I Tried to Copper Plate Steel… And It Went Terribly Wrong (But Brass Worked!)

Описание: I set out to cover plain steel with a shiny layer of copper… and failed spectacularly.
But along the way, I discovered something interesting—brass takes copper plating like a champ!

Here’s the exact recipe I used for the solution:
60 g copper sulfate
5 g salt
10 g sugar
5 g citric acid
15 g acetic acid (70%)
450–500 ml water

In this video, I’ll show the full process, the ingredients, the setup, and all the failed experiments until the final surprise result.
If you know what I did wrong, share your tips in the comments—I might try again in the next video!

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome & intro
00:04 – Mixing the copper plating solution
00:16 – Adding copper sulfate, salt, sugar, citric acid & vinegar
02:27 – Distilled water & final mix
04:16 – Setting up the anode and wiring
04:52 – First test on a steel rod (fail)
05:30 – Lowering voltage (fail again)
06:20 – More test pieces: nut, screwdriver bit (fails)
07:34 – Copper sticks only to the clamp
08:23 – Knife blade test (fail)
08:48 – Old lock cylinder (partial success)
09:16 – Brass cap test (success!)
09:55 – Conclusion & call for help

Tags

copper plating, electroplating, diy copper plating, copper coating, steel copper plating fail, brass copper plating, copper sulfate experiment, science experiment, home electroplating, chemistry diy, metal plating at home, copper electroplating tutorial, why copper won’t stick to steel, plating brass, electrochemistry experiment, DIY science project