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Hi gh Qual i t y (and Saf e) Ni c k el Pl at i ng by A_Steingrube
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J ust like my very popular copper plating instructable, the aim of this is to do high quality, low cost, and
safe electroplating. We will also be making our own electrolyte from scratch instead of buying
chemicals online.
If you've looked at my copper plating instructable, note that the process here is different. The nickel
will not dissolve very well if at all in the vinegar without special help and adding hydrogen peroxide will
destroy your electrolyte.
Nickel plating can be used for a variety of different things.
- It creates a corrosion resistant coating that will protect the base metal from oxidizing and rusting. It is
frequently used in food processing to prevent contamination with iron.
- It can increase the hardness and thus the durability of mechanical parts and tools.
- It can allow you to solder to difficult metals.
- It can create a variety of beautiful decorative finishes that range from a chrome-like gleam, to
brushed stainless steel color, to a metallic black. It just so happens that black nickel plating is used
frequently in aerospace applications
- In thicker platings, it can make the object magnetic.
Note that to get different finishes and properties, you may need to add other chemicals and metals to
your plating solution (see the Post Prep stage). These chemicals will change the way the atoms
arrange themselves and/or add other metals to your plating. If you are looking for corrosion-
resistance, do not add any other chemicals to your electrolyte as they may cause the end plating to
stain or tarnish.
For a copper plated finish, be sure to check out my copper plating instructable :)
http://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-Copper-Plating/
On anot her not e, I LOVE your quest i ons! I have not i c ed t hat a f ew f ol k s ar e
ask i ng t he same quest i ons, so I ' ve added a " Common Quest i ons"
st ep/sl i de/sec t i on/w hat c hamac al l i t at t he end of t hi s i nst r uc t abl e. Tak e a l ook
t her e t o get qui c k answ er s t o most of t he quest i ons you mi ght have. I f you have a
new one, c omment bel ow and I ' l l be happy t o answ er i t and add i t t o my
st ep/sl i de/sec t i on/w hat c hamac al l i t :D
St ep 1: Mat er i al s
Rel at ed
See More
nickel plating electroplating
nickel acetate electro plating metal
steampunk chemistry electrochemistry
Tags:
Hi gh Qual i t y (and Saf e)
Copper Pl at i ng
by A_Steingrube
Cl ean and Si mpl e
El ec t r opl at i ng
by nf119
DI Y Bat t er y: Pow er an
LED Fl ashl i ght w i t h
Poc k et Change!
by GuiltyPixel
Br ass St eampunk Pouc h
How -To
by Delireus
Chr ome Pl at i ng of Car
Headl i ght s and Par t s
by kjegelan
Nearly all of the supplies can be found at your local supermarket. Finding a pure source of nickel is a
little trickier, but should not cost more than a couple dollars. To keep from draining your battery in later
steps, I very highly suggest finding an AC/DC power supply around the house.
Mat er i al s you c an f i nd at your l oc al super mar k et :
>Distilled Vinegar - 5% acidity or higher (grocery)
>Salt (grocery)
>Mason jar (canning)
>6V Lantern Battery (camping)
>Alligator Leads (electrical)
>Nitrile gloves (pharmacy or DIY)
>Paper towels (paper products)
>Cameo Stainless Steel and Aluminum Cleaner (cleaning supplies)
Mat er i al s you w i l l l i k el y need t o buy onl i ne, at a good har dw ar e/w el di ng suppl y
st or e, or a musi c shop.
Pure Nickel - You can get this a few different ways. I bought my nickel in the form of two 4oz plates on
eBay for ~$5. A good hardware store should carry nickel welding rods. Most music shops will carry
Ernie Ball "Pure Nickel" guitar strings.
You can also try to remove the nickel windings from old guitar strings if you are strapped for cash. It
takes a bit of time, wire cutters, and pliers, but it can be done. Note that most nickel-wound strings
contain a steel core that will pollute your electrolyte later on (Ernie Ball "Pure Nickel" strings should be
pure nickel).
You can also try to use solid nickel door knobs and the like. I would warn you to be careful when
trying this because a good chunk of "nickel" decorative items are plated themselves.
Opt i onal , but hi ghl y r ec ommended mat er i al s (al so at t he super mar k et or a l oc al
el ec t r oni c s st or e):
A higher voltage, DC power supply - I am using an old 13.5V laptop charger. You can use "wall warts"
(the ugly black AC/DC power supplies that come with some consumer electronics) or an old ATX
(computer) power supply. J ust make sure that it does in fact output DC.
