Well, I just bought some conductive paint for some electroplating projects. Wish me luck.
@MookyTroubadour I'm intrigued and looking forward to any updates you care to share. Best of luck!
@Ironworker229 it’s coming from UK, so I don’t expect it’ll be here right away. I want to zinc plate/galvanize a screwdriver (that doesn’t need the paint) and nickel plate a plastic 3D print. I’ll post as soon as I get it all together, good or bad.
@MookyTroubadour I tig welded a lot of electro-galv steel sheet for slot machine cabinets, etc. back in the day and we do a fair bit of hot dipped steel fabrications as ironworkers (exterior stairs, rails, trellises). Nickel plate on plastic sounds pretty cool- what application is that for? My brother has had a printer for several years and he might be especially interested.
@Ironworker229 in theory, one should be able to 3D print a thing (filament, resin, whatever) and then electroplate it provided you can get a conductive surface. I’ve seen some say “just add graphite to paint” or similar, but as many say it doesn’t work well. Amazon sells nickel, silver, copper, and graphite sprays, but again, reported mixed results.
@MookyTroubadour Regrettably, my dear Great Uncle Bert passed away several years back. He may have had some input. He worked in the electroplating shop at Rohr Aerospace for about 30 years!
@Ironworker229 oh for sure he would have known the ropes :)
@MookyTroubadour Seems like that should work. The solution is acidic, from memory?
@Ironworker229 distilled muriatic acid typically. There may be other ways I don’t know about- so long as it’ll hold the plating metal in solution and be conductive it should fly.
@MookyTroubadour It's been a loooong time since I looked at it, but this is ringing bells ,yes!
@Ironworker229 I have this “safer” kind of muriatic acid and some safety gloves. I don’t know if whatever it is that makes it “safer” is going to affect the plating. Time will tell :)
@MookyTroubadour You are likely already aware...From past experience with muriatic- even if you're in a well-ventilated garage with the doors open, anything steel will rust after exposure. Do your mixing well away from the house and any steel. Once you have your dilution, it should be less of an issue. Every damned rake and shovel had surface rust within 3 days, lol!
@Ironworker229 I was going to work outside away from things, but that’s a good call out. Ideally, this low-fume type will help.
@MookyTroubadour Yeah, for sure! It was 30 years ago +/- but I remember the fumes/mist rising from the plastic tub I was using to pickle a blade before I started using ferric chloride with much better results.
@MookyTroubadour Hm. Thanks for the quick explanation. I'll mention it to him and see if he's looked at it. He mostly just kind of messes around with it as a hobby and makes odds and ends for himself.
@Ironworker229 I’m going to try several coats of graphite, with cloth polishing between coats. If I can test the conductivity and get to low resistance, all systems should be “go”.
I need to buy or some make some electrolytic solutions too, I suppose.