Copper Plating Journey

[centurion350]

Hello to those of you on the Cast Boolits forum, my name is Chuck and I've been a lurker on this forum for a little while. I believe this forum to be the most informative for the bullet caster that I have found. I would like to share with you some of my experiences with bullet coatings. I began reloading in 1992 but only started casting my bullets in 2020 due to the lack of availability of reloading components because of the pandemic. After learning how to cast bullets, I did not want to use traditional Lube due to the smoke of the lube when firing. That led me to the powder coating option. I did find the powder coating to work well. It seemed to me the powder coating did not coat as uniformly as I would like it to. From the pictures, I saw on the Internet that my powder coating never came out quite as well. This may be due to my pick of the powder itself. While I liked the bright neon colors, they always came out much darker after being baked and I did not like working with the fine powder that was in the air. The powder stuck to everything well except the freshly cast bullets. I did a ton of investigations into how to powder coat the castings, and I tried the bucket swirl method and ultimately decided on a vibratory cleaner for applying the powder coating. The vibratory machine worked the best for applying the powder coat material. I tested different baking times, and different baking temperatures. Still not being satisfied with the outcome. I ventured to the Hi-Tek bullet coating method. I meticulously weighed and measured everything. As with the powder coating, the Hi-Tek bullet coating also came out much darker than expected. Once again, I tested baking times, different baking temperatures with little satisfaction of the outcome. This has led me to my current reloading journey. I had purchased copper-plated bullets before and started my investigation into copper-plating. My investigation shows mixed reviews of electro-copper plating of cast bullets using a copper sulfate solution. I was able to find a homemade barrel plater @ http://www.nulltime.com/zincplating/...rel/index.html. I proceeded to build the barrel plater and acquire the necessary chemicals for copper sulfate copper plating. Ok let's get the cost out of the way, right away. I spent $310.68 on the barrel plater & the copper plating chemicals necessary for the process. The testing is done in my garage. I have completed 4 copper plating trials. I mixed up 4 Gallons of Copper Sulfate Solution. The ingredients were 4 gallons Distilled water. 4 cups Copper Sulfate Crystals. 100 Milliliters Sulfuric Acid Solution. 10 Milliliters Midas Replenishing Brightener for Electroforming Copper. My results are very promising. The cast bullets are very uniformly covered with a bright smooth shiny surface. My test processes are listed below 1st trial of 100, 132.2 grain cast 9mm bullets made from an MP 125 359 mold. Step 1 freshwater rinse. Step 2 Denatured Alcohol Rince. Step 3 Distilled White Vinegar & Salt Rince. Step 4 freshwater rinse. Step 5 load barrel plater set the voltage on the DC power supply to 3 DC volts & .86 Amps. I left the cast bullets in the plater for 7 hours. Then repeat steps 1 through 4. I dried the cast bullets for 1 hour in a case dryer. Then it was in a vibratory Tumbler for 30 Minutes for final polishing. The result was a bright copper plating but some cracking of the copper plating on the bottom of the cast bullets. This is from the sprue cut marks on the cast bullets. I later found out this is due to not enough cleaning of the lead castings. The plating reached 1 mil (.0010”) bullet diameter is now .357” My 2nd test used the same copper sulfate solution but had 300 hard-cast bullets. I was now testing typical casting