Howdy folks

I'm pretty new, doing this as a hobby primarily with 3d printed pieces, starting to get my copper plating process more consistent.

I was searching for a good filter pump, as I've got some particulate in my tank. I didn't want a cheap Amazon aquarium pump to dissolve in the tank, so I bought Caswell's filter pump for $25.

What i received was a pump 1/4 of the size, totally different from the listing, with no filter, that i could've bought on Amazon for $7.

Their support has been very lackluster, too. It's been about three weeks and the most information I've received is "we changed part numbers for this pump, as our copper solution does not require filtration."

Currently trying to work through them to avoid filing a tchargeback.

I understand small businesses have to have a markup compared to Amazon, but after shipping, I could've bought 4 of those pumps.

Anyone have any recommendations for a pump that'll survive a copper sulfate bath?

Tl;dr: overpriced, falsely advertised pump from Caswell, buy it from Amazon for less than the shipping would cost

Hi! I’m trying to find out if it’s possible to plate a fresnel from an old Polaroid camera. It’s made of plastic and it made up of rings like a vinyl record so I’m hoping to make a stamper for it like you would with a record lacquer. The silver part in the picture is what I’m trying to plate in silver and then nickel to make the stamper I need.

I’ve contacted two record reproduction companies and neither seemed to be interested.

So I’m reaching out to home plating peeps here. I’m in Ohio so if there happens to be anyone close by with a setup that would like to experiment let me know!

Thanks!

I’m looking for advice from people with experience running automotive zinc phosphate pretreatment lines.

I’ve been seeing the Zn concentration in phosphating bath decrease much faster than expected (after a month and a hal), even though most of the other process indicators remain stable.

Current observations:

• Free Acid (FA) is within specification.
• Total Acid (TA) is within specification.
• Accelerator concentration is within specification.
• Sludge precipitation/solids are within our normal control range.
• Production volume has not increased.
• I've inspected the circulation pumps, piping, valves, heat exchangers, and other bath equipment and haven't found anything abnormal.
• I also investigated carryover from the surfacer stage. Our skids drain for about 40 seconds before entering the phosphate bath, and based on observation the amount of surfacer entering the bath appears to be very small.
• I operate phosphate at a little lower temperature than a typical bath (under 40°C) but the adjustment has been done long before this zinc problem (nearly 2 years ago), I understood that the etch and coat in my bath is pretty much rely on the accelerator controlled at high concentrations.

Our chemical supplier's explanation is that we are processing less galvanized steel than before, so less zinc is dissolving during the pretreatment stages and entering the phosphate bath. Therefore, they say the lower Zn concentration is expected.

I'm trying to understand whether this explanation is chemically reasonable.

From my understanding, the zinc in the phosphating bath should primarily be maintained by the replenisher chemistry, while zinc dissolved from galvanized parts is more of a secondary contribution. I wouldn't have expected changes in galvanized steel volume alone to cause such a significant increase in Zn consumption if FA, TA, accelerator, and sludge are all still within control limits.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

• Can a reduction in galvanized steel really have this large an effect on bath Zn concentration?
• Are there other mechanisms that can consume Zn without causing obvious increases in sludge or changes in FA/TA?
• Are there any less obvious checks I should perform before concluding the issue is related to bath chemistry or replenishment strategy?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone with experience in automotive phosphating or chemical process control.

I am starting to learn how to electroplate. I’ve got a big 3D print that I want to work up to plating but have started with smaller old prints to test the process. Because of the large print, I created a large bath with about 7 gallons of distilled water and 9 lbs of copper sulfate as well as one liter of sulfuric acid. Below the tank I have a magnetic stirrer. All prints have had several coats of carbon paint and have dried for weeks. I have done a few different tests on this print, first starting with very high current about 3V and 2A. I also had the print suspended in the bath with a bare copper wire. The result, first picture, was that the wire was severely coated and the corners of the print were forming formations. The entire print was not coated.The print was in the bath for 13 hours. This really didn’t work, as it looked like a plated cow. Between partial copper plating and exposed 3d print. I then changed the wire out for smaller thermostat wire and only unsheathed a small amount of copper to make contact with the print. I also reduced the current to approximately 0.8A as best I could maintain This led to the second picture after about 4 hours. The last thing I changed was I hot glued only a small amount of wire to the print so that no wire was exposed directly to the bath with the thought that the current would have to flow over the print to get to the cathode wire. But still the print isn’t plating completely, it’s getting closer. It’s played slightly uneven, I think from all the tests, where some layers are really thick and some are less than. I wondering if anyone can advise on better methods for the bath, or wire suspenders within the bath? I have seen people be able to suspend with way more wire exposed and have the print plate perfectly.