A fuse holder
A fuse that is rated slightly less than the max current rating on your power supply.
St ep 2: Pr epar i ng Your DC Pow er Suppl y (Opt i onal )
In the next step, we will make our electrolyte. In order to do this, we will need a significant amount of
electricity. Instead of wasting a moderately expensive batteries, it is much cheaper to use an old wall
wart, laptop charger, or computer supply (assuming they aren't already being used).
My version is rather crude, but effective. You could (and probably should) make a little project box with
a DC barrel jack, internal fuse, and two terminals poking out to clip the alligator leads to.
Wal l War t s (t he ugl y bl ac k t hi ngs t hat c ome w i t h some el ec t r oni c s)
Cut the barrel jack off of the end of your DC power supply. Pull the two wires apart and cut one of the
wires two or three inches shorter than the other - this will help prevent you from accidentally shorting
wires together later. Strip about a quarter inch from each wire. Solder in your fuse holder and pop in
the fuse! You are done! (see polarity notes below).
Lapt op Char ger
Cut the barrel jack off of the end of the DC power supply. Use a razor blade with light pressure to
remove the outer jacket - you do not want to cut through to the inner core. Most chargers will have one
insulated wire that is wrapped in many other bare copper wires. Twist the bare copper wires together
to form a single wire. This should be your negative. Solder your fuse holder here. Strip about a
quarter inch from the insulated wire and tie it back with a zip tie or electrical tape so it cannot short
with your bare wire. Pop in a fuse. You are done! (see polarity notes below)
ATX/Comput er Pow er Suppl y
These are a tad bit more complicated to turn into a useable benchtop power supply. Google or search
here on instructables for "DIY benchtop power supply" or "ATX benchtop power supply". You should
find a few different tutorials that will explain everything well :)
Lab Benc ht op Pow er Suppl y
If you are super fancy and have the money, a standard adjustable power supply (which is what you
would find in a lab) will work just as well. J ust make sure you set aside your banana plugs for
electroplating only.
Not es on Pol ar i t y
You will need to know which wire is positive, and which side is negative. If you are a pro with a
multimeter, this should be pretty easy. If you don't know how to use a multimeter or don't have one,
you can do this: Mix a pinch of salt into a little bit of water in your jar. Connect one alligator lead to
the fuse and drop it into the water. Connect the other alligator lead to the non-fused wire and drop that
in the water. The alligator lead that starts to bubble like mad is your negative.
St ep 3: Mak e Your El ec t r ol yt e
It is definitely possible to buy different nickel salts online, but what is the fun in that? Here, I'll show
you to make your own nickel acetate solution for a lot cheaper than buying chemicals online.
Fill your mason jar with distilled vinegar leaving about an inch from the top. Dissolve a pinch or so of
salt into the vinegar. The amount of salt is not all that important as long as you don't go crazy with it.
The purpose of the salt is to increase the electrical conductivity of the vinegar. The more current that
flows through it, the faster we can dissolve the nickel. However, too much current will lead to poor
plating results. Use sparingly.
Unlike in the copper plating instructable I've done, the nickel will not dissolve into the solution just by
letting it sit for a while. We need to electro-dissolve the nickel.
Place two pieces of pure nickel into the vinegar and salt solution such that part of both stick out and
into the air and that they don't touch. Clip one alligator lead to one piece of nickel and then to the
positive terminal of the battery or the DC power supply we made in the last step. Clip the other
alligator lead to the other piece of nickel and to the negative lead of your battery or DC power supply.
Make sure that the alligator clips don't touch the vinegar as they will dissolve as well and ruin your
chemical.
The nickel source connected to the negative lead should start to create hydrogen bubbles and the
positive lead should make oxygen bubbles. Truth be told, a very minute amount of chlorine gas (from
the salt which is sodium chloride) will also form on the positive lead, but unless you put in huge
amount of salt or are using a lot of voltage, the chlorine will just dissolve into the water like what you
find in a swimming pool. The minute amounts excess sodium, in case you are wondering, will react
with the water to create sodium hydroxide.
For t hi s st ep, I ver y hi ghl y suggest usi ng a DC pow er suppl y t hat pl ugs i nt o t he
w al l (see t he pr evi ous st ep). Di ssol vi ng t he ni c k el w i l l t ak e a w hi l e and you don' t
w ant t o dr ai n your bat t er y mor e t han you need t o - DC pow er suppl i es ar e
r eusabl e, most bat t er i es ar e not .