volume. I followed the same procedure but left the castings in the solution for 12 hours. This resulted in a bright shiny copper plating of 1.5 Mil (.0015”) bullet diameter is now .3575” again some copper flaking from the sprue cut marks on the cast bullets. My 3rd trial was with a double bucket. The reason for the double bucket is to try and keep the copper sulfate solution at a more uniform temperature. My research showed better cleaning of the cast bullets along with aeration of the copper sulfate solution and more constant temperature would make for better results. The outer bucket is a 106 Qt. Latching Storage Box with water and a 2000-watt heater. Set to 85°F. The inner bucket is now the barrel plater now fitted with a EcoPlus ECOair 1 Commercial Grade Air Pump 793 GPH - 18-Watt Single Outlet with 6 Valve Manifold for aeration of the copper sulfate solution. 3rd trial 300 132.2 Grain Cast Bullets From 2nd Test Group. This was done for 2 reasons 1st reason is to see if you could just add plating thickness to existing plating. The 2nd reason was to try to get better adhesion by better cleaning. The cleaning process now is Step 1 RCBS Ultrasonic Case Cleaning Solution @140 °F for 30 min. Step 2 Distilled water bath for 10 min. Step 3 Denatured Alcohol & Acetone Bath for 10 min. Step 4 Distilled water bath for 10 min. Step 5 White Distilled Vinegar & Salt Bath (2 Tablespoons Salt) for 10 min. Step 6 Distilled water bath for 10 min. Then into the Copper Sulfate Solution & Aeration for 6 more hours. Then repeat steps 1 through 6. Dried the cast bullets for 1 hour in a case dryer. Then it was in a vibratory Tumbler for 30 Minutes for final polishing. This resulted in a bright shiny copper plating of 3.5 Mil (.0035”) bullet diameter is now .3595”. The 4th trial was with 150 132.2 Grain fresh Cast Bullets and the same copper sulfate solution. Repeat previous steps 1 through 6. After placing the casting into the copper sulfate solution, I raised the DC voltage to 4 Dc volts and 2.9 amps. I left the castings in the plater for 18 hours. This plated very evenly to 5.5mil (.0055) bullet diameter is now .3615” repeat steps 1 through 6. Dried the cast bullets for 1 hour in a case dryer. Then it was in a vibratory Tumbler for 30 Minutes for final polishing. This resulted in a bright shiny copper plating and no cracking. I hope my trials are helpful to anyone wanting to try their hand at copper plating.
Frame Parts
qty
4 90° ½” PVC Fittings $ 2.84 Home Depot
1 45° ½” PVC Fittings $1.32 Home Depot
3 ½” Slip Tee PVC Fittings $2.37 Home Depot
5 ½” 2’Stright PVC Pipe $11.30 Home Depot
1 ½” to ¾” PVC reducer $1.76 Home Depot
1 1/2" x 1/2" x 3/4" Tee $1.67 Home Depot
Barrel Parts
1 ½” 2’Stright PVC Pipe $2.26 Home Depot
1 ½:” to ¾” NPT Adapter $1.76 Home Depot
1 ½:” to ¾” NPT Threaded Adapter $1.76 Home Depot
1 1 Gallon Drywall Mud Bucket (will Hold 400 Cast 132.2 Grain 9mm) Free.
Dangler Parts
1 ½” 90° anchor CPVC $1.39 Home Depot
1 ½” 45° CPVC $.74 Home Depot
1 ½” 2’ Straight Pipe $1.38 Home Depot
1 ¼” x 2 ½” Stainless Steel Bolt $1.38 Home Depot
1 Clear Vinal Hose 6’ $6.56 Home Depot
1 Braid from Coaxial Cable Free
Tubs
1 106 Qt. Latching Storage Box $20.98 Home Depot
1 64 Qt. Latching Storage Box $12.98 Home Depot
1 4-Watt Universal Grill Electric Replacement Rotisserie Motor 120 Volt $19.99 Amazon
1 Kungber DC Power Supply Variable, 30V 10A $69.90 Amazon
1 EcoPlus ECOair 1 Commercial Grade Air Pump $28.04 Amazon
1 PNKKODW 2000W Immersion Water Heater $32.99 Amazon
Chemicals Needed
4 Gallons Distilled Water $4.64 Walmart
1 Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate 99.9% Crystals - 10 Lbs. $27.77 Amazon
1 Sulfuric Acid Solution, 1M, 1L $27.26 Amazon
1 Midas Replenishing Brightener for Electroforming Copper $30.24 https://www.riogrande.com/

