Hank: well, my current setup is prolly the least friendly way of doing it... the alternate tumbler method mentioned by someone earlier is a possibility that I'd be willing to look at as well... *ASSUMING* the cell approach works.
Concerning copper source - I do appreciate the offer, and might end up taking you up on it
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I've got all the lil aluminum L brackets cut and marked for drilling. Doing a single retaining "hole" instead of 2 just for simplicity. I'll have to mark up the galvanized fence tension bars / power bars / rigging / whatever for appropriate drilling as well. Plan on coming in to work on Saturday and drilling all the holes all at once.
Looking at:
http://www.tedpella.com/company_html/PlasticsChemResistance.htm(or
http://www.calpaclab.com/Chemical-Compatibility-Chart-s/789.htm )
HCL and HDPE don't react... well, especially at the hardware store grade I'll be looking into using (30-35%).
Milk jugs are HDPE. I figure some milk jugs, some glass / pyrex additional containment safety and I should be good to go with pickling in HCL. I'll look around at other plastic containers and stuff at hardware store and what not to see if I can come up with something better than a milk jug.
Actually, plastic coffee cans are more stout and HDPE. As an assumption: food container plastic that is colored is quite possibly HDPE. Looking at the recycling mark tells ya what ya need to know
. Ya'd want 2 / HDPE. Larger scale: many 5 gallon buckets, smaller: the thick plastic coffee cans seem cool.
Need some white lab coat like stuff, some decent gloves, and I'll begin to construct the pickling tanks and stuff. Well.... *AFTER* i show 20-25 bullets plating successfully with just manual stuff.
As an aside, sulfuric acid (typically 30-40% in automotive batteries) is okay with HDPE as well.
There's also questions about cast -> water squelching -> plating at nearly all the same time and if it'd do for reducing oxidation concerns etc. Or if even the water squelch is necessary. I know that if left hooked up to the current and dropped into water, a lead bullet will immediately oxidize (even with no current flowing through the bullet itself).
Basically what I'll need to do is attempt some cast -> plate immediate stuff to see if the de-oxidation step is even necessary.
edit:Well, the way i'm doing it now is theoretically 'least friendly'. All of the setup I've done for everything is on the more time consuming / complicated side... but will make the actual plating stuff much quicker to work with compared the very initial plan of bullets-hanging-from-a-copper-wire.
Cells are removable, copper plates are easily removable for cleaning, hooking up power to the copper plates is pretty quick (just some clamps), power stuff is all self contained and easy to hook up. The clothespins make dealing with individual bullets easy (i have some thoughts on that as well). All in all, it's come leaps and bounds compared to what the thread started out as.... and I think the current plans on attaching the clothespins to the rigging/power source will work out real nice as well.
There is near ZERO reason why I can't attempt plating this weekend.... an will be endeavoring to do so.
A power source is the current unknown for this setup, will take experimentation to find out more. Not overly concerned about it at the moment.
Concerning the clothespins....
There are the 'rubber dip' things for tool handles and heat shrink stuffs for wires etc. I do wonder if some copper strips / tubing cut a certain way would do well at replacing the plastic fork handles and using the dips/shrink for covering most of the copper stuff except contact points would be a nice option. This way less surface area gets plated, an easier to work with set of 'pincers' for the bullet holders, etc. The question that arises is how this other stuff holds up to being in an electrolyte and other such fun questions. Or, similarly, what about some of the neat paints ?
edit again: plain ole polyurethane may work for a coating as well (i dunno ?).
