Comments on: Copper Plating onto Zinc

By: Walt

Walt — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:04:04 +0000

THANK YOU so much for taking the time to print up an “interesting” failure. I’ve had lots of those myself. Your article got me back on track when I couldn’t get copper to plate on zinc pennies. But I just licked it, so I thought I’d write as to how!
I took my zinc penny and made a warm bath with 1 quart water and 6 tablespoons nickel amonium sulfate. I attached to “D” batteries in series, and attached the “+” side to a nickel plate in the bath, and the “-” side to the penny. Within a few minutes I had a great, strong nickel plate that wouldn’t buff off. (I let it plate a full hour just to make it really thick, and it still looked great.) I then copper plated just the way you mentioned (with the two low voltage batteries and viola! A perfect, shiney, strong copper finish. The only caviot is that when plating the copper, watch closely and stop as soon as your finish looks good. It’s easy to go too long and get buildup.
Thanks again.

By: Carol Sullivan

Carol Sullivan — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:10:53 +0000

Hi Max –

Been a long, hard Winter, but we are finally getting ready to set the ‘contraption’ up. More later! :-)

- Carol

By: Max

Max — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 06:45:03 +0000

Hi Carol,
I’m really interested to see if you can get this to work. It’s a two quart container, although the copper sulfate is just dissolved until saturation. If I had to guess, I’d say that the vinegar was about 1:3 with water, but that’s not based on any methodology, it’s just what I poured into the bath.

By: Carol Sullivan

Carol Sullivan — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:14:25 +0000

Hi Max –

What one needs to do first, with an organic surface, is to lacquer (seal) the surface,then coat it with a conductive paint. Usually a silver base. That preps it for the transfer. You can even do it on wax castings and then melt away the wax. But, I’ve been using the ‘prepped’ conduction solution and your use of the ZEP crystals in the vinegar would certainly be cheaper. Looks like that may be a 2 quart container?

- Carol

By: Max

Max — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:08:30 +0000

I wouldn’t think that it would work on non-conductive surfaces, but if you find out otherwise, be sure to post back. Best of luck!

By: Carol Sullivan

Carol Sullivan — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:39:25 +0000

Thanks for the most interesting process. One question…, “you used 3 tablespoons per ??quantity of vinegar?

CCan’t wait to try it on some organic materials!

By: Max

Max — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:24:26 +0000

There’s pictures of most of the equipment in my etching post, here:
http://blog.wingedvictorydesign.com/2009/04/02/making-bookplates-with-electrolytic-etching/3/

You won’t be disappointed, it’s all pretty improvised.

By: Sammy Larbi

Sammy Larbi — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:34:42 +0000

I’d love to see a picture of the entire rig. It sounds so fabulously ghetto!