Here is the video where the guy shows how to make about four different electrolytes and demonstrates his plating techniques. He uses store vinegar and salt along with two electrodes of the metal you wish to plate with.Electroplating - Easy DIY Nickel, Copper, Zinc Plating - YouTube
I found out my acetone won’t come till next Sunday. I may have to walk to the hardware store. Meanwhile I am harvesting copper dust which I shall try to use in a conductive paint.
I shall try to get some solver later on. I am actually where I wanted to be as far as experimental setup It is very easy with the 6 inch by 6 inch charcoal air filter. I don’t need to
open the window in below zero weather to use stinky liquids or smoke a cigar. It works so well I leave it on sometimes to filter all the air. I can notice the difference.
Just to be completely clear, the electroless kit I linked to is not to replace the electroplating part of the process. It is to replace the painting process. IOW, it gets rid of the cumbersome process of trying to make the plastic conductive, and replaces it with a reliable, easy process. Electroless plating is great in that it goes everywhere on a piece: outside, inside, inside holes, etc. And, as long as the piece is properly cleaned beforehand, it doesn’t miss any spots.
I saw the fan you mentioned, neat. I may need to purchase one myself. I did see a cheaper fan that looks the same. But, there again I know Amazon will charge me one price, and you a different price. If I buy a produce a month later after a first purchase, I have to pay more, and someone else can look at their internet location and it will be like my original price or cheaper
Glad to see you getting further along. Remember, you will have to teach me!.
I’m making a new silver electrolyte because I seem to have ruined all my first batch of everything. When it turns green I shall start a nickel bath,
I am doing them in small containers for the moment while I experiment. I do enjoy playing with it. I am going to try to make my nickel solution from Canadian quarters. If it works that will be a pretty cheap electrolyte. Two quarters and fifty cents worth of vinegar and salt. With that I can make lots of electrolyte and even plate after,
They say the solutions last forever if you take care of them but I’m not worried now that I know the cheapest method. I shudder to think how much money people waste on electolytes and expensive electrodes.
I am so chuffed to report that I made my 50 cent nickel electrolyte and about an hour after I making the solution I tossed in a copper wire anode and got a proper coating very quickly. I rubbed it with 000 steel wool and the plating is good it seems. I could still take the quarters and spend them but I need cathodes to use up. If I would have bought my nickel plating materials on amazon look at what it costs.https://www.amazon.ca/Krohn-Bright-Plating-Solution-Electroplating/dp/B07ZS1MZJ8/ref=pd_lpo_4?pd_rd_i=B07ZS1MZJ8&psc=1
Glad to hear that you got a good plating, go ahead and spend your quarters, the queen has plenty more for you to use. She will not know the difference. Keep passing on information, I am learning as you do, just wish I was doing also.
I’m sorry I ran out of non iodized salt. It does affect the silver but not the nickel. It costs me the same to make silver electrolyte as it does nickel. I just use silver coins as electrodes. I could buy 3 1/2 oz for 38.33 on amazon if I wanted to waste my money. https://www.amazon.ca/Nushine-Silver-Plating-Solution-3-4/dp/B00D5TCYT8
I’m sorry I ran out of non iodized salt. It does affect the silver but not the nickel. It costs me the same to make silver electrolyte as it does nickel. I just use silver coins as electrodes. I could buy 3 1/2 oz for 38.33 on amazon if I wanted to waste my money. https://www.amazon.ca/Nushine-Silver-Plating-Solution-3-4/dp/B00D5TCYT8
@roon4660, for your purposes home made electrolyte is probably OK. For circuit boards for customers it isn’t. The copper used has to meet a certain spec, including its conductivity. The solder that’s plated on the boards also must meet certain specs. This was so important we actually paid extra to get genuine Kester anodes (read expensive). Likewise the gold plating on the contact edges has to meet mil spec (military specification) which is demanding.
That said, I’m glad to hear you’re making such good progress. I suspect that preparing the non-conductive plastic will be the most difficult part.
You’re pants would fall down carrying the quarters you would need to make a round trip on our subway system. It went from $1.75 to at least $3.50 since year 2000 when I took refuge here.
My silver solution doesn’t seem to like ordinary vinegar. The nickel solution is so fast it plates in about 5 minutes on a copper wire and the coating doesn’t come off with a rubbing of steel wool to take off the oxides. I can well appreciate having immaculate conditions for making circuit boards. This is hardly the same thing except for the plating techniques.
I really do appreciate your feed back. I’m not real concerned about conductive paint, It’s out there. I just want to make it myself in case I start brush plating big things for fun. The stuff they sell is not as good as what artisans are making themselves. I can hardly wait to try copper dust and acetone.
That previous comment I made yesterday but forgot to send it. Today I report some success in plating plastic and organizing my solutions so I can have them all active at once.
It will be interesting to see how well the two plastic parts I’m plating will look tomorrow morning. The little PLA strip I put in this morning is totally covered but I will wait till tomorrow to start cleaning and buffing it. I even made myself an impromptu lamp and can actually see things without my little flash light sometimes.
I actually ruined my nickel solution and my silver solution is not looking like it should either. I redid it twice yesterday and it still gets cloudy white when it should be clear green/blue. I wish I was a chemist. Meanwhile I have more nickel cooking. This is really fun. I’m just wondering if I can get plastic to look like metal and fool the crap out of people.
The beautiful slightly greenish clear nickel solution turned such a dark brown I couldn’t see through it and quit plating. Oh dear me! I was plating copper in 5 minutes with a nice solid coat.
As I recall, the greatest worry about plating solutions was organic contamination; specifically carbon. Carbon filtration systems are used to clean the solutions. I wonder if you could use activated carbon to clean your plating solutions. Perhaps you could search the net about it.
I sure hope you get it figured out. I need a teacher. I think I saw where you could go directly from graphite painted on a filament print to silver. At least that is what I understood. I’ll be ready to join you as soon as I get some pure copper wire. I look at auto parts places, where I found some graphite powder. The wire they list does not show purity. I also looked for some silver solder, but so far no go. I guess I could go to a Jewry shop and talk them out of some, probably pay double. Oh, do the Canadian quarters have more silver in them that US quarters. I do not think the US quarters have very much just a thin plate. I do have some pure silver coins, but I payed too much to use as a source for silver.:mad:
You just made me discover why I am screwing up the nickel solution. Quarters are only nickel plated iron. I could swear I read they were nickel.
For what it’s worth, virtually no coins are pure anything. AFAIK, gold coins are an alloy. Even Sterling silver isn’t pure silver.
Sterling is 15 % copper. I just had the idea that I had checked and they were nickel. I guess I didn’t check well. I just ordered sheets of zinc and nickel and a quart of graphite. I’ll get this figured out yet.
My piece of plastic looks like a piece of copper. I have a funny vase and a leaf plating now. The leaf started to cover very quickly I am anxious to see how it turns out.
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I did a better pic of the copper plastic piece and I’m showing the progress that I’m making with a maple leaf. So far it is coming out astoundingly well. It has only been in there a couple of hours and is starting to coat everywhere and plate out solid in the spot you see.
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