# Copper plating



## GrahamIreland (23 May 2018)

I was looking into copper sheets, and saw a table that said it was 'finished' in copper plate..

Whats this process involved?

Thanks
Graham


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## CHJ (23 May 2018)

To copper plate non conductive materials the two processes I've used are to spray with a fine silver coating to provide a conductive surface and then copper plate as normal in an acid bath. (Just a surface coating or build up to several centimetres thickness. (could be a problem with wood absorbing the acid from bath)
Brush Plating would reduce the acid exposure but hardly practical for such a large item.

The other was to use a Plasma Spray gun system to impinge a copper coating


Edit:- The above was based on my first reaction to it being a wood construct but the OP post does not actually stipulate it is not a metal construct.
If that is the case a simple Google on Copper Plating should throw up the basics of the process.


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## Chrispy (23 May 2018)

Surely copper plating could mean copper sheeted as in a copper plated ships hull?


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## CHJ (23 May 2018)

Chrispy":1kkh1ymi said:


> Surely copper plating could mean copper sheeted as in a copper plated ships hull?


I think I would describe that as Copper Sheeting or Sheathing *Chris*, would be a very complex process on the tube and profile edges for a visually seamless finish.


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## Chrispy (23 May 2018)

The tube is just a tube surely and the flats just a sheet beaten over to cover the edges, that would be my approach anyway.


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## Phil Pascoe (23 May 2018)

CHJ":2k1reld8 said:


> Chrispy":2k1reld8 said:
> 
> 
> > Surely copper plating could mean copper sheeted as in a copper plated ships hull?
> ...


Or cladding?


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## sunnybob (24 May 2018)

copper, silver,brass, gold, chrome, all plated the same way. dipped, with only a few microns of thickness to the metal.
Copper sheathed is a seperate layer of copper not chemically bonded to the base. 
Copper coated is a spray on finish.

Boats with copper sheathed hulls have thick sacrifical plates which can be scrubbed clean of barnacles much easier than wood can, and can be replaced when they are too damaged to be cleaned.


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## Chrispy (24 May 2018)

Ok so what's a steel plate then?


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## Droogs (24 May 2018)

Plate is any thickness over 6mm and sheet is any less. Steel plate is also usually refering to iron that has gone through the Besemer process to become steel.


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## DennisCA (24 May 2018)

I have a copper plating solution I made at home. It's copper sulfate with sulfuric acid. I made it by taking battery acid, sodium per-sulfate (pcb etchant) and a copper scrap bit. 

After a while it turned into a blue solution and if I put this solution on a metal it very quickly develops a copper plated surface. Good if you want to scribe lines on something for metalwork and don't want it rubbing off.

Maybe it's not relevant, but I found it an interesting tidbit.


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## LancsRick (24 May 2018)

Electrolysis would probably be the simplest solution?


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## GrahamIreland (25 May 2018)

Interesting stuff, I wonder how durable copper plating is on say a table.

I was just thinking of the process really, for down the road. Maybe do a round table some time.

Is there much work in forming a sheet over say a wooden carcas?


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## TFrench (26 May 2018)

Depends how severe a curve you want it to follow. I experimented last year with making some aluminium domes on about a 2" radius - I had to anneal them twice to get them to go without kinking, and the edges still aren't perfect.


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## AES (27 May 2018)

I guess it would work OK but it would take a lot of effort - as already said, you'd be annealing the copper sheet "every 5 mins"! Ideally you'd also need at least one hide-faced mallet (it's what the professionals use), probably 2 sizes, and the cost of the copper sheet would, I guess be quite high.

I also see a problem with the finished table top marking very easily, not to mention denting if someone accidently dropped, say, a glass or cup.

But as an exercise it sounds interesting, and if you were careful in using the table, especially coating it with a tough varnish after polishing, IMO it would look good in the right surroundings.

But personally I can't see any likely possibility of "plating" a table top chemically. I maybe wrong though.

As an addition to what Dennis CA said above about coating steel surfaces for marking out, it's not necessary to use acid, simple copper phosphate crystals (from the chemist) mixed with plain tap water works fine. I use it regularly.


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