Easiest Copper Plating Method Revealed
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- Опубликовано: 10 янв 2015
- This is probably the easiest way to create reliable, attractive copper plate on many different metals. Plating can be tricky, but this method comes as close as I've ever seen to being "foolproof." Which is great, for a fool like me! :-)
This video includes the first FATALITY that I've had in any of my my videos so far. So please, lets always wear our safety gear!
I have a more detailed plating video at:
• Easy Nickel And Copper...
Music Attribution:
Darkness Speaks Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Deep Haze Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Heavenly Choir and images: Wiki commons
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b... 
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quick and to the point. if only all instructional videos could be the same.
I decided to do some plating this morning, and watched the video on plating with muriatic (hydrochloric) acid. I live in the country, and didn't want to drive to town to buy muiratic, so I went to the pantry, and sure nuff, there was a container of Lysol brand toilet bowl cleaner, which has 9.5% hydrochloric acid, and 90.5% "other" ingredients. This stuff is thick and dark blue out of the container. I set up my plating bath, using the toilet bowl cleaner as it came out of the container (no further dilution), and a piece of scrap copper tubing used in house plumbing for the anode (+).
I was plating some new cast iron pipe fittings, and some steel black iron pipe. I washed the cast fittings with Comet cleanser, and lightly sanded the black iron pipe with 220 grit sandpaper before starting the plating process.
I used two fresh AA batteries for the electrical source. I started off with the plating solution on a cold hot plate, and it took a total of 20 minutes to get the desired level of plating on the first piece. As the solution heated up to about 200 degrees F, subsequent platings took less and less time. I am still plating the fittings as I peck this out, and each piece is now down to 7-8 minutes. The finish is bright, uniform, and durable.
As each piece comes out of the plating process, I wash it under running water, and spray the piece with vammonia solution to "kill" any remaining acid. I'm very pleased with the results. It worked better than many other techniques that I have tried in the past. Cast iron and black iron pipe (actually steel) come from the manufacturer with a pickling oil on them (or black paint on the pipe) to keep them from rusting in the store.
I did not have to do anything special to get rid of the oil, but I removed the paint with an electric wire whee before plating. This process seems to be very forgiving, not requiring any extraordinary prep work to make sure the parts to be plated are extra clean. The results are consistant from one piece to another. I'll do my plating with this technique from now on.
Just to experiment a bit, I replaced the copper anode with a piece of brass. The next piece came out copper colored instead of brass. Not surprising, because there was a lot of copper in the solution left from previous plating. Brass might plate out if I start with fresh solution. That will be a nice next experinment.
The copper tubing anode has noticably dissolved into the toilet bowl cleaner, so it puts a pretty thick layer of copper on the pipe.
Good description of your procedure...thanks
Brass is an alloy (a mixture-not chemically bonded) of copper and zinc. Only elements are plated in a double substitution chemical reaction. Copper is the main component of brass so if you kept plating, this is all you would see until all the surface copper is gone.
can u send me u're link please
... clean iron or its alloy articles thoroughly & immerse them in a dilute solution of Copper Sulphate or Copper Chloride. You may find Copper is deposited on the surface depended up on solution concentration. U can try with other metals/alloys like Brass, Bronz etc, but I can't give any guarantee.
Great idea. I know countries where muriatic acid is not allowed to buy. It happened I live in one. I will try out said toilet cleaner and some pure copper plates I have. Would be nice corrosion resistant shield for suspension nuts and bolts.
With that voice of yours, sir, you should be working as a radio personality!
Only if he can learn to shut the hello up on the tangents...
The real money is in Audiobooks honestly.
.
Yeah he has a really nice voice.
Mat Helm OMG! He meanders around, overexplaining the minutia of th...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Came here for a quick curiousity and not only was it informative and easy to understand, the gnat heaven part gave me a chuckle!
Very gnattily done... ;) -- Good sound, great detail, well done camera work, pacing and editing. Thank you!
The previous poster is right, you have a real broadcast voice. Made the tutorial a pleasure to listen to!
thank you very much. This is great way to improvide hard to find part with longer time and thick plating. Bravo
RIP gnat. We will remember you.
Gnat?
Thank you. This may come in handy for re-plating a soldering iron tip.
Love this! Cant wait to try this on different parts of my motorcycle. Love the durability of it compared to paint.
How she turn out?
@@kevrehab6959 oh how I wish I could say wonderful! Unfortunately I've become quit ill and a lot has been put aside. But I still have her and plan on working on her and riding again💚🌿
Wish you well
Very nice set of videos Stan, well done.
Nice video! I tried it, and made a video using some spare change and it seemed to work out pretty well! I polished the coins using some vinegar, salt and flour and made a video. The coins turned out pretty neat looking!
