Mirror Polishing Copper For Electroplating

Описание: This is my improved method for polishing copper plates for electroplating. The plates will be electroplated with pure silver and once plated, the silvered plates will be used for making daguerreotypes. Daguerreotypes require a perfect mirror polished silver surface. Getting a very good polish on the copper base is the best way to achieve the best possible silver surface from the electroplating bath and one that will require the least amount of additional surfacing and polishing. The primary benefit of this method is that all of the surfacing steps with polishing papers are done dry as opposed to wet polishing with a cutting oil. I like this method because it’s less mess, less cleanup, and overall seems more efficient than the wet polishing methods I was using. This same method could be performed with wet polishing simply by using a quality cutting oil with the polishing paper steps but this dry method is currently my preference for my purposes.

Total polishing time was 45 minutes.

Materials used:
3M Tri-M-Ite polishing papers (15, 9, 3, and 1 micron)
Nuvite NuShine IIC polishing compound
Nuvite NuShine IIS polishing compound
Bosch RS014 synthetic/wool buffing pads
CarPro suede microfiber cloth

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