(Mis)Adventures in Electroplating! 

Neat. I'm guessing the first solution you were using was contaminated somehow, perhaps from one of your cleaning solvents. I've had no problems with hot degreaser solution as my pre-wash. 2 amps sounds awfully high. I bet you get a lot of bubbling, which leads to an imperfect surface finish. It'll plate real fast, though. I wonder what the glycol and lactic acid are supposed to do?

@@madmanmapper the ethylene glycol is added as a brightener, the lactic acid was just a suggested alternative to white vinegar. I will try again with a lower current and see how it goes

Yes, one needs to monitor the current, not the voltage. It's the current that does the plating. Determine ahead of time the current/sq inch you need for your plating solution. It's always a range, and given in the plating solution formulas in books. Then figure out the sq inches for your part to be plated. That will give you your target current during plating. Turn on the power and put the part (under power) in the solution, and monitor the current, varying the voltage to maintain that current level. Don't remove the part to look at it! If you break the electrical path and put it back in, it is like trying to plate layer upon layer, and nickel doesn't like that. It is very difficult to plate nickel on nickel and have it stick. A thick layer will peel right off. You can occasionally pull it out partway to look, but don't break the electrical connection. Also, the area of your part to be plated always plates thicker the farthest it is from the electrical connection, which is the opposite of common sense. That's why plating sometimes "burns" on the end of a long piece. The "burn" is a higher plating current density in that area.

Yes, I had the same problem finding information. The measurements should be the same for gold and silver as for nickel. The materials needed are only some kind of acid and the metal of your choice. Vinegar is simple and easy to get and work with, though I am not sure how well it will work with gold. As for the equation, it is also the same for any metal. But seriously, don't worry about the math. It is a waste of time. It is so complex and the measurements need to be so precise that it really serves no practical purpose outside of a laboratory, or an industrial setting where tolerances are very tight.

Lol yeah. We learn through failure. Apparently contamination like that can be run out by plating a lot of scrap.

I'm sure that's what the brightener does, however, no, the cloudy white is not just a matte nickel. It is definitely contamination. I experimented in the video, attempting the same thing in nickel acetate, and the same cloudy haze appeared. When, before, the nickel acetate made a perfect shiny finish. I think, though, that a matte finish would have 99% to do with the surface texture before plating and 1% to do with the plating solution. The surface finish test I did as well confirms that. Though the Caswell solution has some ability to make the end finish shinier, it's very minimal, and cannot even fill the lightest scratch. I definitely appreciate it, but it's more of a backup policy than a substitute for good surface finishing techniques.

So basically antifreeze? I've got plenty of that. Anyway, nothing seemed to polish that haze off. I'm still pretty sure it was some chemical contamination of the metal being deposited. Otherwise, I would agree with you, the bubbles that form on the part are no good. I keep voltage low enough to mitigate the bubbling, and use an air bubbler thingy on the bottom of the tank to knock off any bubbles that form.

You're welcome! The time can be found by using the complex equation in the video description. It's a pain to calculate, and it uses square decimeters for surface area. As if it wasn't bad enough converting to metric, you have to convert to an oddball unit. If you actually punch in the numbers on the first few parts you plate, you'll get a feel for it. I don't even bother with the numbers now. I should mention, my goal plating thickness is 8um, that seems to be fairly standard. For a part like in the video, about 5 minutes at 200mA should be fine. I shoot for the lowest voltage that will give 200mA. If you are planning to really plate stuff, and not just tinkering, you should definitely invest in a benchtop power supply like I have in the later part of the video.

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Well... the easiest way is to use a benchtop power supply like I got, and just tune the voltage to get the desired amperage.

@@madmanmapper did you add salt to the solution. I have been accumulating some things last few days so that I can try doing this. having watched a few videos on it I decided to get hydrochloric acid to try as well as white vinegar. I'm going to have a go tomorrow. Experimenting with conductivity and acidity of solution might be something to try as well as the voltage and current.

@@SodiumInteresting For the vinegar solution (nickel acetate), yes. Just a pinch is all you need. Not table salt, use Kosher salt so it doesn't have iodide in it. For the Caswell solution, no, I followed the directions on that one. It may not even have salt in it, because it in itself is just nickel salts. If you want to just start small and experiment, I don't think hydrochloric acid is necessary. Nasty stuff to work with if it's not really necessary. My vinegar solution worked perfectly fine until I contaminated it with aluminum. (I could probably plate out the contamination.) In fact, the results from the vinegar solution were pretty good. I plated a large nut with it, and it looks great - I keep it on my desk. Finish quality isn't the best, but that's my fault for poor polishing. The plate is a bit yellow, as nickel naturally is. You really have to look closely to see the yellow, though. But it is more prominent than with the Caswell solution, which I'm sure they designed to plate a little less yellow. I think I mentioned in the vid, but Caswell sells a 'copy chrome' which as far as I can tell is the same crap, but with two bottles of brightener instead of one. Their products seem very good, but their customer service is shit. Also, last tip, if you want to do anything beyond casual experimentation, buy a cheap benchtop power supply. Worth the $40 imo (But don't keep it plugged in while unattended, they catch fire, apparently.)