After a little while (mine took about two hours), you'll notice the solution has turned a light green. This
is nickel acetate. If you get blues, reds, yellows, or any other color, it means that your nickel source
wasn't pure. You also should also get a clear (though green) solution - if it was cloudy, your have an
impure nickel source. The solution and nickel sources may become warm during this process - t hi s i s
nor mal . If they get hot to the touch, you should disconnect your circuit, let it cool for an hour, and
then reconnect it (repeat as necessary). It is possible that you added too much salt, which increases
the current, which increases the power dissipated as heat.
St ep 4: Pr epar i ng Your Obj ec t t o be Pl at ed
NOTE: Some mat er i al s, suc h as st ai nl ess st eel , w i l l not ac c ept di r ec t ni c k el
pl at i ng. You w i l l need t o c opper pl at e t hem f i r st . See my c opper pl at i ng
i nst r uc t abl e t o l ear n how t o c opper pl at e: ht t p://w w w .i nst r uc t abl es.c om/i d/Hi gh -
Qual i t y -Copper -Pl at i ng/
The above being said, the cleaner your conductive object, the better it will plate. You don't want any
grease, oxidation (rust, tarnish, patina, ect), or general grime on your surface. Even if your surface
looks good, you should clean it anyways.
Remove general grime and dirt with a little bit of dish soap and elbow grease.
Remove the oxidation and tougher grime with an acid-based abrasive such as Cameo. Don nitritle
gloves and just mix the powder with a few drops of water on your glove and go to town!
You can further clean your object by reverse electroplating (ie "electrocleaning") it for a few seconds.
Hook your object up to a negative voltage, a wire to the positive voltage, and drop them both in a
vinegar salt solution for 10-30 seconds. This will remove any left over oxidation.
For larger surfaces, try scrubbing them with fine steel wool and vinegar.
St ep 5: Ti me t o El ec t r opl at e!
For this step, you want to use your 6V battery. Even lower voltages (down to around 1V) will give you
a better, shinier, smoother finish. You can use a higher voltage DC power supply for electroplating,
but you won't get good results.
Place a nickel source into your green nickel acetate solution and connect it to the positive lead of your
battery with an alligator clip. Clip the other alligator clip to the object to be plated and connect it to the
negative lead of your battery.
Drop the object to be plated into the solution and wait for around 30 seconds. Take it out, rotate 180
degrees, and drop it back into the solution for another 30 seconds. Repeat as necessary. You should
move the alligator clip a new location after a couple dips so that the entire surface gets plated. Unlike
in copper plating, the alligator clip shouldn't leave "burn" marks.
The object being plated should bubble. There should be enough bubbles being created that you won't
need to agitate or swirl your object in the electroplating solution. For larger objects and containers, you
may want to include a small aquarium pump (~$15) to circulate the solution.
St ep 6: Post Pr ep
Now for post prep....Generally speaking, NONE! Nickel doesn't oxidize at room temperature and
shouldn't tarnish. You can polish your end product with a light polish to get a bright gleam.
If your nickel plating is not as shiny as you'd like, polish it up with a light polish that doesn't leave
waxes or oils behind, and then electroplate it again.
Adding small amounts of other metals such as tin during the initial electroplating will change the color
of the plating (tin will give you a white colored metal like silver). Many metals can be electrically
dissolved into vinegar just like nickel. The two main metals that cannot be electrically dissolved into
vinegar are gold and silver (trust me, I've tried). Since I had some copper plating solution left, I mixed
in a little bit of it with my nickel plating solution. The result is a matte, dark grey, very hard finish that
feels like a chalk board (it squeaks like one too if you scratch it <evil laugh>). See the picture.
Unless you are an experienced chemist or have a friend who is, I would be very careful when adding
random chemicals to your electroplating bath - you may just end up creating some toxic gas that isn't
good for you, kids, or fido.
St ep 7: Common Quest i ons
Can I pl at e [ i nser t your met al her e] w i t h ni c k el ?
