Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Copper Plating
unfy:
Some good success!
1.5v (one battery), 20min.
added 0.7 grains of copper. calipers didn't seem to notice any thickness differences so it's prolly very dense. it was also fairly resilient. (required metal to scratch).
i'll be leaving it to plate over night so i can reweigh it and take calipers to it as well.
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Tonight was victorious!
unfy:
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left overnight attached to a D-cell, it's now 11.6 grains heavier than it was as just pure lead.
it's still rough, but like the 20min thing - pretty solid.
measured at the base of the ogive above the lube band, it's .420 inches (from .401). and from the picture it's very sparkly. what's needed next is probably fluid agitation while coating.
but.... at 20min it seemed almost servicable, at 30 it probably is, etc.
unfy:
I'll be adding some bleach or vinegar (one or the other) to the solution tonight. Supposed to make it easier to rip copper off of the donor easier so that it can plate faster.
Also going to pick up some lemon juice as a "not so dangerous" etcher (mixed with salt).
I don't have a proper acid neutralizer to work with so I don't wanna open up the HCl bottle and have an accident i can't fix.
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I'd appreciate some ideas on how to get the fluid moving / circulating.
There's the coffee pot idea that's on youtube and stuff... which... I kinda don't like (copper sulfate steam ? no thanks).
I *could* grab a small fish tank heater. That'll heat the liquid but not really cause any circulation. I also imagine if it cracked that'd instantly blow a breaker or worse >:D
I wonder if i have an old cake beater or something .... and i wonder how fast it moves on it's slowest speed setting.
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of course, at 20-30min, i could just *stir* the thing.
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Edit:
Currently this is where I'm at.
Solution:
* 2 gallons of distilled water
* 3 cups root killer
Power:
* 13v 3amp through 12v car bulb - this seems to attempt to plate too fast. Prolly way too much current
** adding an acid to the solution prolly helps
* 6v (4-D cells) - still seemed to plate too fast
* 3v (2-D cells) - also a failure, but quite possibly due to improper metal prep before plating
* 1.5v (1-D cell) - at 20min it had a nice coat. overnight it was a sparkly xmas ornament
* note --- i don't have proper amperage metering info yet :(
Process:
* Rough up the bullets with a wire brush
* Acetone bath for a few min (5ish)
* Distilled water bath / rinse for a couple min
* Plating process
* Distilled water rinse
* Pictures
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Coming up:
* Vinegar or bleach into copper sulfate solution
* Salty lemon juice etching process before acetone
* Some way of circulating solution
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Down the road:
* Need to run a batch of 50 or 100 bullets through the plating process.
** Sadly, the only lead i have right now is pre-lubed Missouri Bullet Company :(
** i *know* amperage will need to increase as increase surface area / deposition rate... and/or plating process will slow down. might have to fiddle with other power stuff when moving on to that.
* Would separating my anode into 2 opposite sides in parallel help any for a more even spread ?
* Heat the liquid ? coffee pot hack ?
* Silly strong acid etch
* tumble plated rounds for 5-10min in vibrating tumbler
** do they buff up pretty ?
** do they lose their plating ?
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Consumable costs:
* Some copper for the anode. Should last a long time though.
* Distilled water (doesn't require much, $1 a gallon too)
* Acetone (doesn't require much either, $6 a half gallon ?)
* Etching solution (lemon juice or something).
* Electricity (either recharging batteries or DC power supply).
* Time
Hopefully this means that after initial up front cost and time of building the thing.... plating becomes almost free (outside of time)!
unfy:
And just for some amusement and possibly other info. Grabbed a cheap $60 usb microscope I bought for work.
^^^^ This is a "smooth" section from the overnight bullet
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^^^^ this is a bumpier section , near base of the bullet, the blue band in upper left was apparently some bullet lube i missed somehow?! i didn't see it when i was cleaning :/. Wonder if it's copper sulfate related (the lube groove is where wire holding bullet was) ??
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^^^^ this was an area that i chipped off this morning on purpose (was a clump sticking out from bullet) Can see the straight up lead underneath and some of the bondings around it.
kozball:
How about an air pump for a fish tank, or a very small water pump like they use for fountains or bubblers. Maybe from the garden shop at Menards.
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