hvymetalalchmst
RCTalk Champion
How to Anodise/Brush Aluminium and Electroplate metal parts
this is the counterpart to the de-anodising and polishing of aluminium. for that option, or for heatsinks (where polishing is difficult), heres the opposite how to
i wanted to anodise quite a few parts, such as my dogbones cos they keep falling out and hate wasting an afternoon staring at the ground like a mental patient. i first thought to copper-plate my dogbones, and then thought of anodising aluminium, slightly off topic, but i was interested. so i did some research.
from my understanding, the following seems very feasible, but no guarantees.
heres a site a found thats great for a thorough step-by-step DIY home aluminium anodising, which includes dying and re-anodising (for scratched parts);
http://astro.neutral.org/anodise.shtml
as for copper-plating, well, that can be plated on anything, whereas aluminium anodising can only be done on aluminium. ill give a thorough rundown on copper plating, and if anybody has any questions on anything to do with plating (both alum and copper, just pm me). unfortunately I've only done a quick lab experiment on it, so i dont know the true end product of a large scale. there shouldnt be many problems.
at the end of this post will include some info on other metal electroplating
!!you will need!!:
- copper metal, copper pipes, sheet metal, available at most hardware, should be in the plumbing section. just make sure that the surface area is over twice the item to be plated, dont be too fussy. this will be 'transferred ' in a 1:1 ratio to your item.
- copper sulfate (or any other copper solution, such as copper nitrate) sounds hard to find, though I've heard you can find it in animal supplies (correct me if I'm wrong). i dont think its hard to find. it ranges in colour from a nice sky-blue to the colour of the blue rc truck logo (top of the page). buy about a gal (enough to cover your item, copper sulfate theoretically hardly needs to be topped up)
- a container to hold copper sulfate and the item and the copper metal. a bit obvious, though, dont grab a metal container.
- a DC power supply (plugpack, if you dont have a proper one), a voltage of about 12V DC. anything above 1.5V will actually do, though try to minimise voltage, ie 3V as this will be transformed into unwanted heat. aim for minimum current.
- (optional) resistors and ammeter. will help. can be found at radioshack.
- sandpaper
- open, ventilated area. some hydrogen gas will be released. not by the gal, though just prevention is better than cure
- Caustic soda - drain cleaner/ lightning degreaser/ anything mentioned in the aluminium polishing post
- acetone/ paint stripper/ Denatured alc.(DA)/ paint thinner
- (optional) thermometer
- time; dont think you can hide this from your wife. the plating takes time. the thicker the coating, and the better the adherence/ finish, the longer the time. min. is an hour or two. can take a day or more.
!!safety!!
-wear gloves - caustic soda burns like hell! nobody wants to try it, and ill be damned if you try this, (i guarantee you that you wont be laughing like that)
-goggles when playing with caustic soda.
-ragged cloths which you dont mind having holes in. a chemical-resistant apron is best, though make sure youve got plenty of water nearby.
-mask. maybe not necessary, though not nice to sniff caustic soda.
-ensure no animals, or children or anything remotely important is around the experiment - you never know if the AC powerpoint shorts around your experiment, and caustic soda will eat through anything.
!!now the fun part!!
1. clean the item you want plated with warm soapy water, sandpaper, anything to get it clean.
2. get a bath of caustic soda ready, safety gear on, and clean the part. the soda should strip the part of everything until just metal remains. rinse with plenty of water. you may want to sand it down a little more if you need. make sure there are no old paint, old plating, oil marks or finger prints - just bare metal. you may wish to clean in acetone/ DA/paint stripper.
3. pour in enough copper sulfate to cover the item in your container.
4. put the copper into the solution, connected to the negative end of the power supply. can place resistors between the copper and the power supply. the lower the current, the better the finish. you can't rush quality, but there of course is a point where lower wont do anything. (i guess about a dogbone will require approx 500mA max, though experiment. it will turn flaky or gritty if current is too fast).
5. connect the item to the positive end of the power supply. reversing polarities will eat away your item and contaminate everything.
