RE: copper plating

["Richard Barton" <richardbarton-at-caving5.freeserve.co.uk> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

I had always thought that if you wanted to properly plate a plastic
item, you needed to cover the item with a conductive coating of
some kind first, but I admit I haven't tried it. The only electroplating
I ever did was- at the age of around 10 years, I copper plated all
my parent's cutlery in the bath, blowing the main fuse of the house,
and causing some kind of blowout in a local substation. I ran away
and hid for several hours, before coming back to a clobbering.
Will polystyrene stay okay in motor oil ? It won't dissolve will it ?
					Richard Barton.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla List [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Monday, June 12, 2000 1:21 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: copper plating


Original Poster: "Metlicka Marc" <mystuffs-at-orwell-dot-net> 

the principal is to do away with the sat water altogether. if you have a
conductor separated by a nonconductor to a conductor then you have a
capacitor. all the salt water in a salt water cap does is conduct from
the internal electrode to the dielectric then to the outer
conductor(aluminum foil). my idea is to plate both sides of the glass
jug so that it would be a dry cap.
soldering is not needed because copper foil tape stuck to the inside and
the outside of the jug would be plated over for a solid connection.
the plastic cups do plate with copper on the outside(although with rough
handling it flakes off), these i only want plated on the outside
surface. then i can stack them with unplated cups to get the desired
dielectric thickness. the party cup cap will be in oil to eliminate air
bubble that will cause a pierce through point.
plating the cap, be it plastic or glass only takes the place of aluminum
foil wrapping.
the capacitor i placed across the pos-neg wires to force the current to
lead the voltage. aiding in the molecular transfer of the copper.
if you think plastic cant be plated then you must never had a chrome
radio knob start to flake and cut your finger?
by plating a glass jar on both sides there would be no corona, or a very
slight amount.
this experiment is in it's infancy at this stage so further reports will
follow if interest is shown? but for what i am trying to do, i have my
reasons.
regards       marc