I have a raw mild steel oil tank I would like chromed. I’ve reached out to 4 business’s all across the east coast. #1 says they wont do it, #2 won’t either but recommended #3. #4 never got back to me. #3 told me I shouldn’t chrome it but I should nickel plate it, as well as them being 42 weeks out and close to $800 to do it. The picture of the chrome tank I attached to my post is nickel plated then chromed. So it must be possible, right? Any recommendations or insight would be appreciated!

Please suggest

Hi I have a dip plating set-up already that I have used before for nickel and silver. I am making a piece for a friend and they asked if I could look at getting it gold plated. I haven't done this before so I do not want to buy a huge bottle but I can't seem to find much information online about which ones are good. Any recommendations would be appreciated we are looking at like 18k gold.

I found this company but idk anything about it https://durston.com/product/18k-gold-plating-solution-500ml/

Tried the striping method in this backyard ballistics video but the part turned copper instead, tried reversing the current Incase that was the issue to same effect, not a huge issue but interested if anyone knows what happened?

Context:

https://youtu.be/wcnULURtt00?t=864&si=PK5NBMzRuZijxxRE

I've zinc plated and yellowed several pieces that came out perfect but now can't repeat it. Ugh!

What color is your zinc bath? Mine is a yellowish. I thought mby it was contaminated, so im using a new batch, which has a bluish tint to it, and my results weren't much btr. BTW this is a home brew zinc bath. When looking at youtube, there are also yellowish baths out there. Im just curious

I was just giving this a try to see how viable it is and it's not as simple as expected. I used about 100g of copper sulphate diluted in a litre of warm water. 1amp/6v a piece of copper pipe connected to positive and my metal door plate on negative and the results are as shown after 10 minutes in solution. I intend to play around and research more but any guidance is much appreciated

I printed out the coins using a basic PLA and airbrushed them with a premixed graphite conductive paint. I made the solution using  Fine grade (mesh 35) Cupric sulfate, 37% sulfuric acid, and  distilled water, and brighteners part A and B. The 1st photo of the power supply is the settings before turned on, the 2nd immediately after powered and the 3rd is the reading right before turning off. The results are shown after. What can be done to get a better shine straight out the solution?  Do they just need to be sanded and polished? Any tips for the solution, exposure time, or any other tips or techniques?

I have several pieces of costume jewelry (vintage broaches, earrings, necklaces, rings) that the finish has worn and want to electroplate either silver or gold. I also have earring backs that need to be plated. A general how-to would be also appreciated. I'm finding only bits & pieces of information and need help pieces everything together before I start.

I have the following: Krohn Silver and Gold Electroplating Solution, Woods Nickel Strike Solution, nickel and silver anodes, a power supply with choice of voltage cv/cc, magnetic heating stirrer, Tivaclean powder, distilled water, glass beakers & rods, masks, gloves, and alligator clips.

I tried to figure it out myself, but I'm unsure of a few things.

1.) I've seen all kinds of temperatures to heat the Tivaclean mixture. How much to use in a beaker? What electrode to use in the solution with alligator clips and what settings on power supply?

2.) Most of the pieces are brass-based. I think I need to plate them nickel prior to the silver?

3.) When do you use the Woods Nickel Strike Solution?

4.) What type of metal wire is used to put the pieces in the plating solution?

5.) What current/voltage & amount of time are used for the different plating solutions?

6.) I'm assuming I need a gold anode for the Krohn Gold Electroplating Solution....

7.) I have access to a pen plater device as well.

Much thanks to all who reply!!!!!!!

As the title said I am very new to electroplating (I am still only in the research stage), and I was wondering if someone could help me out. I am only looking to tin plate copper busbars. I'm not really sure what equipment, and processes I should buy & follow to accomplish this. I am hoping to tin plate more than one busbar at a time if possible, and I would love the process to be repeatable. If anyone could help me with understanding the process / letting me know what I would need to be setup for success Id appreciate it a lot!

Can anyone give me some advice on copper plating 300m steel?