6. turn on the power supply. then place the item into the solution. the item will slowly form bubbles. its fine. its hydrogen, so dont worry too much. the copper metal will strip in the solution, so you may need to replace the solution or filter out from time to time (or place a container underneath the metal to collect the sediment to keep the solution not contaminated). you may need to top up with water or copper sulfate from time to time. just make sure the solution keeps a nice blue tinge. keep temp under 30C (86F), temp does affect, but i dont know how much. 86F should be fine.
I'm not going to detail the extra bits like calculating a certain mass, etc. thats excessive and irrelevant.
9. after your done, you can rinse your plated item in acetone, DA, paint thinner/stripper or water.
10. your done! copper is a soft metal though, and makes it tough to ensure a hard-wearing coat. you might like to polish it. it can easily be scratched off. and one more thing, you might, and thats might, get an uneven coating. to prevent that, periodically rotate the item around during plating. reducing current will help. coating it with topcoat clear/ lacquer may help
!!you can plate with a range of metals, such as chrome, silver, lead, nickel (it is shinier than zinc, and silvery in color), cobalt, zinc, vanadium, etc.
all you need is the metal. you can follow the copper-plating process with replacement of the metals, and instead of copper sulfate, if you can find a the corresponding metal's solution, by all means use it, otherwise any chemical thats got nitrate, sulfate, chloride(such as table salt), etc. but ensure there are no other contaminants. if your not sure, you can pm me. the chemical needs not be very concentrated. if your asked for concentration, just say "between 0.1 to 1 molar". naturally it will cost more if your buying more concentrated. not much difference, its not important.
do some research in case, like chrome, it requires specific environments
!!chrome plating, use 100-800 amps per sq meter (google the conversion), use temp range for 30C-40C (86F-104F), you must use 40g/L AgCN (silver cyanide) mixed with 70g/L KCN (potassium cyanide) mixed with 10g/L K2CO3 (potassium carbonate) and 25g/L KOH (potassium hydroxide). adding a tiny bit of (NH4)2S2O3 will make a smoother surface and Na2B4O7 can harden the coat. you might want to add lacquer/ automotive topcoat to protect it. dont ask me where to find those chemicals or that current. just a mention.
!!you can electroplate more than one thing, just connect everything to the positive end. if you want two dogbones instead of one, double the current, etc. current varies directly with surface area. double one, double the other.
pm me if you need anymore help. and if you do plate, please leave comments and/or any possible improvements - we never stop learning, do we?
!!Brushing aluminium, it looks so cool, but how to achieve the look? heres a site, though i think theres a few ways to make it easier; http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=114028
1. can only be done on flat pieces, and best if your making parts from sheet metal. clean the aluminium.
2. i think polishing it will give it a shinier base look, again, never tried.
3. secure it on a flat working area, with one edge just hanging over the edge. you may wish to raise it slightly above the bench to make it easier
4. get something abrasive, like sandpaper (choose your grit. 100-500 should be ok. a coarser grit will cause bigger brushes. get a good quality thin sandpaper. if its thick, you get scratches, not brushes)
5. get a piece of cork (or something stiff yet soft), and wrap the sandpaper around the cork.
6. grab a length of wood, half to one footlong will do, and attach the wood under the cork in a t-shape with clamp them together. you can add some weight to the cork, but make it even. the weight alters the depth of the scratches.
7. holding the timber, put some pressure toward the aluminium sheet, to ensure the timber doesn't cause non-parallel lines. and rub the timber one direction through the aluminium. dont start or stop halfway, continue past the end. going backwards causes deep scratches.
8. change the position of the sandpaper often to get an even 'brush'. you can try multiple grits to get different effects. always work coarse to fine. at this point its all nice and all, but restrain from oil prints! if you do, wipe with denatured alcohol. use gloves to handle the sheet.
9. seal using normal lacquer, automotive lacquer, or whatever you like. thin out the lacquer really watery with automotive thinners, and apply using an airbrush to get an even, thin coating. a thick coating fills the brushes and makes it plain shiny. not attractive. a thin, 'watered' down coating will take longer to dry and more coats, but is much more attractive.
because it is lacquer, nitro fuel may melt the lacquer slightly, causing a mess and an exposed aluminium. might be worth a go tho.
Good Luck!
this is the counterpart to the de-anodising and polishing of aluminium. for that option, or for heatsinks (where polishing is difficult), heres the opposite how to
i wanted to anodise quite a few parts, such as my dogbones cos they keep falling out and hate wasting an afternoon staring at the ground like a mental patient. i first thought to copper-plate my dogbones, and then thought of anodising aluminium, slightly off topic, but i was interested. so i did some research.
from my understanding, the following seems very feasible, but no guarantees.
heres a site a found thats great for a thorough step-by-step DIY home aluminium anodising, which includes dying and re-anodising (for scratched parts);
http://astro.neutral.org/anodise.shtml
as for copper-plating, well, that can be plated on anything, whereas aluminium anodising can only be done on aluminium. ill give a thorough rundown on copper plating, and if anybody has any questions on anything to do with plating (both alum and copper, just pm me). unfortunately I've only done a quick lab experiment on it, so i dont know the true end product of a large scale. there shouldnt be many problems.
at the end of this post will include some info on other metal electroplating
!!you will need!!:
- copper metal, copper pipes, sheet metal, available at most hardware, should be in the plumbing section. just make sure that the surface area is over twice the item to be plated, dont be too fussy. this will be 'transferred ' in a 1:1 ratio to your item.
- copper sulfate (or any other copper solution, such as copper nitrate) sounds hard to find, though I've heard you can find it in animal supplies (correct me if I'm wrong). i dont think its hard to find. it ranges in colour from a nice sky-blue to the colour of the blue rc truck logo (top of the page). buy about a gal (enough to cover your item, copper sulfate theoretically hardly needs to be topped up)
- a container to hold copper sulfate and the item and the copper metal. a bit obvious, though, dont grab a metal container.
- a DC power supply (plugpack, if you dont have a proper one), a voltage of about 12V DC. anything above 1.5V will actually do, though try to minimise voltage, ie 3V as this will be transformed into unwanted heat. aim for minimum current.
- (optional) resistors and ammeter. will help. can be found at radioshack.
- sandpaper
- open, ventilated area. some hydrogen gas will be released. not by the gal, though just prevention is better than cure
- Caustic soda - drain cleaner/ lightning degreaser/ anything mentioned in the aluminium polishing post
- acetone/ paint stripper/ Denatured alc.(DA)/ paint thinner
- (optional) thermometer
- time; dont think you can hide this from your wife. the plating takes time. the thicker the coating, and the better the adherence/ finish, the longer the time. min. is an hour or two. can take a day or more.
!!safety!!
-wear gloves - caustic soda burns like hell! nobody wants to try it, and ill be damned if you try this, (i guarantee you that you wont be laughing like that)
-goggles when playing with caustic soda.
-ragged cloths which you dont mind having holes in. a chemical-resistant apron is best, though make sure youve got plenty of water nearby.
-mask. maybe not necessary, though not nice to sniff caustic soda.
-ensure no animals, or children or anything remotely important is around the experiment - you never know if the AC powerpoint shorts around your experiment, and caustic soda will eat through anything.
!!now the fun part!!
1. clean the item you want plated with warm soapy water, sandpaper, anything to get it clean.
2. get a bath of caustic soda ready, safety gear on, and clean the part. the soda should strip the part of everything until just metal remains. rinse with plenty of water. you may want to sand it down a little more if you need. make sure there are no old paint, old plating, oil marks or finger prints - just bare metal. you may wish to clean in acetone/ DA/paint stripper.
3. pour in enough copper sulfate to cover the item in your container.
4. put the copper into the solution, connected to the negative end of the power supply. can place resistors between the copper and the power supply. the lower the current, the better the finish. you can't rush quality, but there of course is a point where lower wont do anything. (i guess about a dogbone will require approx 500mA max, though experiment. it will turn flaky or gritty if current is too fast).
5. connect the item to the positive end of the power supply. reversing polarities will eat away your item and contaminate everything.
