Help with copy chrome

[eojthekid]

Brand new part, do i have to prep the part or can i just use flash copper then, copy chrome ?

[craige]

The part will need to be cleaned and pass the water break test before you can plate it. I would recommend flash copper plating then copy chrome.

[woodjames]

The picture shows a chromated zinc finish on it now - you don't want to try plating over it. Good new is that's a very easy strip. First clean, then dunk in 10-15 percent sulfuric acid, 2 parts water to 1 battery acid will work just fine. It'll have a strong reaction of bubbling, after that's over, rinse thoroughly and go directly into flash copper, absolutely no need to clean after stripping, and the sulfuric will activate the steel at the same time.

-Jimmy.

[eojthekid]

WOODJAMES:

Your suggestion to use two parts water to one part acid worked great with the part. It completely removed the seal and i was left with bare metal. Right after the at, went into the flash copper for 1/2 hour at 2.03 amps. First I turned the current to the highpoint, amps to low point and then adjusted the amps from there. 1/2 hour later the piece came out completely covered in copper with a beautiful finish. Went into copy chrome tank again in live and adjusted amps to 2.03 amps. Still waiting for it to come out of the tank. My only question is should I have polished the copper before going in, or will the part come out just as good as the copper came out?

[woodjames]

Think I covered most of this in the pm you sent me, but just in case anyone else wants to know...



CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Way to go on your first plate! For a quick answer, the brighteners/levelers will make the finish slightly better, so you should see improvement coming out of the copy chrome.

The long answer-
To buff or not to buff....
That all depends on the finish you're after. For the smoothest, brightest plate, you need to sand the part to 600-1000 grit, anywhere in that range. Then buff with white compound/loose wheel and finish with red compound/flannel wheel. That'll prove to be the best finish you can get from copper. Then go in live to the copy chrome and the brighteners and levelers will do the rest of the work and the piece will come out very flat and shiny.

You can certainly go without buffing the copper, it'll come out "good" as opposed to "perfect." Most defects that are seen in the copper will show up in the copy chrome. The brighteners/levelers will take care of scratches usually around 2000 grit up, they'll practically disappear, but anything coarser than that will show up.

The flash copper has no brighteners/levelers in it, and is a very thin plate, so the more work you can do to the base metal the better, as it's easy to sand/buff through the flash copper. That's where I use acid copper. It builds up very fast, and buffs and sands really easy. Rather than wasting a lot of time working on steel, you'll get much farther spending the same amount of time and effort on copper.

Congrats. again. I'm here if you need any more help.