No Idea
New Member
Thank you to @FilterGuy for the resource on nickel plating.
Worked great for me after some learning that had nothing to do with the resource information.
Beautiful colour with nickel welding rods:
Fake nickel strips because only plated:
I first bought nickel strips paying very careful attention to the advert wording. Most use phrases like "100% pure nickel strip plated.." but after purchasing from a seller on Lazada that had all the right wording, and spending a day sucessfully watching the rapidly disolving strips turn into an opaque brown liquid I sandpapered some and put it in a glass of salty water and immediately ordered nickel welding electrodes.
Next day the strips in the glass confirmed the strips were just nickel plated steel. Lucky I was not using them for high current battery packs, that would be a dangerous outcome.
For the nickel welding electrodes I used a pliers to grip and crack off the brittle carbon easily then sandpaper to get the remaining carbon crusts.
After that all went exactly as the resource predicted.
Some of my other lessons:
The conductivity of the solution is arbritrary. Depends on minor differences in salt anyone adds but temperature of the solution greatly affects conductivity. Higher temperature = higher conductivity = lower voltage required for same current
You can happily blast watts between nickel +ve and nickel -ve to first create the nice deep green nickel acetate, and periodically swap + and - so you sacrifice your electrodes by about same amount but not necessary. Only limit is wear and tear on your PSU.
The watts heat up the solution. I cranked it up so I put my mason jar in an ice bath which kept it about 45degC and I just let it run for 4 hours to get a very deep green.
The hotter the solution gets the more acidic vapour is produced. My crocodile clips were rusty within a couple of hours. After that I hung the solder wires over the edge of the jar so the clips did not get exposed.
I used some thick solder wire for joining to the electrodes. Easy to bend and hold a position of both the electrodes and the crocodile clips, and a chop stick spanning the top of the jar to keep them seperate.
Some other online sites mention 60degC being the optimum plating temperature. Each time i started a new batch of plating I first started with a nickel + and - and cranked up the watts to heat up the solution and add some nickel to the solution in same process and used an IR thermometer and waited until it hit about 55degC (my arbitrary choice) and then rearanged the electrodes to be + nickel and my - copper busbars hung on thin solder wire.
For plating i hung a nickel electrode on BOTH sides of the jar, joining with solder wire to make them both +ve. I hung my busbar in the middle with the large faces towards each nickel electrode. I also bent the nickel electrodes in U shapes so I had two legs each for a total four legs nickel in the jar.
As the resource says for good plating you want low current. For me with my arbitrary conductivity I found that around 3v gave 0.7A. My guidance was the bubbles. Somewhere else online says too little amps means the bubbles form and stay stuck to the copper preventing good plating whereas too much bubbles prevents a solid thick plating forming too. Its trial and error for the Goldilocks current.
The part covered by the solder wire was not plated so I pulled the busbar out and flipped it upside down. I did 30 seconds each side but these were small 1/16 thick by 1/2" wide ones. Later i plated a big 1/8 thick by 1/2" wide one and gave it a minute each side. All arbitrary.
Cleaning the copper before I started was easy with boiling water, vinegar (heated in microwave to keep solution temp up) and salt. Ratio is 3 cups water 1 cup vinegar 1 tbsp salt or reduce all portions for smaller cleans. The copper is clean as soon as it is dropped in but I used tweezers and a toothbrush to give them a scrub too.
I left the copper in the cleaning solution until I plated them and took the busbars out to hang them in the plating solution.
I dunked them in plain water after plating then dried them with a tissue. Nothing fancy.
The nickel acetate solution will keep me going forever. The electrodes did not reduce by much so they will last a long time too.
Dont waste your time with nickel strips. The nickel welding electrodes are guaranteed nickel and being able to bend them into U shapes and hang them over chopsticks and them lasting a long time just make the whole task easy.
Again, thank you @FilterGuy for the resource for this.
Worked great for me after some learning that had nothing to do with the resource information.
Beautiful colour with nickel welding rods:
Fake nickel strips because only plated:
I first bought nickel strips paying very careful attention to the advert wording. Most use phrases like "100% pure nickel strip plated.." but after purchasing from a seller on Lazada that had all the right wording, and spending a day sucessfully watching the rapidly disolving strips turn into an opaque brown liquid I sandpapered some and put it in a glass of salty water and immediately ordered nickel welding electrodes.
Next day the strips in the glass confirmed the strips were just nickel plated steel. Lucky I was not using them for high current battery packs, that would be a dangerous outcome.
For the nickel welding electrodes I used a pliers to grip and crack off the brittle carbon easily then sandpaper to get the remaining carbon crusts.
After that all went exactly as the resource predicted.
Some of my other lessons:
The conductivity of the solution is arbritrary. Depends on minor differences in salt anyone adds but temperature of the solution greatly affects conductivity. Higher temperature = higher conductivity = lower voltage required for same current
You can happily blast watts between nickel +ve and nickel -ve to first create the nice deep green nickel acetate, and periodically swap + and - so you sacrifice your electrodes by about same amount but not necessary. Only limit is wear and tear on your PSU.
The watts heat up the solution. I cranked it up so I put my mason jar in an ice bath which kept it about 45degC and I just let it run for 4 hours to get a very deep green.
The hotter the solution gets the more acidic vapour is produced. My crocodile clips were rusty within a couple of hours. After that I hung the solder wires over the edge of the jar so the clips did not get exposed.
I used some thick solder wire for joining to the electrodes. Easy to bend and hold a position of both the electrodes and the crocodile clips, and a chop stick spanning the top of the jar to keep them seperate.
Some other online sites mention 60degC being the optimum plating temperature. Each time i started a new batch of plating I first started with a nickel + and - and cranked up the watts to heat up the solution and add some nickel to the solution in same process and used an IR thermometer and waited until it hit about 55degC (my arbitrary choice) and then rearanged the electrodes to be + nickel and my - copper busbars hung on thin solder wire.
For plating i hung a nickel electrode on BOTH sides of the jar, joining with solder wire to make them both +ve. I hung my busbar in the middle with the large faces towards each nickel electrode. I also bent the nickel electrodes in U shapes so I had two legs each for a total four legs nickel in the jar.
As the resource says for good plating you want low current. For me with my arbitrary conductivity I found that around 3v gave 0.7A. My guidance was the bubbles. Somewhere else online says too little amps means the bubbles form and stay stuck to the copper preventing good plating whereas too much bubbles prevents a solid thick plating forming too. Its trial and error for the Goldilocks current.
The part covered by the solder wire was not plated so I pulled the busbar out and flipped it upside down. I did 30 seconds each side but these were small 1/16 thick by 1/2" wide ones. Later i plated a big 1/8 thick by 1/2" wide one and gave it a minute each side. All arbitrary.
Cleaning the copper before I started was easy with boiling water, vinegar (heated in microwave to keep solution temp up) and salt. Ratio is 3 cups water 1 cup vinegar 1 tbsp salt or reduce all portions for smaller cleans. The copper is clean as soon as it is dropped in but I used tweezers and a toothbrush to give them a scrub too.
I left the copper in the cleaning solution until I plated them and took the busbars out to hang them in the plating solution.
I dunked them in plain water after plating then dried them with a tissue. Nothing fancy.
The nickel acetate solution will keep me going forever. The electrodes did not reduce by much so they will last a long time too.
Dont waste your time with nickel strips. The nickel welding electrodes are guaranteed nickel and being able to bend them into U shapes and hang them over chopsticks and them lasting a long time just make the whole task easy.
Again, thank you @FilterGuy for the resource for this.
Last edited:
