Clean and Simple Electroplating

In this example of electroplating I will show you how to electroplate nickles, quarters and dimes with the copper from pennies. Pleases read all the steps before starting.

Since I haven't found a nice instructable on electroplating, I am now making one.

Warning! This is my first instructable!

What you will need:
1-1.5 v power source (old batteries preferred)
some kind of battery holder with alligator clips
small, non-conductive, disposable container (plastic or glass, the small yogurt containers are great)
a weak acid (vinegar: acetic acid, or lemon/lime juice: citric acid)
two or more pennies
quarters, nickles and dimes (almost any hardware you want platted)
time (at least 1.5 hours...I think, 3 is better)
plastic wrap (Saran Wrap)

here is all the stuff I used, the 3000 sq ft platic wrap gets a picture of its own.

Step 1 Fill your container with the acid

First take you job, which will be a quarter for me, and mark its height inside the container - this will be a fill line.

Remove the quarter and fill the acid past the line. If you don't have enough acid, you can add water and dilute it, but do not go past 50% acid (since vinegar and juice is already diluted). I had only half the lime juice I need so I just added more water until the surface was past the fill line.

Comments

[casey321b]

So I decided I'd give it a try, and I used a 2 Franc piece that I got from a trip to Europe, and a piece of copper pipe. Worked wonderfully. Thanks for this 'ible.

[Electroinnovation]

One suggestion...I would recommend using pennies from before about 1970. These were made almost completely of copper instead of copper plated. Also, you should make sure your circuit is active before you put it in the acid. Otherwise it will immediatly begin to rust slightly and it may be causing the odd colors on some of your nickels.

[casey321b]

I believe it's something Iike either before 1962 or 1982.

[Electroinnovation]

It's 1982 I just checked

[hogi]

i just did a trumpet mouthpiece,its lookin pretty good,i used 2.5 sq copper wire coiled it into a ball and used 3 volts due to the thickness of the mouthpiece but it came out very clear and shiny

[nf119]

Cool! Let us know how well the coat lasts.

[smokeypwns]

will a 9v battery work

[Dragonlock2]

Is there any gas emitted during this step?

[nutsandbolts_64]

oh, and could you use high salinity water?

[nutsandbolts_64]

if there are black parts, it means your voltage is too high.... so I'm just using a 1.5 v battery and the job went black? weird

[nutsandbolts_64]

What does cyan-colored water mean?

[Electroinnovation]

I know this is way late but that means you have another element being dissolved. Copper is a transition element (like most metals) and it will turn a solution different colors when dissolved. Copper turns solutions green, so if it is turning cyan you most likely have either a contaminated or rusted penny or the clips were touching the solution on the positive lead.

[nutsandbolts_64]

Too late, I remembered I accidentally switched the coins so instead of plating a nickel coin with copper, I plated a copper coin with nickel (at least I think it was the nickel that turned it cyan). That was 5 or so months ago.

[Electroinnovation]

Hmm yeah that probably was the problem lol

[nutsandbolts_64]

I guess I'm gonna show a weird-looking coin tomorrow to my friends lol. So the thing to be plated must be on the negative side fully submerged and the other thing is on the positive side with the clip not submerged so that the metal from that won't go to "the job". After e. plating wrap in plastic and squish out the air. Leave to dry out for several hours before handling.

So could I just leave the "job" to air-dry or the copper on the coin is too fresh and might oxidize or something? 

[beehard44]

imma try plating a5 peso coin with steel to produce a 1 peso looking 5 peso coin.

[pivotduke]

 how much Citric Acid did you use?

[woody558]

Would a 9-volt battery work?

 

[MrLouque]

could you put more copper or pennies or plate copper with nickel?

