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Making a copper sulphate plating solution

March 15, 2011

I am trying to introduce a few individuals on the on the "art" of electroplating however I am fairly new at this.

I prepare a copper sulphate ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] solution in the following manner.
Water and ice 3 parts. Ice is to cool the reaction when mixing the sulfuric acid
Concentrated sulfuric acid: 1 part
Copper pipe and copper scrap
H2O2 at 35% concentration : 2 parts. This to speed up the oxidation of the copper into the solution
Ethylene glycol: 0.01 parts to obtain a smoother finish? I am not sure of this but I found that there is a patent for plating solution that calls for it.
Anyway, my question is: Is there a point of copper saturation when making the solution? And what reason some formulas call for the use of Hydrochloric acid and sodium chloride?
If it is yes then how do we know we had reached the point.

Mario Tabernig
Hobby - Huntington Beach, California