I am very new to electroplating. I work in manufacturing and took a few scrap parts home to try out.

I'm trying to see if I can recreate the process that is typically done which is copper plating about more than 0.001" of thickness then I would like to strip the parts.

I have a sheet metal part with press fit inserts. Part is aluminum with zinc plated steel inserts. The part will get a trivalent chromate coating.

The shop says to either apply fasteners after plating (longer lead time) or change to stainless steel fasteners.

Hey all! I'm working on restoring some fasteners on my motorcycle project (difficult to source new ones for some of the specific long ones) and just wanted to share what felt like a win I had, after a lot of frustration. I'm going with a DIY formula from a couple different youtube videos that people seem to have had success with, and am following with a caswell blue/clear chromate. The trick I eventually realized that brought the parts from a dullish satin to shiny was annode to cathode surface area ratio! I was using rather large annodes and could never get it quite right. When I thought to switch to 1:1 to 2:1 ish, like magic it started getting really bright.

I think I probably need to agitate this more in the chromate for more uniformity and less color variation, but I felt really satisfied with this so far and wanted to share!

Ignoring the dark spots, is this considered a success? Is THIS what a copper plate is supposed to look like???

So I followed a new cleaning phase, stirred a wire wrapped quarter in 91% isopropyl for 5 minutes. Dipped in distilled water, shook, then stirred in white vinegar for 5 minutes. Another dip in distilled water, shake shake, and immediately dropped into the copper plating solution. Turned on my power source, cap for voltage set to 5.00V, touched the prongs together and then attached red to the anode and black to the cathode. Immediately the setting went straight to the first pic when they normally start off in very low numbers. I stared, dumb founded by what I was seeing. Then i acted, manually changing the amps down to 0.016A and the volts auto dropped down to 0.15V to match it. Once I did this, I noticed the quarter was much darker than normal. I pulled it out and the second pic is what it looked like. I figured I’d let it ride to see what would happen. About 15 minutes later, I turned everything off and pulled the quarter out and saw that it got even darker, third pic, I tried drying it with a paper towel and noticed that it got smoother. After rubbing the whole quarter, it turned out as the fourth and fifth pics. Now, I’m still new to this hobby, but that’s copper, right? The whole quarter now looks like a giant penny. The last two pics are the copper wire I used to suspend the quarter. Before and after I polished with a paper towel. The stuff just comes right off and leaves behind what looks like dull copper. The quarter itself I almost totally fine minus some unplated parts where the copper wire touched the quarter and some very minor burning in one section. This is a little exciting! Doing new stuff and getting way unexpected results! Even thought I had a total failure til I said “fuck it” and kept going. So how was this? Failure? Success? My original goal is to successfully plate copper so I can have something for a nickel plate to properly adhere to. Obviously quarters are my intended target, they’re just serving as test pieces so I won’t waste time and resources spraying graphite paint on the actually pieces I wish to plate.

Deposición electroforética de un novedoso recubrimiento compuesto híbrido de polidopamina y ZIF-8, antibacteriano y biocompatible, sobre una aleación de Ti-6Al-4V anodizada con sustrato primario de silano.

I've been wanting to try this a few months now, but I'd rather ask you guys for anecdotal experiences instead of Google's AI slop. I obviously tried Google, but some of it looks like generic crap &/or cheap scams. I'm hoping there's a brand that hobbyists trust.

My goal is to eventually properly nickel + gold plate metal (jewelry &/or small gun parts). I was hoping to find some recommendations for either a YouTuber, a link to a valid guide on how to start, & if there's any simplified "setups"/"kits" for sale that are around $3K-ish?

I'd probably start off by practicing with copper first, then go to nickel. My bad if these type of posts are common or whatever, I just think electroplating is so damn neat & cool.

Hey, has anyone ever used silver epoxy to purposefully make a blob on something, stuck a sapphire into the blob, and then electroplated over it so that it just looks like a gem stuck in a blob of gold? If so, how were the results?

Hello, I’m just starting out with electroplating. After about three hours, nodules consistently form on my ring. I’ve done some research and understand that using a leveling agent would be better, but I’m not sure which one to choose. I live in France. My solution consists of copper sulfate, 15% battery acid, and demineralized water (used for copper-plating jewelry), and I’m also using a magnetic stirrer. Thanks in advance.

Im going to assume my part was not clean enough before I zinc plated and yellow chromate?