6. turn on the power supply. then place the item into the solution. the item will slowly form bubbles. its fine. its hydrogen, so dont worry too much. the copper metal will strip in the solution, so you may need to replace the solution or filter out from time to time (or place a container underneath the metal to collect the sediment to keep the solution not contaminated). you may need to top up with water or copper sulfate from time to time. just make sure the solution keeps a nice blue tinge. keep temp under 30C (86F), temp does affect, but i dont know how much. 86F should be fine.
I'm not going to detail the extra bits like calculating a certain mass, etc. thats excessive and irrelevant.
9. after your done, you can rinse your plated item in acetone, DA, paint thinner/stripper or water.
10. your done! copper is a soft metal though, and makes it tough to ensure a hard-wearing coat. you might like to polish it. it can easily be scratched off. and one more thing, you might, and thats might, get an uneven coating. to prevent that, periodically rotate the item around during plating. reducing current will help. coating it with topcoat clear/ lacquer may help
!!you can plate with a range of metals, such as chrome, silver, lead, nickel (it is shinier than zinc, and silvery in color), cobalt, zinc, vanadium, etc.
all you need is the metal. you can follow the copper-plating process with replacement of the metals, and instead of copper sulfate, if you can find a the corresponding metal's solution, by all means use it, otherwise any chemical thats got nitrate, sulfate, chloride(such as table salt), etc. but ensure there are no other contaminants. if your not sure, you can pm me. the chemical needs not be very concentrated. if your asked for concentration, just say "between 0.1 to 1 molar". naturally it will cost more if your buying more concentrated. not much difference, its not important.
do some research in case, like chrome, it requires specific environments
!!chrome plating, use 100-800 amps per sq meter (google the conversion), use temp range for 30C-40C (86F-104F), you must use 40g/L AgCN (silver cyanide) mixed with 70g/L KCN (potassium cyanide) mixed with 10g/L K2CO3 (potassium carbonate) and 25g/L KOH (potassium hydroxide). adding a tiny bit of (NH4)2S2O3 will make a smoother surface and Na2B4O7 can harden the coat. you might want to add lacquer/ automotive topcoat to protect it. dont ask me where to find those chemicals or that current. just a mention.
!!you can electroplate more than one thing, just connect everything to the positive end. if you want two dogbones instead of one, double the current, etc. current varies directly with surface area. double one, double the other.
pm me if you need anymore help. and if you do plate, please leave comments and/or any possible improvements - we never stop learning, do we?
!!Brushing aluminium, it looks so cool, but how to achieve the look? heres a site, though i think theres a few ways to make it easier; http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=114028
1. can only be done on flat pieces, and best if your making parts from sheet metal. clean the aluminium.
2. i think polishing it will give it a shinier base look, again, never tried.
3. secure it on a flat working area, with one edge just hanging over the edge. you may wish to raise it slightly above the bench to make it easier
4. get something abrasive, like sandpaper (choose your grit. 100-500 should be ok. a coarser grit will cause bigger brushes. get a good quality thin sandpaper. if its thick, you get scratches, not brushes)
5. get a piece of cork (or something stiff yet soft), and wrap the sandpaper around the cork.
6. grab a length of wood, half to one footlong will do, and attach the wood under the cork in a t-shape with clamp them together. you can add some weight to the cork, but make it even. the weight alters the depth of the scratches.
7. holding the timber, put some pressure toward the aluminium sheet, to ensure the timber doesn't cause non-parallel lines. and rub the timber one direction through the aluminium. dont start or stop halfway, continue past the end. going backwards causes deep scratches.
8. change the position of the sandpaper often to get an even 'brush'. you can try multiple grits to get different effects. always work coarse to fine. at this point its all nice and all, but restrain from oil prints! if you do, wipe with denatured alcohol. use gloves to handle the sheet.
9. seal using normal lacquer, automotive lacquer, or whatever you like. thin out the lacquer really watery with automotive thinners, and apply using an airbrush to get an even, thin coating. a thick coating fills the brushes and makes it plain shiny. not attractive. a thin, 'watered' down coating will take longer to dry and more coats, but is much more attractive.
because it is lacquer, nitro fuel may melt the lacquer slightly, causing a mess and an exposed aluminium. might be worth a go tho.
Good Luck!
Last edited:
nice