I did this with a tuning fork. It worked out great thanks mate!
Thank you for sharing this method , really informative.
Had to give a thumbs up ~just~ to give my proper respects to Mr. Gnat. Sir, you're a genuine saint for honoring this poor lost soul!
The nail is zinc plated and that’s why the copper is a durable finish. Raw cold rolled steel, normally won’t take a copper electroplating method as described.
That was great and funny! Loved the video, going to use your set up to copper plate an old set of golf iron heads. Removing old chrome plating first using electrolysis.
WOW! That's exactly what I wanted to do that with a half dollar too! Either way, it was very informative :)
Mr. Gnat is with us in our hearts. Our thoughts go out to his family.
That being said, this video is great and your other ones too! Very informative and valuable tips. Thanks!
Thank you SOOO much, for such an awesome video.
straight and to the point!! Thanks!!!
Great instructional video thanks for posting.
"always add acid to water" instant thumbs up.
Only if acid is causing exothermic reaction with water. Sulfuric acid you better add to water. You can add water to HCl.
@@Platingisfun Exothermic reaction pertains to chemical reactions only. Heat produced by Sulphuric acid & water is physical reaction only hence not exothermic.
@@hannanpakthini7221 Your chemistry teacher is bad. H2SO4 + H2O → H3O+ + HSO here you go. Is it a chemical reaction or not? But you are smarter than my cat.
AKA more heavy to less heavy
Adding a reagent (acid, base, etc etc) to water means you initially create a low concentration, then, as you add more reagent more concentrated. In this way you avoid a super concentrated solution of your reagent.
Exothermic or endothermic is interesting but irrelevant. There is no such thing as a 'physical reaction' in the case of chemistry.
Your commentary on Mr Gnat was just brilliant 😂
Thank u so much, u helped me so much with my exams. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
Worked great for our project. Great big thanks. Alternate power source: 12v trickle charger.
Aw, man! I'm going to have to try this!
awesome! i want to try this now
Well done, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the very informative video, and thanks for keeping it snappy. So many videos are much longer than they should be and do not respect the viewer's time.
I had a crazy idea many years ago to use a copper water pipe as the anode and put a thin copper plating onto cast lead bullets. They aren't the same as copper jacketed bullets (FMJ) and they shoot more like cast lead bullets, but they don't need messy bullet lube to prevent lead deposits in the bore of a firearm. I was thinking of an automated machine that would plate the bullets for me. It's one of those projects I never got around to doing. Your video has me thinking about that project again. RUclips is a dangerous place for me. :-)
RIP Mr. Gnat.
Liberty4Ever
The acid that was used I need the chemical composition (different country different brands). Please.
Hydrochloric acid HCl + H2O=H3O+ + Cl-
Very cool I didn't know you could do that so simply. Thanks
Thanks!
Never underestimate the stupidity of other people. You just know some idiot will substitute the battery for a car charger (though it shouldn't draw much) and do it in an enclosed place with no circulation and may even leave it unattended (possibly causing a short in such a small bowl) and generate enough hydrogen to at least get scared if they happen to light a cigarette in the vicinity.
Pcb plating
Invent something that is idiot proof, and a better idiot will evolve. Basic genetics. LOL
ckgirod 🈵🈴☯️a
So cool! Thank you!
You also don’t add a base to acid because then it is the acid that separates and splashes back together to potentially splash out of the container. Great video my friend!
Very cool did not know it was so easy. I need to try this to solder some copper to steel to make an LED heat Sink.
Thanks for a GREAT VIDEO !!! Little Willie was a chemist, but he is no more. For what he thought was H2O, was H2SO4. Muriatic acid is not sulfuric acid, it is hydrochloric acid, I just liked the poem. Just one more thing, Varnado toilet bowl cleaner, and The Works toilet bowl cleaner are both hydrochloric acid (other additives might ruin the final product). Both are readily available in the grocery store or places like Target, K-mart, etc.
Thanks a lot. I tried a lot of recipes and was always disappointed. I followed the instructions and it worked perfectly on bare steel. I think the trick is to begin with an electrolyte without copper to avoid any chemical reaction. Great tutorial.
Excellent! This will be so useful for projects. You mention that it is thin but also very durable, but I wonder how this would fair on an item with day-to-day wear. Is there a method for making this thicker? Do you just repeat it, or leave it in for much longer?
Interesting vid ! Thanks!
Cool video and a cool voice man ! Thumbs up ! 👍👍
Great video, right to the point.
Do you think a stir rod on a stir plate would be enough agitation?
cool. Thanks! do you have one this easy for gold plating?
Works great. You have a 5 Amp battery, and I started with a 12v power supply on 20 Amps but it was overheating. Went down to 10.