[elmacgyver0]

That is awesome!
I tried a few years ago and shelved it, because of lousy results.
I may have to try again.
Please keep us up to date on this!
Awesome first post!

[Recycled bullet]

Wow Chuck I wonder how good hollow points would look!!

[TXTad]

This is fantastic!

Do you know how much plating you can expect out of the copper crystals?

[centurion350]

I cannot tell yet how many sessions of coating I can get. I’m sure there is a evaporation and consumable loss. Most of my investigation reveals as long as I can keep the PH between 2-3 the copper sulfate solution should be viable. I have been able to do over 1000 rounds at this point.

[WRideout]

Wow! And I was so proud of myself for making a cutter out of a cartridge case to cut out my pan-lubed boolits.

Wayne

[rancher1913]

years ago there was another guy that was doing this but if i recall correctly it was a long laborious process so he did not do much.

[GregLaROCHE]

That’s impressive !

[BattleRife]

Neat, a few people have tried it over the years, you are having the best success of anyone I have seen so far.

I never seriously got into the process, but a few years ago did do a little research into the idea. Since you were having some problems with cleanliness, I will let you know that there is an industry standard for this. ASTM B319, Standard Guide for Preparation of Lead and Lead Alloys For Electroplating.

[charlie b]

Will be interesting to see if you have the same velocity 'limit' with those that Berry's and Rainier have on their bullets.

[barnetmill]

I would like to see your bullet fired in a .357 carbine with moderate to full loads and see how they group and what the bore looks like. .

[Willbird]

IMHO the mechanical properties of the bullet alloy will be a strong factor in what pressure/velocity they work well up to. The rifling type will probably have an impact as well. Would be interesting if somebody had an accurate pistol that could be used in a ransom rest, and if they had both a polygon rifling and a cut rifling barrel for it. Then weigh the barrel on a good reloading scale before and after firing a test series.

[yeahbub]

It's been my experience with plated boolits that they can be driven harder than lawyer warnings indicate. I've seen no evidence of failures when driving the Berry's 150gr .308 flat points at full velocity in a .30-30, but I never achieved the accuracy I was hoping for.

I'm not a chemist, but if I'm thinking of this correctly, the copper sulfate solution will become increasingly acidic as the copper content is extracted as plating. I was thinking a handful of copper wire or flashing thrown in there would help to replenish the copper. I once had a solution for "electroless" copper plating that made use of the electrical difference between austenitic and martensitic areas of the steel to provide power for plating to occur. Very even results. I used it to adjust the size of swage punches and cylinder pins.

[gloob]

I'm sure there's a pressure limit. Every bullet has a limit, even if in most cartridges you won't ever reach it. I doubt you'd achieve 4000 fps with a copper plated 220 Swift bullet, and still have a stable, intact, accurate projectile.

I wonder if the plating will work with lube groove bullets? The presence of lube grooves, even if completely empty, should reduce friction by giving some place for lead to displace as the bullet gets squeezed down to bore size. Solid copper bullets are given grooves/fins. And why not add some lube while you're at it?

Plus, they'll look way different from Berry's bullets. They'll look different from anything out there. That's worth something in itself.

[Sitzme]

Are there any odors or concerns about corrosive vapors in the work area? Any PPE required other than gloves? Nice write up. Thanks

[centurion350]

I have not noticed much of any smell, but I do have an exhaust fan installed in my garage. I run the fan anytime I’m casting or plating.

[Willbird]

Well I discovered a way to catch bullets intact as far as I can tell. Just take a whole bunch of fiber fill for pillows and put it inside a tube about 4' long. I used steel because I had it. I kinf of got the idea from shooting couch pillows with a 22lr and noticing how that fiber fill balled up around the bullets.

The bullets get wrapped in a ball of fiber fill that slows them down without apparent damage. Doing that with Remington 158 grain 357 max ammo from a 10" Contender let me see that the bullets re designed themselves when fired, the noses bumped up so that the lead tip of the bullet actually had rifling marks on it.

it was a bullet that looked a lot like this before firing, after firing it was at least 1/16" shorter due to brutal acceleration , wish I had taken pictures back then. Cell phone cameras did not exist then.