Electrolysis - updated with photos

Wow
that is an awesome write up

I think there may be people that would want your services…
would you consider doing a Novatac?

This is a great thread. I was afraid it was about removing unwanted hair so I was a little hesitant to open it. Don’t usually want to see before and after pictures of that sort.

@jon_slider, not yet.

You’d first need to de-anodize the light, or start with a bare light, like the BLF A6.

You’d then need to nickel plate the light, since the copper solutions we have access to, even copper sulfate, can’t make a good coat directly on aluminium. But nickel can.

We could then copper plate the light with a copper sulfate/copper chloride solution for highest plating durability and thickness. Copper acetate will work, but isn’t optimal due to the higher than optimal pH of the solution.

HOWEVER, it is doable, and I’m waiting for some pure nickel, and a BLF A6 non-anodized to test it out, since I’ve bought hydrochloric acid today to make a copper chloride solution.

UPDATE

I’ve got some 30% hydrochloric acid on hand for some more advanced plating :slight_smile:

I’m also in the process of making sulfuric acid using epsom salts, and lead acid battery separators(bought on Alibaba).

@jon_slider, I also need some zincate to process the aluminium.

After that however, I just need to copper plate the part, and be done.

It’s going to be expensive starting it out if I only make 1 light.

Used to do a lot of electroplating at a previous shop, now we work with cadmium and Nitrided surfaces, some times beryllium copper coatings and even machining BeCu parts which means a tyvex suit and respirator. I see you advertise BeCu spring BlueSwordM so Im sure you are familier with the side effects from that nasty material. Been trying to get a de-anodized A6 to be Cadmium coated but no luck so far haha. Might be able to sneak it through on the Nitriding rack though one day.

Yeah. I will never sand a BeCu spring in my entire life unless I want to end up with lung cancer.

Have you tried a zincate solution? That’s the only thing blocking me from plating aluminium, since nitric acid is even more expensive, so I’m not going to touch it.

I’ve done copper acetate, and copper chloride. That last one is super easy to get a thick durable coating quickly at low power levels, but hard to get a thick coating(50um) over time since the cathode/part tends to get coated in a copper crystal rough formation.

Copper sulfate is the one I’m looking for, but since copper sulfate is super expensive here(30$ for 2lbs!), I’ve decided to get myself some sulfuric acid…

Until I found it was even harder to acquire clean sulfuric acid. Or stupid expensive shipping, especially for a small quantity.

I’m currently working on the process of making a galvanic cell with a fiberglass separator to make large quantities of concentrated 98% sulfuric acid. It’s going to be amazing, and cheap to make.

I might sell leftover fiberglass separators to see if there is any interest.

Subscribed.
This would be a nice weekend project to do.

Thanks @BlueSwordM for your detailed instruction.

Yeah, but
As soon as you start producing batches of copper plate RRT-01, with Nichia upgrades and trits.
And plated Sofirn C01s w trits
people will be throwing money at you :wink:

and beautiful women will want your body

Wait, wait.

Did you say Sofirn C01?

I would loooove a copper plated C01 myself.

Maybe I should try mine, but I would need a lot more supplies, as I have said before.

Interesting reading guys, keep us updated! Sadly we can’t get acid and things like that over her without a license - I was going to try some anodising myself!

Can you get Epsom salts?

You can produce sulfuric acid that way.

Once I get my fiberglass separator plates, I’ll make a post about it.

It is going to be long though :slight_smile:

Heck, if someone pays for shipping, and if the experiment works, I could ship one of the 10 fiberglass separators that I’ll be getting Thursday.

It would still be illegal - having it is the illegal bit, no matter how it’s made etc. This is down to the rise in acid attacks (I say rise, there were a handful, say 100 people out of 50 million) - the question is where does it end? bleach, nail polish remover……
In my opinion if you really that twisted that you wanted to really harm someone, you’d find a way - acid or not. Worse still, you can just make it as you are about to explain making the whole thing a nonsense anyway - but that’s Governments for you, powered by the media front pages.