It depends. Certain metals play nice together, others do not. The ones that do not are called
"dissimilar metals". In the picture, you'll find a table I borrowed from RFI. The table is designed to let
you know when a galvanic reaction might occur causing corrosion. For our purposes, it also tells us
which metals are compatible and which are not. The lower the magnitude of the number (aka the
absolute value), the more compatible (ie similar) the metals will be. If you are trying to plate a metal
that is not compatible, you may need to plate with copper or another metal first. You can find my
copper plating instructable here: http://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-Copper-Plating/
How do I pl at e non -c onduc t i ve obj ec t s?
First, you need to make them conductive. You can do this with conductive paints, conductive glues,
and even metal leaf (think gold leaf) as long as whatever you are coating your surface with is not
water soluble. I haven't experimented much with this myself which means you will have to. Send me a
message with your results and I'll post them here for others to reference.
How muc h vol t age/c ur r ent do I need?
As little as possible. The lower the voltage and current, the better results you will get. You need a
minimum of 0.5V DC to plate with copper. A C or D cell battery will give you pretty decent results. If
you don't have access to lower voltages, you can put the electrolyte into a big container and move
your electrodes as far away from another as you can - the increase in distance will also increase the
resistance of the circuit and decrease the current.
Can I use ot her ac i ds ot her t han ac et i c ac i d (vi negar )?
Yes.....but be careful... This instructable was written for average J oes and J olenes, not chemists.
Other acids can be significantly dangerous as well as release some very nasty, very toxic chemicals
into the air. Unless you are an experience chemist (ie you have an actual degree, not just AP Chem in
high school or Chem 111 in college), I would not recommend playing with other chemicals.
Nov 3, 2013. 7:14 AM Reply
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Nov 3, 2013. 7:27 PM Reply
I s pl at i ng c oi ns i l l egal ?
The first thing I want to point out is that I'm only using coins because they are everywhere and cheap
by definition. The copper and nickel content make them ideal for small experiments. This isn't a "how
to plate coins" instructable, they are just handy and recognizable. For those of you who took high
school chem lab, you probably used quarters, dimes, and pennies for a couple different classroom
experiments.
As far as the legality of plating coins, to my understanding, it is legal as long as you 1) Aren't removing
metal from the coins with intent to sell that metal, 2) Are not trying to pass them as something they are
not (ie a copper plated dime is worth 10 cents, nothing more), and 3) Aren't defacing the coins for
malicious intent. As a personal disclaimer, this is MY understanding - take it with a grain of salt. If this
is incorrect, I would welcome a friendly email or message from the US Treasury or other qualified
persons.
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l ongw i nt er s says:
andr ea bi f f i says:
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to longwinters
ast r al _mage says:
Thanks for posting,,, for those persons looking for low cost power supply's the "wall wart" (
love that term) transformers are readily available at virtually all second hand stores, usually
in a balled up mess, the phone chargers have a pretty clean current and it's well regulated.
I like the "For Science!" label on the vinegar :-D
One note to this - the larger the voltage (to a degree), the faster you can dissolve
your nickel. I would recommend somewhere between 10 and 15 volts. The output
voltage should be listed on the power supply (ie wall wart).
If you want to use your DC power supply for plating, look for lower voltages (the
phone chargers would work great for this).
ok ppeople 4 those who want thier metals try this company out. http://www.mcmaster.com/#
. they should have every thing u may want / need . or dont want / need
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Nov 5, 2013. 10:05 PM Reply
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Goose says:
w oodypoodad says:
veeguy in reply to woodypoodad
veeguy in reply to veeguy
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to woodypoodad
k ayl ahni says:
veeguy says:
How would the Nickel plating would work in the salt water?? Might be a good idea to plate
some of my kayak fishing gear. Or is the plating not thick enough to last??
Can you plate stainless steel??
Hey, have you done any silver plating? Same process?
IAbout 15 years ago I bought a silver plating kit to plate some gun parts. It was a
small kit of cleaner, 2 electrolyte types and a pen like brush which used a 9 volt
battery as the power source. After prepping the parts, you cleaned them then used
the pen to brush a layer of each type of the electrolyte on to the grounded part. It
worked well, and it held up well. The company advertised in "The Shotgun News"
and still may be in production.
I went for a trip down memory lane. This is a link to the silver plating kit:
http://www.caswellplating.com/plug-n-plate-brush-plating-kits/plug-n-plater-silver-
plating-kit.html
They also offer many other type of kits and supplies.
Unfortunately, silver plating is not very easy to do without using insanely toxic
materials and the acetate method is not very effective. I am working on a good
silver method that isn't dangerous...if or when I find one, I will post it.