The gnat tribute really got me hahaha XD
Really cool video.
Just to be a sure, what is the concentration of the Muriatic from the hardware store?
Best regards Svend
This is so much more convenient than the other methods I've seen!! Question, should I use any conductive paint on non-metallic objects that I want to plate?
You would obviously need a conductive surface to plate.
One less gnat.
Thanks for the video. I'll sub.
Great information video sir thanks
Thanks for info, especially about using the muriatic acid and simple batteries. I'm interested in this for jewelry making, can't wait to start playing around with this. Question, can you reuse the water/acid solution?
Yes,it will last forever!
That’s awesome 👏
Never before have I been so emotional toward a gnat :,(
From memory the ideal voltage for plating is just above the differential voltage of the materials used, eg if you were plating carbon with zinc you would need just a little bit over 1.5V
I have to try this....great speaking voice btw
that method would initial eat most metals before you even get the solution full of copper ions to increase the ph and start the plating. The best method for beginner plating would be to get root kill copper sulfate from a hard ware store. then add NH3 NaNO3 and Oxalic acid. Look up non cyanide alkaline copper bath composition.
Joseph Gruenberg yeah ive had metals corrode. But cant you use both copper anodes and cathodes until its saturated?
Joseph Gruenberg bgg
Joseph Gruenberg Ok
The poor gnat! Rest in pease little guy.
Thank you for this set of cool, informative videos.
I see beautifully shiny copper objects around, like pans, coins or cpu heatsinks. As far as it is seen on these videos, (although still beautiful in one sense) most plating ends up with a rusty looking matte finish. How is the polished look been achieved?
Nezih Kanbur careful alluminum cools better then copper and plating alluminum is different
use less current/Limit the amount of current to something like 3ma or 0.003Amps for somthing tiny as a nail and keep the electrolysis for about 24 hours. then the plating will be verrryyy nice like real copper. the lower the current the better it gets. Hope my reply helps if so then only leave a like
0000 Steel Wool
I guess you could call it a Gnatural result of swimming in acid, thanks for the vid
"See the previous video"
Previous video: Spider green screen stock footage.
Really cool, thinkin about trying this on a guitar pickup. Ever tried anything like that?
Thanks for the video ;
So you only need to stir the nail at the beginning of the process ? ...
Nice video
Excellent video. Definitely a radio voice. Is there something similar for tin plating PCB etched circuit boards?
Thanks a bunch!
let us find the effect of potential difference on the plating deposition rate.
Also factors on which uniformity of plating thickness depends.
How does this compare to your Root Kill method and have you tried it on aluminum? Have read that reversing the poles for a bit on AL will etch off the oxidation, then switch back to normal polarity to plate.
Awesome narration voice!
Man you have radio voice - nice! :)
Again I Thank You, I have been corking with copper plating from starting wit the Caswell "Plug and Brush " Group, up to having my own rectifier set up, again I do all my own anodizing, however on on of your other videos you show using 2 D cell Batteries, and believed that was the best way to go. Now i bee a larger battery and i would think it is some sort of hobby battery 12 is it 12 volts, and could you please let me know the amperage, P.S. although, most of my anodizing set up is from the Good Will and Yard sales,I did break down and purchase a power source from Caswell the small of the 2, Now sometimes I wish i would of purchased the larger as when I get into anodizing 3-4 larger model engine parts using the 720 rule i am unable to meet the voltage requirement, keeping the amps where i need it to stay using the 720 rule. Anyhow, getting back on track curious to the amperage of you battery and in fact s it 12V.
Keep up the good Work, Respectfully, Jim P. P.s. I really do do get the ""Ungrateful Moronic Comments"", that I see people really trying to keep it simple for the new person, I think they are basically a bunch of RUDE, Nose Picking, Living in Mommy's Basement, and that Mommy bought for them a Laptop, and they are mad at the world, because they have to come to understand they are USELESS, TO THEMSELVES , AND SOCIETY, KEEP UP THE GREAT work. Respectfully, Jim P..
Nice one
thanks!
very nice video!What is the concentration of the acid?
Thank you.
That HCL has seen its day
What about gold plating? You make it so simple! Great teacher. Awesome voice.
I'm trying to find out how to clean a trumpets inside, corrosion, verdigris, chalk. And also how to gold plate brass.
With same method we can do gold plating also ??
@B Prithvi It is just the same electroplating process. But the liquid and electrodes must be more reactive. So check about it once 😀
Very nice I made this at home
in the case of nail (Fe + CuSO4) one need not electrolysis. Cu is more active than Fe and replaces Fe. In othew cases the electic current is of course necessary, Thanks for thiw video!.