@@madmanmapper I already bought a variable 30v 10a bench power supply about a week ago, it's something that will definitely come in handy for a lot of things. before I was using for my projects a fixed voltage pc power supply with a cheap terminal that divides the SATA wires for you into 3, 5 and 12v positive, negative and ground. that was until I blew a fuse somewhere and decided I wanted something better. anyway yes it's definitely good to have decent variable bench one. I made a magnetic stirrer from a 12v pc fan with a cd player magnet stuck to it and a raised bit of cardboard cut to shape. A 2000ml glass beaker and small £8 aquarium heater will be coming tomorrow. I'm hopeing it'll support the weight, if not it will need modification but I should then be able to keep the water both at a set warmth and agitated without buying an expensive dedicated magnetic stirrer/heat plate thing. you might be right about the hydrochloric acid but I have 3liters of it so gloves, maybe even chemical mask though I think it's only 10%. the other thing of course is cleaning and polishing in preparation. I think I might be lacking in the right kind of abrasives but for now but acetone might be good for removing all the grease, oils and the oxide layer. I've seen people first plating their work peice with copper in a seperate copper sulphate electrolyte before doing the nickel in nickel electrolyte but maybe that is a final protective finish for copper plating rather than a improvement to nickel plating

@@SodiumInteresting With copper, I believe it matters more what kind of acid it is. I tried some nickel acetate, but could not plate anything except nickel. I think one type of acid will allow you to plate steel directly. I've heard copper plating is sometimes used to make the part bigger, because copper is fairly cheap, then nickel plate it. It will build up, but it won't fill holes.

I never actively tried to, because I got that Caswell plating solution. I will say that it did seem to get better the next use and the next, but I kind of stopped there.

It *IS* possible, as you can find chrome plated plastic just about everywhere, however I know very little about it. I do know that it's a mostly different process, though, typically sprayed on in several different chemical coats. It's also friggin' expensive. Caswell sells a spray on chrome kit, you might want to check with them if it works with plastic. Good luck, their customer service is garbage.

@@madmanmapper good to know customer service =SHIT. Appreciate the info

@@characterlures2377 Don't get me wrong, though, their product is good.

@@madmanmapper for sure man i will look into them for sure

I know your question is 6 months old but I seen someone take a leaf from a tree, dried it, used liquid graphite from a spray can and gave it 4 coats. Then they nickel plated it, it really turned out pretty nice.

Yeah, oops, right? Apparently you can plate out contamination like that. So just keep plating scraps until it comes out clean.

There is a complex equation in the video description. Some small jewelry at about 200mA probably needs 2 minutes for a good plating. Longer if you want the layer to be thicker, and therefore more resistant to corrosion or rust. 100mA will be less likely to form bubbles that will damage the plating, but will take twice as long to plate it.

@@madmanmapper thank you so much 💝

@@madmanmapper nice sir I m going to plate 36 grms deffrent items like rings locket and ear rings so what current should I put?

@@phool289 200mA is good. Less if you have problems.

@@madmanmapper thank you sir

The color it has without the brightener.

Maybe if I were to abrade it deep enough, but then it might take off the plating, which is only micrometers thick to begin with. The hazy color is definitely plating contamination. I'm only guessing it was because of the aluminum, but really it could have been something else. The good news is that you can apparently 'plate out' impurities like that. ie, just keep plating stuff until it gets better.

Salt (an electrolyte) makes the solution electrically conductive to begin with. Yes, more salt would equal more conductivity (technically less resistance), which means more current is able to pass through it. But adding more salt wont necessarily help. Once *some* conductivity is established, the nickel is deposited in the solution in the form of a nickel salt anyway.

Nah. The buffing wheel is easily the least dangerous thing I've used in this video lol

Yeah I pretty much figured that out the hard way. Aluminum contamination, as it happens.

@@madmanmapper You are right on when it comes to contamination. I was told by a guy who worked at a plating shop that if you are truly anal about cleanliness, you can us the same solution just about an unlimited time. The solution just gets better and better. Then someone always messes up and wham, need to make new solution again.

Ain't that the truth?