Electroplating

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Electroplating
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 23:22:03 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

----------
From:  RODERICK MAXWELL [SMTP:tank-at-magnolia-dot-net]
Sent:  Thursday, August 20, 1998 9:24 AM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  Re: Electroplating

Tesla List wrote:
> 
> ----------
> From:  Jim Lux [SMTP:James.P.Lux-at-jpl.nasa.gov]
> Sent:  Wednesday, August 19, 1998 11:27 AM
> To:  Tesla List
> Subject:  Re: Electroplating
> 
> Tesla List wrote:
> >
> > ----------
> > From:  RODERICK MAXWELL [SMTP:tank-at-magnolia-dot-net]
> > Sent:  Tuesday, August 18, 1998 9:26 AM
> > To:  tesla-2-at-emachine-dot-com; tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> > Subject:  Electroplating
> >
> > I want to try to build a torus by using wood turned on a lathe, or on
> > a homemade spindle. After the torus is shaped, sanded, and coated with
> > varnish I wish to use a method to electroplate the torus mentioned in a
> > book by Walt Noon "Secrets of Building Lighting Bolt Generators. With
> > this process you can coat nonconductive objects with copperplate. One of
> > the chemicals mentioed is Silver Nitrate.
> >   If there is anyone on the list that has a chemistry background I would
> > like to know what concentration of silver nitrate you would need for
> > this process. There are many different concentrations listed at Fisher
> > Scientifics website.
> >
> 
> Check the archives. About a year or so ago, there was a lot of
> discussion about "home" electroplating. As for silver nitrate, you want
> the solid granular stuff, and you probably don't need the most expensive
> reagent grade either.
> 
> The tricky thing about silvering things (non electroplating methods) is
> that the classic processes (Brashear's, for instance) can produce silver
> fulminate which is notoriously unstable.
> 
> For electroplating, I don't think this is an issue, although the
> cyanides and acids necessary would require some attention, particularly
> with respect to disposal of your used plating baths (you can't really
> just dump it down the drain in good conscience).
> 
> Lindsay pubs has a plating handbook of some sort, as I recall. And, a
> trip to the library might be useful. This whole plating thing is very
> much an art, at least at our level, and there are a whole host of
> interacting variables like current density, bath temperature and bath
> concentrations.


   I've read about Brashear's, method in "Procedures in Experimental
Physics" (from Lindsay Publications). The chemicals used are rather
dangerous (nitric acid), and there is a risk of explosion ( fulminate of
silver). But I have a much "tamer" method in mind.



                                Frankensteins Helper
                                       Max