Isn't copper below iron in the electrochemical series? so...I don't think Cu is more active than Fe, according to what you just said. Maybe I'm wrong
jenalee1907 when you look at a periodic table remember that the electro affinity moves up and to the right, meaning fluorine is the most electro affinitive natural element.
This is dope! I got a few questions...
1.Will the amount of copper used make a difference on the finish?
2.Would a solid copper piece be better or does it have to be hollow like the pipe?
3.Does polishing the copper make a difference on results?
Basically, they can all be answered at the same time. The anode (positive) is a source of material, the acid is the carrier medium, and the object to be plated attracts the anode's ions where they set up their own camp and collect.
The shape of the anode is mostly taken into consideration for 2 things... Even current density, which provides more even plating, and second, is typically tapered so the thinnest part of the metal is always the at the bottom (not supporting anything bigger).
The anode is consumed at the rate the copper is deposited, with a bit extra coming out until the solution is in equilibrium (deposits exactly as much copper as is being taken from the anode). The concentration increasing from 0 at the beginning of the first run of this method is what causes it to take a while to start.
Current affects the quality of deposition, with higher densities tending to cause rougher finishes, pitting, etc, depends on the metal. Too low takes forever.
Other factors, temperature of the bath, blah blah once you get past basics, it starts to get deep quick.
Polish? Naa, just clean. It's going to eat it into a flat matte finish as things go along, with impurities forming a sludge that typically sloughs gradually down below the anode. For this reason, don't put your anode above your work unless you have a trap set up for it.
Thanks for the great video! 👍👍👍
I wanted to gold plate my Oakley sunglasses, I.E.,the bridge and arms but they wanted 90 bucks.
Could I do the same as in this video but instead of the copper pipe use a gold necklace or some other leftover gold I have?
Thanks for your time!
This works so much better and faster than any of the vinegar methods.
Would you use this method or the previous method for the clip to a every day carried knife? I am worried about wear
Excellent video!
I think I'd rig some kind of stirring apparatus. Maybe an aquarium air pump would be enough.
I know what Barkeeper's Friend is, but what is "cleanser"?
You could say he's gone on to the _gnatherworld._
cool.
time to go fishing now.
It is not voltage, it is low amperage (1 amp or less) which results in successful small granular plating particles. ref: 1:59. Thank you for your instructional video.
Yep use a PP3 9v battery
Mr. Knat is not gone. He's in the Lord's house waiting for you...
It's also a good idea to wear Gloves and eye protection when your dealing with acid.
Can this process be used as a basis for a thicker copper plate? Maybe the copper sulfate process after this one?
I do this for some of my blacksmith items. I just use baking soda in tap water and it works great.
Great video! I am about to silver plate some audio connectors. I have some special silver electrolitics solvent for this purpose. May I use destilled water next to this solvent for large object? What voltage should I use?
Used to copper plate things as a kid using copper sulfate in water and couple batteries.
With such a battery it would be better and safer to put a 12volt 5watt auto side light bulb in series with the positive anode
lead - this will limit the current to 0.5 amp and just light up if the two electrodes touch ! Otherwise your croc clip leads
will burn up like fusewire !
So a resistor? sounds good.
I think that's only necessary when working with AC.
cant you just use a wall charger for this?
@@zedg7473 Sorry -some form of current limiting would also be needed with AC, or the cables will burn, that is why you have (hopefully) a fuse-box / consumer unit at home !
Also electroplating is not be possible with AC - Please study.
@@supermemememe605 USB supply should be OK for small items
great video. will it work on lead slugs.
Congratulations! Very good work! Can the same be done with gold?
3 Years later and I am still waiting to see the copper-plated Gnat? (perhaps it is till too soon).
Been doing this with root kill and d batteries ran in series (3 volt). The copper always comes out dull and milky looking. Any thoughts on that. I shine it up with mag and aluminum polish, so not a big deal.
Also, can the acid plating method be used on aluminum? I know normally you have to nickel place first, but I would love to skip a step, haha.
What would you recommend for zinc coated parts, I have a Project in mind and want to use big Carriage Bolts and would like to copper plate the end of the bolt, do you recommend removing the zinc before you plate them with copper?
A carbon rod can be plated in the same way. Then you can solder a wire to the copper plating for an electrical connection. I use copper sulphate instead of acid though.
What kind of thickness are you getting with the copper plating ?
Hello there! I have a question... Do you think it would be ok to plate a gas tank? as the tank sealing chemicals are quite expensive, I was thinking to plate mine as i guess it will be way cheaper than the chemicals... Thanks in advance!
Nice trick...
If I wanted to plate non - metallic surfaces (like a clay figurine for example) do you recommend graphite paint?
I'm trying this method of electroplating, but I get a really thick, fluffy copper deposition, with no adhesion at all. What should I do to correct this?