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Electroplating...

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WaxHaX0rS:
Hey, I'm just a young student, but I like chemistry.  (just telling you so you have an idea of where this is coming from).  I read about electroplating a while ago and I thought it would be a cool thing to try.  My ultimate goal would be to copper-plate an entire trumpet (I play trumpet, duh), but I don't want to get ahead of myself here.  First of all, I would like to know what would be involved.  If I were to do this, I would want to try plating a small piece of raw brass first.  What kind of materials would I need?  I read a little experiment and it seemed like it would be fairly simple, but it wasn't extremely specific and it wasn't using brass.  It also used a vinegar-copper solution, which required electricity because vinegar is too weak to dissolve copper itself.  Anyway, I'm wondering how some of you chemistry gurus would go about this.  Thanks.

Donaldson Tan:
;)
We don't deserve to be called chemistry gurus. Helping out at this forum is definitely a service to the online community.

Acid won't react with Cu normally. Examining the Reactivity Series, you would find Cu is ranked below Hydrogen. Perhaps u can purchase aq copper (II) solutions off Ebay instead of trying to dissolve Cu in acid. Unless you use a strong acid such as aqua regia (which oxidies Cu, thus dissolving it). Aqua regia is a control chemical. I strongly discourage you from accessing aqua regia. It is a a hazardous chemical.

jdurg:
You don't need aqua regia to dissolve copper metal.  Nitric acid by itself will do a fine job, though the toxic fumes emitted aren't too good to ingest.   ;)

hmx9123:
If you're after copper ions, why not just go buy a big bag of azelia fertilizer?  It's just copper sulfate.  You can usually buy it as 'sulfate of copper' or some such thing.  It's about 99% pure, and if you want really pure stuff (like I'm guessing you would for electroplating), just dissolve it in water and filter it through a cotton T-shirt to remove the 1% clay that is in it.  I've used the stuff before and it works really well.

WaxHaX0rS:
Thanks for the excellent replies so far, but there's more.  How should I go about doing this?  What procedure should I use?  Remember, the surface to be covered is brass, so take that into consideration.
Thanks

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