LOL
😂😂😂😂😂
Back when I worked as a photolab technician we would drop copper pennies I to exhausted film fixr .
after a few minutes it would start to grow little silver whiskers , they werent pure silver as the copper contaminated the silver.
A simplified explaination of this is your film has light sensitive silver salts that are needed for exposure and are removed during processing being dissolved in the fixer (typically sodium thiosulfate) a typical recycling strategy was to flow the solution through a steel wool filter then send it to kodak.
At one of the labs I worked at they did not recover the silver from the one hour film processors so I put a ball of oooo steel wool into the waste tank, the silver dissolved in the fixer would exchange for the iron in steel wool and after a while you would have silver wool.
Doing this for 4 years I ended up with 8 pounds of silver after refining. Every girl I went out with for years got a handmade silver ring also I made a crossguard for a longsword I made.
Fun times
That was a long time ago. You are an original medieval time lord.
Cool knowledge tho !!
Len Burton
wow
really?
A friend who worked as a photo lab technician told us an interesting story about the day they demolished the old darkroom, and tore out the copper sink drain...
Immediately after you said "fixer" I recalled that nasty smell it would put on my hands (yes I often used bare hands). Yes, I'm that old
This is the best detailed video on RUclips. Thank you so much for taking your valuable time to make this. Very detailed and simple to understand the process. Great job!!
Workshop hint: If you have a taper threaded fitting or plug for a hydraulic port which is slightly undersize (or more likely, you tapped the hole a whisker too deep) you can recover the situation by plating a heavy layer of copper onto the fitting. It is soft enough to conform to the mating thread on tightening, and provide a leakproof connection.
honestly it's a really good idea to plate a leaky valve in copper as it will provide a better seal than teflon tape.
@@eve_squared Indeed. I forgot to mention that it doesn't matter that the copper (if a heavy deposit is formed) will be composed of thousands of tiny peaks and valleys, like a cat's tongue. It all squishes down as the taper-thread joint is tightened due to the remarkable ductility of pure copper.
@@Gottenhimfella honestly it's a great trick to know especially if you have a shop air system since compressing air can get expensive with leaks. It reminds me of that video of the researchers getting vacuums measured by atoms per cubic meter by sealing it with copper gaskets.
In the 1970's I worked for an electroplating firm (since bankrupted by fines from unsafe disposal of chemical waste). We used to 'jiggle' the items being plated to make the bubbles break free of their surfaces. In some case it was a vibration and others it was moving the whole rack of items side to side. We also plated nut and bolts in huge nylon drums that rotated to keep them moving and contacting at different points. We did the lot: Nickel, copper, zinc, silver and even gold. If it could be electroplated, we electroplated with it!
One friend of the owner brought in a pair of P100 headlamps off his pre-war Rolls to be gold plated to make them shine with a yellow cast to the beams.
Meanwhile I'm assuming that citric acid might be as good as vinegar (acetic acid) as you can make it to the concentration you require by dissolving more or fewer crystals in the water. I usually have half to a kilo or so on hand for home brewing purposes. It's also good for cleaning copper utensils and ornaments.
Can I use a 12v car battery for power supply
@@bigbomb5904 For zinc it will be too much amperage and form grains. You might get away with moving the anode and cathode (positive piece and negative piece) further away
Copper does plate to bare steel. You need a copper sulfate solution and a piece of copper for an anode. Copper sulfate is available as root killer and comes in crystal form. The plating procedure is identical. Parts that are triple chrome plated are copper, nickel, chrome. The copper is applied first to help fill in any pits in the surface.
@Isaac Allgood Absolutely no idea, give it a try?
If you watch the video again, you'll see him demonstrate a seed nickel plated layer on steel followed by copper plating. Works every time.
@Isaac Allgood I tried it with copper and the blue stuff didn't really mix with the salt water . Just like small blue flakes. It also didn't plate.
Hi Paul the copper isn't to fill pits though this might be a by product of it. The copper is to prevent corrosion as chrome is porous, nickel less porous and the copper prevents water etc reach the steel. As you probably know many companies don't triple plate and the playing won't last anywhere near as long.