I am looking to make some safe parrot toys for my new African gray. I read that nickel
plated and stainless steel parts are the only non toxic options. Zinc is lethal. Most parts I
find don't mention what they're even made of. If I were to use this method on things like
small chains and links, do you believe the plating would be permanent enough to stand up
to a 2 yr old parrot beak?
A cheap way to get pure nickle (99.9%) is to get some Canadian Nickles anywhere from
1955 - 1981 Ask around at banks or buy non important mint dates for about $5 - $10.- a
roll of 50. I would suppose you could do a fair bit of plating with a few dollars worth, even
buying at a coin dealer's shop prices. I just checked my junk drawer and found 7 of them,
but I tend to save oddities I run across.
Nov 5, 2013. 8:36 PM Reply
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ned103 says:
super t r oopa86 says:
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to supertroopa86
super t r oopa86 in reply to A_Steingrube
Cor eyCoop in reply to supertroopa86
mi k er ew in reply to CoreyCoop
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to mikerew
J ust curious. I would like to do this to a raw hot wheels. Unpainted. Can you do this
process on ZAMAC? (ZAMAC is an acronym for the Zinc, Aluminum, Magnesium, and
Copper alloy that die-cast cars are made from.) I would assume that the cars would need to
be cleaned of all oils first.
Thank you.
Would using a power supply plugged into a GFI outlet remove the need of the fuse?
No. The power supply is a step-down transformer. The current coming out of the
power supply does not equal the current coming in (though the power will be the
same). For example, if you had a 12 volt DC power supply connected to a 120V
AC wall outlet and you were drawing 1 amp from your power supply, the power
supply would be drawing 0.1 amps from the wall.
The reason to have the fuse is to protect the power supply and prevent a possible
fire should you accidentally short your circuit. It is much easier and cheaper to
swap out a burnt fuse than it is to hire a fire restoration company.
right which is exactly what a GFI outlet does, but it trips much like a circuit
breaker does. I only ask because i would rather trust a UL rated device as
apposed to something i rigged up myself
A GFI is not a circuit breaker. A Ground-Fault Interrupter (GFI) looks for even a
tiny voltage between the 'hot' and the ground on a three pin socket, and interrupts
the AC voltage if there is one. This is to protect (for instance) water getting into an
appliance (or vice-versa) and hurting you, Hence their required use in bathrooms,
kitchens and the like. Most wall warts don't even have a ground pin, which means
practically nothing they do will trip a GFI. A fuse, or breaker, does not care about
Ground, it simply stops an excess current from flowing. A fuse is usually not much
more than a low melting point wire that can conduct less current than the
wire/power supply it's hooked up to, it melts before your wire can.
Nice instructable, but I have to disagree with you about the GFI. Actually, A GFI
looks for a difference between the current supplied on the "hot" side and the
current returning on the neutral...any difference (ie flowing through you) will trip
the circuit. These will work with just a two prong plug.
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Ar t i c Ak i t a says:
l i amd792 says:
Cor eyCoop says:
w i k k i t in reply to CoreyCoop
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to CoreyCoop
FuzzeeDee says:
Working in industrial robotics, I've learned that you can't really have too much
safety. I've also learned that circuit breakers (by any name) can fail due to contact
welding and other issues. It costs only two or three dollars to install a fuse holder
and fuse and fuses will only fail safely.
say that is NEAT! I always wondered how it was done just didn't know there was a safer
way to do it!
Will this Nickel plating work on aluminum? and approximately how much pure nickel would
it take to do a perfect centimeter cubed of volume?
Do you have any advice for plating aluminum (used because it's cheap and easy to
machine) to look like brass (for a steam-punk project)?
Yellow anodization can look a lot like brass. Alodining, aka chromate conversion
coating, can as well.
Anodization can be done in your house, for cosmetic effects it just requires
electricity in an electrolyte, dye, and boiling water. Still, if you only need it for a
one-off project it may be cheaper to have an anodizing shop do it for you.
Chromate conversion coating is very common in aerospace, but uses really nasty
chemicals and is something to avoid at home.
Aluminum doesn't plate well generally speaking. The invisible oxidation layer that
forms on it, however, can be dyed to get a brash color pretty easily. Google
"anodized aluminum dye".
If you have a little knowledge of soldering and using a multi meter you could build your
project box with a switch and some resistors to get your two fuse protected voltages. J ust
a little experimentation with your multi meter and assorted resistors will get you the
voltages you want. If you wanted to get real fancy you could use a potentiometer (variable
resistor) to get various voltages between a desired maximum and minimum voltage range.
