In 2018 I went to Hell. Literally. I cycled from Northern Germany the 1400km to Hell, Norway. It took me 11 days and included DE,DK,SE, & NO. This was my first proper bike packing trip. It proved to myself what I can achieve. When I got back I took the chain off the bike, & made a piece of it into a pendant, which I've worn pretty much every day since. Unfortunately being steel, it rusts, which in summer when I sweat, gives me a weird rusty smudge across my chest. Tonight. I found a solution
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Specifically, an electroplating solution. In fact. 2 of them. By plating the steel with a non corrosive metal, I can stop it rusting. I took 4 more links off my chain from Hell, & made a new pendant. Then the chemistry began. Step 1 is to degrease the workpiece. I got some specific degreaser from the electroplating chemical supplier. Then cook for about 10 mins in an alkaline copper plating solution. It has to be alkaline rather than an acid copper plating solution, cos of the steel.
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Once the copper layer is on. Another cycle of degrease, rinse in water, then onto the silver solution. This requires swapping the abode from a length of copper wire, to a graphite electrode with a silver cap. The silver dissolves into the solution to replenish the stuff deposited on the workpiece. Cook for 4 minutes, 1.07v, 35mA. Rinse. Degrease. Rinse. Then dry off. I now have a silver plated cycle chain pendant. Add on a braided waxed linen string to hang it off. And my necklace is ready.
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Hopefully the silver being chemically bonded to the copper which is chemically bonded to the steel will stop any more rust problems. As well as make the pendant stand up better. I need to get a new leather necklace, but the linen one will do for now.
Electroplating (at least for copper and silver) worked out a lot easier than I feared. It helps to have a good bench power supply to regulate the voltage/current. (Thanks to Housemate for lending me their PSU).
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@quixoticgeek Is there an electrochemical reason for not directly plating silver to the steel?
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@A_C_McGregor yeah. The silver solution is acidic, which reacts with the steel. So the alkaline copper solution is needed. Normal electroplating solution for copper is acidic.
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@quixoticgeek Gotcha
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@quixoticgeek this is super cool. I am going to reuse your technique for my wedding ring, which is also steel. I wear a stand-in ring these days because the same thing happened to my finger when I wore it. Turned orange and got rusty. Not that I did it see it coming, just should have done the electroplating before wearing it.
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@quixoticgeek did you buy a copper plating solution that is commercially available? Or did you concoct your own with copper strips? I also have some silver coinage I have collected for the sacrificial purpose of plating, and a bench power supply of my own design, so mostly have everything I need, I think.
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@quixoticgeek wait.. Reading owns me.. I see now, copper loop of wire, and the graphite anode with silver cap.
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@sanimalp I used the degreaser, alkaline copper solution, and silver solution from tifoo.de
For the copper layer I used a copper anode made from copper wire from an old power cable. The workpiece was suspended on a loop of the same copper wire.
For the silver layer I used a silver cap on the graphite anode, both also from tifoo.
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@quixoticgeek thank you so much for the info!
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@sanimalp you're welcome. The datasheets for the chemicals have all the info about voltages and currents. I set the voltage limit on the PSU, and let the current do what it wanted. I used a couple of plastic tubs from IKEA for the plating solutions. And I used jam jars for degreaser and water. A small plastic funnel makes life a lot easier too.
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@quixoticgeek the voltage amperage reference on the bottle is good to know. I have read that this is often the trickiest part. I have one shot to get this right, so all the help is very welcome.
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@sanimalp test with some similar materials if you can. Note that temperature may also affect the result. Mostly by slowing down the deposition of the plating layer. For me I did the copper at ~3v and ~180mA. Silver was 1.07v at ~35mA. Temp was ~18°C. I tried to Control the voltage and let the current do what it wants.
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@quixoticgeek yeah that makes sense. Definitely a fan of taking it slower. I might be able to come up with some similar metal to test on first. I might need to also check my power supply, as those amperages are so small! All good stuff. Thank you!
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