What about aluminum?
1. Chrome? No. Chromium will kill you. You can replicate chrome at home with a Cobalt-Nickel mix.
2. Yes copper can be plated directly onto steel - I am aware. But this vinegar mix and most of the other DIY copper plating kits work better if you flash the part with nickel first. Commercial platers use entirely different and much harsher chemicals and copper plating directly to steel is normal for them.
3. The next person who tells me that I'm responsible for telling everyone how to dispose of waste properly can punch themselves in the face. RING YOU LOCAL COUNCIL/WASTE DISPOSAL PEOPLE AND ASK THEM. There's probably a hundred businesses in your local town that have to regularly dispose of chemicals/oils/poisons/paint. Hint - they're not asking a guy on youtube if they should mix it with soap and mermaid scales and then sprinkle it on the neighbours broccoli...
Most so-called chrome plated things are actually bright nickel plated anyway. If you get original parts replated that's typically what they'll use too.
Alright, thanks 👌
Do a cobalt nickel video! I'm very keen to see the chrome effect. I'll send you something small to plate :)
Chromium is a supplement too
*squeaky voice * but where do I get cobalt? lol
Thank you I had no idea this was so easy. I’m actually regretting some builds in the past now knowing I could have so easily nickel or copper plated them
We're all thinking about how we could have done past projects better but that's the evolution of an artist
just wish I had a jar big enough to put auto parts in .. my truck in copper would be cool .. this was a good video
@@randytravis3998 Inflatable pool and an old stick welder are pretty cheap. It's the 500 gallons of vinegar that you'll need that'll be expensive. :D
@@button-puncher just mix it yourself. its just acetic acid with water. you need around 5% and you can get 3 gallons of 60% acetic acid for around 30€
@@randytravis3998 get one of the pens and the fluff that goes over top of it, then paint it on. It works with the fancy kits so it should work DIY
Could this be done using an alloy? Would the two metals transfer equally into the electrolyte and would they then be deposited equally on the cathode workpiece?. Perhaps making up the electrolyte using one metal followed by the other? I am thinking in regard to brass plating using copper and zinc.
Best beginner guide on this I’ve see, thanks for doing this. You saved me from buying an overly expensive plating kit. I’m off to get some jars, yogurt 😉, vinegar and salt.
How did you get on Donna? Did it work for you?
@@jamiewright1594 yea, did it work for you? Because I am going to do it.
If you weigh the metal your going to plate before and after the plating you'll find out how much its been plated. Also if the copper isn't pure not to worry as the impurities most likely will not be transferred to the target material. Electrolysis is actually how they purify copper, as impurities will not travel through the solution (or at least nowhere near the rate that copper will).
Amazing tutorial. Straight to the point. Those bell-dings are louder than a babies scream and I thought my ears were going to bleed. Extremely grateful for your help, and I keep revisiting this tutorial to see if I missed anything.
04:15 very funny, when you show the sign again ;-) I love that kinda humor!
I do this all day long at my job and I've been looking for a way to show my kids what daddy does at work....this is amazing, I will doing it to show them this weekend. Awesome "for dummies" style video, I had no idea it was this easy to do at home, I'm gonna be showing them on this long holiday weekend we have. Great video, Sir, you got my sub for sure!!
Hey J, I’m getting ready to try gold, black rhodium and silver plating for my job. We have a lot of old bracelets, rings etc... that all have small pave set stones. Any tips for a beginner, I’m kinda going in this blindly aside from a few yt tutorials. But nobody shows plating with a lot of small stones. Any experience in that field? I appreciate any help. Thank you! -Jay
The plating is all over solid Brass, if that helps any. We Just have a lot of old, worn out tarnished jewelry showing the brass underneath.
I plate cylinders for the printing press. Pleased to meet you fellow chromers. I too will be using this video to show my kids 😁
@@aspectratio6580 So what is a good plating thickness for something that will see some outdoor weather and how do you measure the thickness? With a micrometer or set of digital calipers or ?