You can just just solder the parts in line and protect them with heat shrink tubing or
electricians tape. To really do it right you can use what's called a breadboard which is
simply a plastic board with a bunch of evenly spaced holes punched in it with the holes
being lined with copper. Then you just plug the parts into the board and solder wires
between them to make your circuit.
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A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to FuzzeeDee
k yi smast er says:
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to kyismaster
k yi smast er in reply to A_Steingrube
zl oi sop says:
modeng2000 says:
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to modeng2000
zoomr oom says:
You won't get a stable voltage using just resistors because the resistance of the
electrolyte will change as it becomes more or less concentrated or the electrodes
get closer and farther apart. If someone wanted a cheap variable voltage, they
could creat a voltage divider with a resistor and a potentiometer and use that to
feed a high current op amp configured as a voltage follower.
turn 100 pennies into dimes, i bet cashiers wont even notice the difference.
This would be EXTREMELY illegal.
well yeah, but for the laughs and giggles of buying a hamburger, why not. ya don't
steal anything you can't pay for, either in time(jail) or monetary.
Will it work with nichrome instead of pure nickel?
Can brass be plated to give a black finish?
Thanks for your efforts.
You should be able to plate brass with no problem. You will need to play with
voltages, concentrations, and more to get the desired finish. You won't get the
black nickel finish like you see on expensive flashlights and such with nickel
acetate, but you can get a very dark color.
Do you know a lot about nickel plating ... or chrome plating? I'm looking for information
about a project I want to do. Is there a way I can contact you privately?
this is a great post, thank you.
pb
Nov 5, 2013. 11:36 AM Reply
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A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to zoomroom
spar k mast er says:
f r eehand says:
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to freehand
l ai r dk el l y in reply to A_Steingrube
zappenf usen says:
A_St ei ngr ube (author) in reply to zappenfusen
I have a nickel plating instructable on here. You can find the link in the intro page
or by looking at my profile.
Chrome plating is not something that can be done at home.
Like your copper plate piece, very nice!
Thanks
Great instructable! Have you ever chrome plated?
I haven't done chrome plating, but I'll take a look into it! Most of my electroplating
experiments at the moment are centered around a research project I'm doing for
school. Chrome plating, at the moment, isn't needed for the project but it would be
a great thing to do able to do. I know that the industrial techniques are highly
dangerous and toxic and as a result are banned in some jurisdictions...I would
have to find a more hobbyist friendly way to do it.
I believe there is no 'hobbyist friendly' chrome plating, just replica chrome/ copy
chrome which is Nickle mixed with Cobalt (cobalt hardens the nickle and adds a
bluish tinge like real chrome) - just like real chrome it is typically a triple-layer
process (copper to fill pits/imperfections that is then highly polished, followed by
nickle for a hard protective surface, and finally a thin layer of "chrome" for a
'brighter' blue tint)
Thanks for the Voltage advice. Anything as per current of power supply or is that auto
regulated by solution resistance, time of immersion, etc.? Any minimum requirement?
Thanks again, Any suggsestions as to type of base paint for plating plastic, acrylic, Leds?
Zapp
The way I'm doing it is to just apply a voltage and call it "good". Figuring out
exactly how much current can be tricky ->what you are actually looking for is
current/surface area. The more current/surface area, the more copper that will be
electroplated. Sometimes, this is wanted, other times, not so much.
You can regulate the amount of current one of two ways - you can increase the
voltage to get higher current, or move the plated object closer to the nickel source.
The great thing about nickel plating in particular is that you can do both without
much ill consequence. If you were plating copper, you can't move the plated object
Nov 2, 2013. 4:04 PM Reply Or ngr i mm says:
1-40 of 50 Next
closer to the source as you will get burn spots.
As far as plating non-conductive objects by starting with paint, there are a couple
different ways I can think of (though I haven't tried them as of yet, so you'll have to
experiment). The first is to get chrome spray paint and give it a light coat. You can
also find conductive paints and glues at RadioShack, Sparkfun, and Adafruit rather
easily. It will take some trial and error before you get decent results. Something
that came to mind as well is to give your object a light coating of rubber cement
and then sprinkle a conductive powder over the surface.
Is there a upper limit in the acidity of the vinegear? I can buy cleaning-vinegear with 25%
dirtcheap...
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