Ammunition & Hand Loading > Cartridge and Shotshell reloading
Copper Plating
unfy:
For Dan W. If there is something in particular or a different angle or more zoomed out or something ya want, lemme know.
These are the Berry 125gr 38cal. Close up, it looks a lot like it does the naked eye -- hammered into place or "pasted on like clay then cooked" or something.
This is a plated bullet with or without the internal light of the microscpe thing turned on.
Looking at it - i wonder if my brush is way too harsh, which is what is causing the crystalization like formation when plating the rounds. The pot marks are also interesting.
Note: I don't believe the dark / blue-ish spots are lead. They might be , but i think that's just highly reflective copper.
This is the same microscope I used to take pics of my failed brass i posted a year ago, btw. Handy little investment (i bought it for electrical engineering, but is helpful for this too).
Tonight - I'll be adding the vinegar to the copper sulfate finally. I'll also try to more lightly polish the lead before plating it (see above pics). Prolly need to grab some non-soapy steel wool. If none of this helps -- it'll be an aquarium heater.
I will probably also try throwing these two currently plated bullets into my brass tumbler/vibrator with corncob media for 5min and see what happens, etc.
NE Bull:
unfy; I'm enjoying following your experimental journey, reminds me of one of my favorite quotes about Thomas Edison: about invention of light bulb; "I didn't fail, I found 2,000 ways how not to make a light bulb; I only need to find one way to make it work." Keep plugging away.
unfy:
NE Bull: yeah.... i debated not posting quite as much, but i figured showing my records of successes / failures / ideas / etc would be beneficial in general. It's also handy when I have a question and such.
Currently, I'll be adding just plain white vinegar to the copper sulfate. It's only 5% acidity, and i'll be dumping in a quart of it. That much extra water technically changes solution percentages, but since this isn't an exact science ATM (just plating lead to shoot out of barrels for plinking! heh).... not too concerned.
Supposedly, it shouldn't be too hard to find 'spirits of vinegar' which would be a 20-32% concentration ... which would be preferred... but walmart nor hyvee had it. And technically, sulfuric acid is ideal - but i want to avoid that if I can (still easy to get from hardware store or maybe automotive store).
I did take a sharpie and mark the side of my tub after dumping in the 2gal of water and 3 cups of root killer :).
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Looking forward to tonight with a finer brush / scouring pad thing and acid-in-copper-sulfate to see if I can get a thicker smoother plate! :D (acid too i guess).
Coworkers who work with their hands more than I do (i'm a programmer by day) were unable to scratch my plated bullets. One was able to crease it by running his nail sideways though. Progress! :D
I think soon... it might be time to try larger batches and actually use the scaffolding etc. I'll need either buy / get / make some unlubed bullets for that. Don't have a lead pot yet :(
DaveB:
Since I know nothing of what this involves or how it works, I am having a blast watching the progress. Thanks.
unfy:
Dave B:
In broad terms it's quite simple. A salty lightly acidic solution, a piece of copper on the + side of a battery, the thing you want coded on the - side. Youtube has plenty of videos on home made plating stuffs that are real easy to do. I'm just taking it a bit beyond that for a practical purpose rather than a science class trick :P
There are safety concerns... copper sulfate needs to be treated with much respect (toxic... it *is* labeled root killer after all). Acetone... well.. everyone should know how to treat finger nail polish (avoid flames and all of that). So far, the acids I've been working with are household kitchen style. No pipe cleaner style stuff yet... so... the acids are generally safe as well (lemon juice and vinegar as of yet).
There's some attention to detail which any reloader would feel right at home with anyway :).
Hopefully I can get this ironed out and actually suggest a parts list and instructions so others can repeat it if they desire. Hell, I may even offer to sell Unfy Plated Bullets (TM) since the cost should still be much cheaper than Berry's..... and after trying mine - the client might get into doing it themselves as well and try new things so we can all learn from their experiments! :D
IE: nickel plating (not terribly difficult to do either from what I understand... just requires some prep work to get a replacement 'copper sulfate' like solution ... the nickel equivilant) !
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