Copper plating cast

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hrpenley

Active Member
I just picked up a couple pounds of copper sulfate, I am going give copper plating a shot, just to say I tried, maybe a clear pc after don't know yet. Has anyone else tried copper plating in the past, if so what was your results? Got a pretty good idea of how I am going to do it to avoid some of the common blotching and inconsistent deposit issues. Just curious if anyone else has tried, I did a search of the forums but not much showed up. I'll post pics of the process and results if anyone interested.
 
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Ian

Ian

Notorious member
I electroplated copper onto rifle case necks to thicken them and reduce loaded clearance. It is an onerous and time consuming process, I wish you luck.
 
H

hrpenley

Active Member
Using acid/electroplate method, stinky but should be effective, got a nice high current variable power supply and good thick 99.999 fine copper electrodes, lab grade distilled water and new clean electrolyte along with concentrated acid to adjust the acid strength, I can vibrate or oscillate the reaction pan and provide continuous recirc of the bath. I got a good shot at it - obviously its cheaper just to buy them but not as much fun I guess.
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
You're likely going to need a circular anode, the copper transfers line-of-sight. Hopefully the acid and agitation will keep the parts clean and allow continuous transfer. No base plating required for lead, brass, or nickel.
 
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Wallyl

Active Member
I had read somewhere awhile back that the commercial bullet cos. that make plated lead bullets clean them first with hydrofluoric acid...an acid that is a real devil to handle. Apparantly it removes oxides on the bullets that allows the copper to electroplate on them more precisely. I am not advocating that you use the stuff....it is very dangerous & toxic. Other acids will clean the bullets/lead alloy but not remove the oxides...that's why plating them tends to be uneven and spotty.

Hydrofluoric (HF) acid, one of the strongest inorganic acids, is used mainly for industrial purposes (eg, glass etching, metal cleaning, electronics manufacturing.
 
RicinYakima

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Worked on a drug lab once that the tweekers had stolen some HF. The original clean up crew had shot the unidentified HF gas cylinder with a .223, but the gas was dissolving the other steel tanks around them. I got there an hour later, suited up and started dumping ammonia gas cylinders in the area. After a couple of hours air monitoring said we were OK. They took me to the hospital the ER doc freaked out when they said it as a possible HF exposure. They sucked out 15 gallons of blood and made me lay down under O2 with a defibulator pre-connected to my chest. It appears that HF binds to all of the metals in your blood, like calcium, and your heart stops. Really bad stuff!
 
Missionary

Missionary

Well-Known Member
Get a good air mask! I know of jewelry guys down here who have serious breathing issues from working with acid baths in semi-open to fresh air booths.
 
H

hrpenley

Active Member
Ya, I have played with Hydrofloric and Perchloric acids both in the past and prefer to stay away from them, I'll give them a good bath in toluene and sulferic acid, That should clean them up well enough to get an idea how well this will work.
 
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Wallyl

Active Member
As I recall Hydrochloric acid is better that "pickling" than Sulfuric. You can get it where they sell swimming pool chemicals...it is used to adjust the PH in swimming pool water.
 
H

hrpenley

Active Member
Wallyl said:
As I recall Hydrochloric acid is better that "pickling" than Sulfuric. You can get it where they sell swimming pool chemicals...it is used to adjust the PH in swimming pool water.
Click to expand...
I actually think I have a jug of 20 or 22 degree HCL in my inventory, I didn't even think about that. The plating process uses normal strength battery acid in the mix and I have concentrated sulferic acid that I had considered using but HCL may be a better option. Ian,Mitty, Fiver what you guys think?
 
fiver

fiver

Well-Known Member
if your gonna go all in yeah you can use bout any of those acids.
HCL is probably a bit better for lead etching.
keep a couple of boxes of baking soda on hand to neutralize any spills.
 
smokeywolf

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
Professor Batdorf was a chemist
Professor Batdorf is no more
What he thought was H2O
Was H2SO4
A little lab humor.

You might want to invest in some Viton PPE.
 
H

hrpenley

Active Member
Ya, got all the necessary lab ppe, been that route a few times with the lead arsenic and antimony alloy blending, this is a shop project not home project lol, mama dosent like those strange smells coming from the basement.
 
CZ93X62

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Not having any part of plating at my house. I only stopped glowing in the dark from my past drug lab cases a couple years ago. It scares the grandkids something awful. I'll just buy Speer Gold Dot bullets, and call it "good".
 
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