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Putting Dad's old copper plating stuff to use

December 29, 2010

Hello, I'm new here, so here goes. I found my dad's old copper plating stuff. I think he used to plate baby shoes and other things. There is the dc power box (homemade and heavy), I plugged it in and tested it. It showed about 5 vdc and has adjustable amps. There is a grey plastic tub with blue crystals about 3 inches thick and some kind of liquid on the bottom. There is also a big chunk of copper in it. I was using a screw driver to chip off the blue crystals from the copper bar and noticed that the screw driver was getting copper plated! I was wondering what the liquid was (or should be) that's in the bottom. My brother said he thought it was murIatic acid. It smells like some kind of acid, (or something like x-ray chemicals I think).
I would like to know this so I don't add the wrong chemicals and have a bad day.
I would also like to know if there is a simple strike bath for copper plating cast zinc.
This is what I will using my dad's old stuff for. I need to build up copper on a cast zinc part to fill pitting before I send it out for chrome. Or I could figure out how to nickel plate as well.

Darrel S.
mechanic/fabricator - Portland, Oregon, USA