[sparky43]

I am trying to copper plate a steel nail with the copper from a small piece of 12 ga. romex wire(like used in house wiring).
I used distilled vinegar and an old  'D' cell.  Connected the positive end of the battery to the copper wire and the negative end to another piece of copper wire.  About an hour later the vinegar turned blueish green. (acid)
I  then removed the copper wire from the negative lead of the battery and connected this lead to my steel nail, immersed it completely into the acid.
About 10 minutes later, I noticed that the nail was beginning to turn redish/black and at the bottom of my jar, just below the nail, was a small pile of gooey gunk building up.
Your instructions say my voltage was too high.  The battery I used would not light a flashlight!
BTW.  I have tried this several times with always the same result...my nail turns reddish/black with some kind of gunky goo piling up in the jar.
Any ideas?
Sparky43

[nf119]

I believe copper plating steel is a little tricky. Try immersion deposition. Basically get to that blueish green solution and then take everything out and throw the steel in. A nice way to get a good solution for immersion deposition is to use vinegar, throw your pure copper in. Add a bit of hydrogen peroxide. Just a little. Your solution will heat up to 60 C! After the solution is ready, just throw the steel in. Deposition should take only 30 seconds or so. Let me know how it goes.

[Eucherplayer]

I have done this using vinagar and salt in a solution with no electricity.  It takes longer but it works.  look at URL  http://homechemistry.blogspot.com/2008/01/penny-chemistry-verdigris-and-copper.html > for their method and recipe.

What I found is that the copper is sticky on the nail afterward, but I have read further to find that it can be baked to firm up the plating.  I have not tried baking the nail afterward, but I think that the step is necessary based on the tacky feel of the copper.

I hope this helps.  BTW, your method gave rise for me to sign up to Instructables!  Thanks for the great input!!

[flybynightenterprises]

VERY interesting instructable. Could you do silver and nickel plating with appropriate US coins in the same manner?

[12V]

you can also do zinc

[lifelong-newbie]

Is it possible to plat something with iron, if so... how? Also will this object now be magnetic?

[minerug]

Electrodepositation of a coating (electroplating) of metal by making the object to be coated the cathode (negative) in an electrolyte (the liquid). Positive ions n the electrolyte are discharged at the cathode and deposited as a metal. (what the anode (positive) is does'nt matter.

[thesorrow]

Sorry but isn't cathode the positive rather than negative? people can easily get confused because of your comment. no hard feelings, i just don't want confused people around ;)

[mike256]

I remember that a cathode is the negative be cause a catheter doesn't bring a positive thought to my mind. I stopped burning LEDs up that way :D

[PatMan83]

Thanks for the tip on remembering anode/cathode. I've always wanted a way to remember. I think I will now, lol.

[thesorrow]

All that takes you to learn...besides, there's no right way of electricity , at least none they can prove. it's a matter of personal reference. i chose to use that cathode is the positive since i am using conventional way . Cheers

[FrozenFire]

Electrons are negative. Electrons come from the cathode.

[minerug]

sorry, it does matter what the anode is, it has to be the same as the liquid

[nf119]

I believe that the metal on the positive matters a lot. It determines the voltage to use, the amount of time to leave it in, the acid or the salts to use and also if it is even possible. The problems with iron coating is that iron rusts very easily and it also has multiple oxidation states.

[minerug]

How about u get some silver nitrate or copper nitrate and put some an iron thing on the cathode and of couse, copper on the anode and, poof u have some silver (or copper)

[nf119]

If you had silver nitrate and copper on the anode, wouldn't copper also dissolve into the solution and also get deposited onto the job. I think copper would be more attracted to the cathode since it is less electromagnetic than copper. And I believe that minerug is trying to iron-plate not electroplate an iron object.

[sk8trboipyro]

Wouldn't the silver electroplate better? silver is a better conductor than copper

[minerug]

I ment the silver nitrate as the electrolyte to be deposited on the cathode, in other words I am trying to ELECTROPLATE THE IRON with something ie silver or copper (i also ment copper sulphate not copper nitrate).

[lifelong-newbie]

This is all very interesting guys, i was just wondering if there is a way to take a metallic object ie.a key or a coin and plate it in a way to make it magnetic and still look shiny and silver

[nf119]

Well my answer is, I don't think so. You'll need a really really thick coat so that it you could weakly magnetized it or for it show a noticeable attraction to strong magnets.

[nf119]

DrCoolSanta was trying to plate something with stainless steel below. We found out together that it was almost impossible to iron-plate without special chemicals (iron sulphate & potassium-sodium tartarate are the main two). Then you have to get chemicals and get an anode thats pure non-oxidized iron. I am sorry to say but that is not an easy project. If you did get an object iron coated, I believe the coat will be too thin to have any magnetic effects.