Electroplating 3D Prints: the Symphony of Plastic and Metal 

“Jessy, we need to electroplate”

Medstudent here: Don't use nickel for jewelry you're gonna wear. A lot of people are allergic to it which is why it is heavily regulated/banned for jewelry or anything that comes into contact with your skins for a long time in the EU. Yes having another layer on top of it will work but once it wears through that you have the same issue

I've been working on this for several months, and I gotta say. As hard as it is, when it works.....it is beutiful.

Nicely done. Considering the parts that were plated are original and 3D printed, I'd say this is a complete success. You video is the best I've seen on this subject thus far. Thank you...

this was the same result i got a couple of years ago. i thought i was just bad at things lol, im happy to see it is just that hard i guess. i found that buildup of gasses influenced surface quality and oxidation, and uneven current across poorly conductive coatings led to vastly uneven plating. upon looking into professional electrochemical processes there are many ways to improve this but none were in my $0 budget at the time. baskets, pumping/stirring electrolyte, ultra sonic agitation, and other methods could be employed to reduce these effects. i may try this again with my new tools. fyi i was able to plate ABS by making an ABS-acetone-graphite paint and by vapor polishing and dusting with graphite too. seeing a magnet stick to a print was cool

thanks for the warning at the end

*Finally, a Prusa video WITH description instead of porn music!*

That looks really hard lol. It also looks fun.

The airbrush one was a new thing I haven't seen that in many electro plating videos I had seen

This is very interesting!

Great video.

Copper plating on 3d prints is really hard. I've been doing this for almost 2 years. There is lots of of variables and if you are not a chemist you will need to do a lot of research when you have problems. The hard part is to get that perfect shine. If you use commercial solutions it's not that hard but if you want to plate large things then you go with homemade solutions and that is when the headaches starts. I am still experimenting when I can, I am having difficulty getting consistent results. I try also to get the greatest plating adhesion wich is another hard thing to do on it's own. Good luck !

A couple of things...you can use graphite (not graphite lube) or nickel spray paint instead of copper spray paint. Just be sure to shake well before use. If you want your parts shiny right out of the bath then add brightener to your solution. Finally, fine steel wool and brass/steel brushes do a great job of bringing out the shine before a paste polish.

Even if this is a great tutorial, for everybody that wants to try this out, you might wanna check out the channel from HEN3DRIK - Electroplating 3D Prints. He has some great tutorials in that regard and managed to succesfully electroplate large and complex parts like a lightsaber or the helmet from the Mandalorian

Copper sulphate pentahydrate mixed with the sulphuric acid can and will eat and damage qutie a few types of resin, so beware and coat over them with a PU layer before the conductive paint layer. I've been doing this for over a year now, with reisn prints mostly, so I've the experience to know the issue.

Hmmm ok hang on a second, lemme come back to this once I finally learn how to properly sand my prints lol.

How to coat evenly complex parts (out of the reach areas) with conductive ink? (eg. lattice structures)

No air bubblers? 🤔

I wonder if the resin surface needs any kind of etching or adhesive primer for that conductive paint to really stick to.

Better to cast from a resin print?

What would happen if you used electrical conducting filament?

I know this video is about the concept of electroplating, but I can't help thinking it would be easier to just make the ring out of metal. 😅

1:56 I’m noticing that on the gold version of the ring, some detail seems to be lost on the lettering. Is there any preventing this or improving it post plating?

do you take orders? ive been looking for so long who could electroplate something for me but no one can help me sadly, please could you help me out?

Where did you buy copper paint and electrodes?

✊Make elecroplating great again! create easy working process and sell it like product ❤🎉🙏

Has anyone tried zinc?

Hmmmmm…….interesting

Gold leafing 3D prints also works great, I recently made a how-to video on the topic.

Bro Alex Lab did this in a cave with pieces of scrap

That ring looks terrible.