@@creative8569 Hi! I just found your comment while trying to figure out if I could use this method for silver plating over brass. Did you have any success?
I like how we sound when we ask you questions... 😝
That's the voice I hear when I read through the comments 😁
Geoffrey Croker Good, because it seemed to not be in a New Zealand accent and my New Zealand accent is terrible.
PMSL each time
@joseph watson nz
Really?!!! I think it's irritating as f#*k.
Good vid, pity about the "Tony" voice (from The Shining (1980)).
At least that's what it reminded me of (..."Redrum! Redrum! Redrum!").
im laughing so hard at his voice when asking questions.
It's martizas voice that pewds does hahaha *pasta noises*
@@davidtooley420 Pewdipie after seeing this video: "I electroplated 69 tamborines with Thulium(atomic number 69)"
@@sahilamerkar516 that's no simp, big pp
Thanks, great video. I'll use a higher pitch when I ask questions in the future. :)
I'm glad I watched this. I was initially going to do brush plating and buying everything I needed to do that, but you showed me how to make metal salts instead of buying them premade (at incredibly inflated prices, based on the process I just watched.) Going to try this with some conductive coated 3d printed parts. :)
Really great video, thought the very clear “baby steps” instructions were spot on, thanks for posting 👍
Thanks for the clear tutorial! Thought I would share something I found out that may help others avoid my mistake. I ended up getting small square blocks of nickel to use as an anode. I suspended them in the electrolyte with copper wire, I thought (wrongly) if the part thats getting plated can be hung with copper wire so can the anode... DO NOT DO THIS. It makes sense now but as the nickel was dissolving so was the copper wire suspending it. I ended up with a nickel/copper solution which turns parts a nasty blotchy dark grey colour. I started again making sure it was only zinc submerged in the solution and I am getting great results.
Haha, yeah. This is why I reckon people should start with vinegar instead of fancy brews. Awesome to hear you're getting good plating results 👍👍👍
What kind of wire should you hang them from? Just regular steel wire?
Jeff Stone from what I can tell on the anode side it should only be the metal you want to plate that should be submerged. If you also submerge wire of a different metal on the anode side you’ll get a mixture of both metals in the solution. It doesn’t matter on the other side that’s holding the item you’re plating.
@@blairwightman I see, yeah, that one flew past me at first. Looks like the best way suspend the nickel or whatever is used to do the plating is to allow some of it to be suspended out of the solution to hook up to, kinda like this gentleman does using strips that can be bent over the top of the jar or vessel that's being used.
@Michael Walter Good to know, thank you!
I am dying to try this, but my local grocery stores do not carry Yoplait Natural Greek Yogurt so I cannot get a container. I will have to find somewhere online to order some before I can try my hand at plating metals.
Since this video was released , there has been a shortage of these containers . In desperation , people have turned to using other brands of yoghurt but with CATASTROPIC results e.g. the sinking of the Titanic and the election of Donald Trump .
The only substitute is a one gallon ice cream tub. Which also gives you more working room. :)
I used an old toilette seat cover, works as well........you just have to smash the top cover with a hammer over your oven, so the plastic melts and gets concave........the ring cover is usefull later as a frisbee to play with your dog or neighbour.
@@d.t.4523
PVC buckets should work well.
Carl D
Some are trying to Diet, and some are Dying to try it.
If I remember my high school chemistry correctly the gas being released in the bubbles is hydrogen? If you capture it with a dome over the container you can power your car with it, it might even take you millimetres far...
was literally thinking ooh what would happen with a lit splint in there :D I miss my chemistry classes.
zinc plating = galvanizing....VERY VERY VERY resilient in the weather...however they usually dip the part in molten zinc rather than electroplating..but very very cool!
Great video. Removes the fear of trying it out. Good clear explanation. Well done!
DAMMMMMMMMIT!!!!! I don't have a Greek yogurt container...only regular yogurt. SON OF A...!!
I am going to try it, anyway. I will be anger-plating.
🤣🤣🤣🤣