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Bathroom remodel: copper plating for fun and distinct deco

December 29, 2010

Greetings,

I am remodeling my bathroom of a "historic" home built in 1911. I have a clawfoot bathtub and replaced the fixture with a fantastic copper finish faucet.

Now, the flimsy, pitted, rusty "enclosure" piping that holds the shower curtains needs to be replaced. I have collected scraps of copper pipe from re-doing the plumbing, as well as replacing the old knob-and-tube wiring in the home, to use for this project I'm taking on.

Thinking back to when I cleaned the rust off of some saws I had (that were in contact with leather, causing them to rust) by placing a nail in a bucket of salt water and the saw blade, then hooking up a battery charger [on eBay or Amazon] and viola, clean blade.

Could I do something similar to coat the pipe with copper? Ideally, I'd like to find a way to dissolve the copper bits I have in a solution in a plastic or glass container, using common household ingredients, and then place in some black steel pipe and coat it with the copper so I will have a durable, unique, do-it-yourself claw foot tub enclosure. Yes, I can buy a new polished chrome enclosure, but I have the black steel pipe from the gas lines and it will support much more weight when properly anchored. I also haven't found any copper plated/coated enclosures for sale to match the faucet fixture. Just using copper pipe from a big box store isn't the effect I am going for and wouldn't have the strength I can get from the black steel pipe. I am also needing to know what I ought to do to prepare the black steel pipe bits (as I know it gets that look from being coated with oil) for coating with the copper.

Also, once coated with the copper, what would one recommend for sealing it for the wet environment? Any tips or tricks on perhaps doing some effects on the copper before sealing?

Thank you for your time and thoughtful responses. I look forward to your responses.

J.D. Prowse
Gadfly, Renaissance Man, Historic Home Owner - Everett, Washington, U.S.A.

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December 30, 2010

Hi, J.D.

You may or may not know it, but plating jobshops are around that can do projects like this for you if you want to go in that direction. That is the best way to get quality copper plating onto the steel pipe.

Copper plating for the purpose of a science project is fairly easy and you can see our FAQ: "How Electroplating Works" for simple instructions. But functional copper plating, where you need thickness, brightness, adhesion, corrosion resistance, etc. is an industrial science and pretty far removed from a grade school science lesson.

Some of the issues that you will have include:
- You have to get every trace of dirt and grease off the pipe, all the way to a waterbreak-free surface.
- You have to acid activate the pipe to remove any small amount of rust or tarnish; unlike painting, electroplating is a process where one metal is "grown" onto another, and it doesn't work if the base metal has any oxides on it.
- You cannot directly plate copper onto steel/iron; you have to nickel plate the pipe first, or the copper will just peel off.
- You probably won't be able to get a bright copper plating without proprietary additives that reduce the grain size.
- If there is any porosity in the plating, the copper plating will radically increase the rusting of the underlying steel pipe.

Please start your plating attempts on scrap pieces rather than ruining important pieces, and I think you will discover that it's actually very hard to do yourself and you'll probably want to send it to a plating shop. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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December 30, 2010

Greetings Mr. Ted Mooney, P.E.:

Thanks for your quick response and pointing out the FAQ; from that I had wondered about it and if what I wanted to do would be possible using things from around the house/farm myself. Hence, wondering if I filed down the copper bits and pieces I had could be made into a solution with salt and, I dunno, the acid water from a car battery, maybe some hydrogen peroxide, or something that I could make with relatively inert household chemicals, and be able to render them back to being inert with baking soda [on eBay or Amazon] . And no, I do not want to create a super cleaning solution using bleach and ammonia.

And then I was concerned, having done home improvement plumbing, about the kind of pipe to use for this project. Black steel gas pipe is what I had, but yes, it is prone to rusting once I strip off the protection; plus, as you point out, the chemical reaction between the two metals isn't pleasant. What would be a better alternative pipe? I want to be able to do chin-ups with this shower enclosure. That way I can slip, fall, grasp onto the bar, and it will hold! Behold! ha-ha. Seriously though, I know this is a bit of a brain teaser, trying to think of a commonly found thing which holds what we are looking for, which is part of the fun.

The direction of least resistance, with nickel plating the black steel pipe, unless I misunderstand the FAQ pointed out, seems like I would have to source, locate, some nickel metal/acid solution, bringing us back up to your first point of just sourcing it out to a local job shop/chroming place. I can do this, but then I lose the knowledge of science in action and being artistic with something totally unique which, during those fantastic cocktail parties, can point out "Well yes, I *did* make that... notice the fine blues and greens to the rosy copper, and the strength of this pipe..." So this leads me back to the last line of the paragraph above, on what other kind of metal piping, readily available at your farm supply store, or found in abandoned appliances, would be better to use and ready for coating? (The only thing that has come to mind are brass handrails, which are hard to find and expensive to buy new, but I believe would work.)

Lastly, once the piping of choice is selected, sourced, and etc., I am still left with trying to find a way to dissolve the copper into a solution for plating. I do plan to start out small first, then eventually work up to either 5 gallon buckets, or, if I seem to get it right, using an old ceramic water trough.

Thank you again for your thoughtful response and vast wealth of knowledge on this subject Mr. Ted Mooney.

Thanks to everyone else out there ready to send in their two cents (or more copper coins!)

J.D. Prowse
- Everett, Washington, U.S.A.

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January 3, 2011

Hi again, J.D.

Yes, you probably can make a copper plating solution from copper bits and battery acid [affil links]. But don't file the copper down to dust because copper will not chemically dissolve into sulfuric acid, it will only electrochemically dissolve. Instead, wire the copper piping together as the anode, or just use copper wire itself, as it is very pure copper.

For onesy-twosy work like this you can scrub the black pipe with a scrub brush [on eBay or Amazon] and powdered pumice [on eBay or Amazon] to get it clean, but you might find it easier to strip the galvanizing from galvanized pipe than to remove whatever is on black pipe. Muriatic acid will strip it quickly, but I didn't say safely. Be sure to wear goggles and gloves as a minimum.

I have no artistic talent, so I admire those who do, and don't insist that they bury their talents by farming stuff out. Still, as mentioned, it is quite difficult to do nice, functional copper plating regardless of the substrate. Maybe you could try to copper patinize the galvanized steel pipe? Edison said invention is 90% perspiration, and maybe home artistry is the same and will require a lot of trial and error. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey