WTB: Copper Plater

[ZRaffleticket]

Not sure what exactly goes into plating, but if you know how to do this you have a project:
I want one of Cajunlaser's pen hosts to be copper plated instead of being chrome (plated?).
I primarily want somebody who knows what they're doing, and can get an even coating on it.

 

[NickD070]

Well a nice copper plating is hard to accomplish without specialized equipment and dangerous chemicals. The best way to copper plate something is to immerse the item to be plates in an highly acidic copper/cyanide bath. You can then use an electric current to attract the copper particles to the host.

Definitely not worth the time/money/danger in my opinion.

 

[justinjja]

At one point you could buy them gold plated,
You might be able to find one FS somewhere

 

[NickD070]

Gold plated would definitely be the way to go if you wanted a plating with a similar hue to copper.
Copper tarnishes and losses it's luster quickly. Gold will do neither of those things.

 

[grainde]

Copper plating is not as difficult as gold plating. Here I plated copper onto Aluminium using sulphuric acid and copper sulphate. Gold plating involves the dangerous cyanide solutions. You can buy sulphuric acid (battery acid or drano) and copper sulphate as a pond cleaner. I used around 3 A I think at around 10 -12 V from a PSU, but that will depend on the area to be plated and solution strength etc. Provided you are carefull with the acid (eyes, hands etc) and you dont drink the solution, you should be ok. Just experiment with a similar sized piece and type of metal, until you have it worked out. :beer:

Edit:Copper does tarnish quickly, so you should either buff and laqueer the freshly plated material or polish reguarly!

 

[NickD070]

Well yes, it is possible to plate gold or copper without the cyanide, but it produces a better finish in either scenario. My preference given the tarnish factor would just be the gold.

That's a great looking host you made though. :gj:

btw I apologize for sidetracking the thread, I misread the original thread and I for some reason thought that ZRaffleticket was looking to buy electroplating equipment and do it himself.

 

[ZRaffleticket]

Heh, it happens to the best of us. I'm still looking for anyone who can pull it off!
As for the tarnishing issues I will be sending it to be polished as soon as it's in my hands. I want copper instead of gold for a reason

Edit: didn't read grainde's post, would you be able to do it for me? I'm known to be dangerous around these chemicals (thank you chemistry!)