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Electroplating
The rich look of copper has always intrigued me. From the beginning, my desire was for the boxes to
be copper. After trying several processes such as patinas, electroless dips, and others, it became clear to
me that the boxes would have to be electroplated to get that great copper look - - a look that would last
many years, and take on beautiful soft brown patinas naturally. Setting up for electroplating is neither
easy nor inexpensive, but well worth the cost and effort. It’s not magic. If you have the proper
equipment, chemicals, and follow the rules, you can indeed get excellent results. In this chapter we will
take a good look at the setup, and tell you exactly what to do.
This is my homemade system. It consist of four commercial tanks
with tops. You can use almost any plastic, rubber, or glass
container to plate. The choice was to spent the money for these
tanks after trying other containers. They were heavy duty, tough,
had great tops, and were designed for chemical use. Each tank
will hold 3 gallons of chemical. The tanks are 6 inches by 12
inches, 12 inches deep. That will accommodate several boxes at a
time, a small glass panel, or one large box.
The tanks are mounted in a substantial frame that was made in my
shop. They are located in front or my wash out sink which makes
fresh water rinse easy. They afford the ability to plate copper and
nickel.
A power source is required for electroplating. The power supply
shown would be able to plate far more at a time than will ever be
needed. A good power supply is an absolute must if you are to get
good results. This one has digital meters making setting
current/voltage easy.
In addition to containers and a power source you will need the following materials:
1> Plating chemicals (only use safe acid based plating chemicals).
2> Cleaning chemicals designed for electro-cleaning.
3> Copper anodes and stainless steel anodes.
4> Hook up cables.
The chemicals and anodes for this plating setup come from Dalmar Plating in Ft. Myers, Fl. They
also have power supplies and containers for small plating jobs. They are a great, reliable source.
Website: www.dalmarplating.com.
Now let’s plate two boxes. You cannot plate metal unless it is perfectly clean. In this case, free from flux,
oil, dirt, or any residue. You can use hot water if you are using a water soluble flux like the Canfield Blue
Flux. Some chemical cleaners can be used, but no acid based bright dip. My experience with them is that
they turn the solder black and plating would be impossible. Some instructions suggest using a bright dip
for cleaning and pre-plate conditioning. That may work for traditional metal plating, but it doesn't work
well on solder. All that is necessary is to clean the box with hot water prior to using the Dalmar electroclean solution.
The sooner you plate after finishing your box the better your plating will be. Solder accumulates oxidation
over time, and that will cause problems for plating. If oxidation occurs, use a chemical cleaner to remove
the residue. The need for proper cleaning cannot be over stressed.
Tank #1 contains the Dalmar Electro-clean solution. It
is used with a stainless steel anode. The anode is
placed into the solution with a wire connected to it.
You can see the red alligator clip connected to the
wire and the positive terminal of the power supply.
The holding racks for the boxes was shop made in my
studio. They are simple. A brass bar on the bottom,
brass rod on the top, and insulated wire connecting the
bottom bar and top rod (Insulated wire because you
don’t want to plate anything but the box.) The black
alligator clip will connect to the top brass rod after
lowering the box into the tank. That black lead
connects to the negative terminal on the power
supply. The power supply is off until we are ready to
plate. The anode must not come in contact with the
box or its holder.
The box is now in the clean solution and the power
supply is on. Dalmar suggest .5 amps for cleaning.
Leave the box in the clean tank from 30 sec to 1
minute. For a box like this one about 3 - 4 volts will
produce a current flow of .5 amps. The voltage
required to result in a current flow of .5 amp will
change depending on the metal surface being
cleaned. This power supply allows for adjusting
both voltage and current so the relationship between
voltage setting for the desired .5 amp draw can be
adjusted. If your power supply only adjusts current,
and has a set voltage, just set it to .5 amps. Digital
meters on a power supply are much easier to
accurately and quickly read. A good, well filtered
power supply is a must for plating and necessary if
Glass Box immersed in the
you plan to do electro-forming. Electro-forming is a Electro-clean tank (above)
great way to create unique parts for the projects. The
process allows you to take an object (plastic, stone,
leafs, almost anything) and coat the object with a
conductive substance. That allows you to use your
Conductive Coating
plating system to accumulate metals on the object.
from Dalmar
See the Dalmar site for more info in Electro-forming
and the conductive coating mentioned before.
The box has been removed from the clean
tank and is now being rinsed in hot water at
the sink. Before the sink was installed, a rinse
tank was used, which works fine. If you use a
rinse tank you should replace the water on a
regular basis, for the water becomes
contaminated from rinsing, thus the plating
quality seems to go down. If you used a rinse
tank you could use a small emersion heater to
heat the water. In a tank some aquarium
heaters (quartz) might work fine. Hot water
seems to work much better for a rinse. Rinse
between clean and copper tanks so you do not
contaminate your copper plating solution.
Dragging a chemical from one tank to another
will spoil your plating quality, also.
Nice and clean and ready for the copper tank.
The read alligator clamp will go on the copper
anode attached to the copper wire you see
extending down into the solution. The black
lead attaches to that box. The box will stay in
the copper tank about 2 - 3 minutes with a
small voltage and current. I use .5 volts to draw
.5 amps. It is suggested that 1/10 of an amp per
square inch of metal surface to be plated be
used. Too little will produce poor plating and
too much will produce an ugly pinkish finish.
Time and current matter. The longer you stay
in the copper tank the thicker the copper layer.
You could use a lower current and more time,
but remember that the solution is acid based.
You risk etching the glass at some point. Using
these settings has caused no etching problems,
just nice plating. The Dalmar plating solution
is a weak acid based chemical that is unlikely
to etch glass very quickly.
The box completely submerged in the
copper plating solution. Dalmar makes a
copper brighter. Add about an ounce
every 3 months or so depending on usage.
If your plating starts looking dull, that
might be the answer.
Out of the copper plating tank and
ready for a hot water rinse. Move
quickly here. After a good hot water
rinse dry the box thoroughly. While
wet it starts to tarnish quickly so dry
it off immediately. Hot water
facilitates easier drying.
Dalmar offers a tarnish inhibitor that
will certainly help with this problem.
Nothing like a nice hot bath!
Dry it thoroughly! A paper shop towel
works great and can be reused several
times after they dry. No lent either.
After the final hot water rinse, and as soon as
the box has been dried, give it a good coat of a
wax based finishing polish. This will protect
your box from tarnish and give it a bright
copper finish. Use a soft terry towel for this
step.
The final step is to put on a
good coating of a microcrystalline wax. But, wax is
wax and it will need to be
repeated in time.
Finished boxes with a great copper
plated finish that will last many years,
and become more beautiful as time
passes. Plating probably sets my work
apart from others more than anything
else.
If you use the proper materials and procedures you can get good plating results. Do consider visiting the
Dalmar website and read the educational material they have provided. Each plating setup will be different.
Plating jewelry will require a different setup from plating a large piece of stained glass. However, the process
and principals remain the same. The results are well worth the cost and effort. “Thank You Dalmar” for
making small plating operations possible.
Copyright © 2013 Neal Hearn