greydigger
Bronze Member
Hello folks,
Beem wading through the threads here and this is what I have gleaned.
Someone else I am sure said it better and I maybe wrong on somethings.
Please let me know.
The use of electricity to clean metals (sometimes found in the ground) is based on the action of (atoms/molecules?)
to travel from negative to positive using D.C. current. The + thing is called a cathode and the - thing is called an anode.
( 50/50 chance I am right eh?) Someone please let me know.
This action takes the outside stuff from the object needing cleaning to another object that we don't care about.
Now both of these objects need to be able to conduct electricity.
Someone said that more noble metals do better at something than lesser noble metals but I forget what that means,
maybe where there is no induced electricity in the bath.
I do know that "sacrificial zincs" are attached to boats to keep the steel propellers from "rotting" away.
So as I understand, the + can be anything and the - can be anything.
The + has been suggested to be conductive graphite for a reason I don't know.
Perhaps it is easier to clean. Some have used old saw blades, some stainless steel.
Does this have to do to the noble/ignoble thing?
Another post suggested you could "plate" a + item with a - item.
I.E. use a silver spoon as a - and a copper penny as a + and you have a silver plated penny.
That's neat.
From that I can infer that anything conducting electricity will go that way.
Except for the noble/ignoble metals. How does that work out?
I have sent many aluminum items to an anodiser to put a hard coating on them and could specify how thick the coating was.
Colors optional and made some pretty tooling.
.0005 inches thick of plating was a lot. Usually less.
I am thinking they used electrolysis for this.
Any thoughts?
Grey
Beem wading through the threads here and this is what I have gleaned.
Someone else I am sure said it better and I maybe wrong on somethings.
Please let me know.
The use of electricity to clean metals (sometimes found in the ground) is based on the action of (atoms/molecules?)
to travel from negative to positive using D.C. current. The + thing is called a cathode and the - thing is called an anode.
( 50/50 chance I am right eh?) Someone please let me know.
This action takes the outside stuff from the object needing cleaning to another object that we don't care about.
Now both of these objects need to be able to conduct electricity.
Someone said that more noble metals do better at something than lesser noble metals but I forget what that means,
maybe where there is no induced electricity in the bath.
I do know that "sacrificial zincs" are attached to boats to keep the steel propellers from "rotting" away.
So as I understand, the + can be anything and the - can be anything.
The + has been suggested to be conductive graphite for a reason I don't know.
Perhaps it is easier to clean. Some have used old saw blades, some stainless steel.
Does this have to do to the noble/ignoble thing?
Another post suggested you could "plate" a + item with a - item.
I.E. use a silver spoon as a - and a copper penny as a + and you have a silver plated penny.
That's neat.
From that I can infer that anything conducting electricity will go that way.
Except for the noble/ignoble metals. How does that work out?
I have sent many aluminum items to an anodiser to put a hard coating on them and could specify how thick the coating was.
Colors optional and made some pretty tooling.
.0005 inches thick of plating was a lot. Usually less.
I am thinking they used electrolysis for this.
Any thoughts?
Grey