Oh wow.

What kind of policy is that? If Canada has no problem regarding this, how come the UK has problems with this?

I mean, you could just make 15% sulfuric acid without a “license”, or even just buy copper sulfate and make H2SO4 that way. And just boil it to make it more concentrated.

Also, what kind of store would sell PURE 93% sulfuric acid? Every drain cleaner that I’ve had my hands on contain inhibitors to prevent metal corrosion.

Did they actually ask any chemists how to make products safer?

This law wasn’t reviewed by chemists, was it?

So, guys, I finally managed to make sulfuric acid!

I managed to make 20% sulfuric acid using a galvanic cell setup, with the fiberglass separator.
In the 1st part, I managed to get 200mL of sulfuric acid, which was good, but not good enough.

In the 2nd part, I decided to up the voltage to 12V, and replaced the carbon electrodes.
The current initially was small, but got massive, and I only limited the current to 1A, which was way too high for a D sized battery carbon rod.
What happened was that the bottom part of the electrode got damaged first, soo, the alligator clip moved, which let go of the electrode, and into the bath.

I noticed it during the night since I heard a click, but I thought it was something else. I was expecting 200mL of 40-60% sulfuric acid. I only got 30% sulfuric acid.

Meaning, I got 400mL of 20% sulfuric acid at the end. Which was nice, but I’m planning to scale it up a bit so I can get myself some nice 90% sulfuric acid.
Finally, I had to separate the carbon from the solution using a filter made of the fiberglass. Here’s the final results, and my setup with hot glue :slight_smile:

Also, do not spill sulfuric acid on your hands. It will make your hands super dry initially.

So, I’ve also discovered how to plate aluminium.

I just need a sodium hydroxyde+sodium carbonate solution, after I’ve cleaned the aluminium thorougly using HCL and a lot of elbow grease.

If I actually manage to plate copper onto aluminium, that would be absolutely amazing.

So true!
imagine this in Copper :slight_smile:

@jon_slider, I have some good news, and some very good news.

The good news is that I can easily make a flash copper solution if I have a solution of sodium hydroxide to dissolve copper ions in, meaning I could plate aluminium.
That also means I can make a zincate solution to actually plate aluminium with copper

The very good news are:

  1. I can easily buy sodium hydroxide.
  2. I can easily make a zincate solution just by dropping zinc in a sodium hydroxide solution.
  3. I can easily remove anodizing by dropping the part in sodium hydroxide(lye).

That means the copper electroplating solution of aluminium flashlights is on the way :slight_smile:

wow, so cool!
Copper Plated RRT-01 Rotaries with Clemence’s triple or quad Nichia boards, plus trits!:wink:
some people might like Nickel Plated too… :wink:

umm… did someone mention Silver Plating (yet)?:slight_smile:

pass the popcorn!

Nickel and copper would be relatively easy to do.

Here’s my game plan for testing my process, of which I will be posting updates until I can make a final evaluation :

1. De-anodize tailcap. Easy, and no risk to the light.

Materials:

- Sodium hydroxide

- Water

  • Tailcap

Protocol:

  1. Clean the tailcap.
  2. Prepare a solution of sodium hydroxide by putting in X g of sodium hydroxide per 1000mL of water. Put in the water first.
  3. Put in the tailcap for 1-2 minutes. Repeat the process as many times as necessary.
  4. Rinse the tailcap with water.

You are done.

2. Prepare the zincate solution.

WARNING: This step is quite dangerous, as zinc reacts with NaOH more quickly since the oxide layer isn’t as tough. That means if the zinc is clean, unlike aluminium which oxidizes extremely rapidly, it will react violently, and release hydrogen(NaOH+Zn —-> Zn(OH)4 2- +H2

Materials::

- Sodium hydroxide

- Water

- Zinc

  • HCL

Protocol:
TO BE REVISED