For whatever reason, I'm currently thinking of trying to make up a solution of copper sulfate. (I know it's also spelled 'sulphate' but let's not quibble over spelling - I'm American.) Reason is I'm about to start grinding HSS tool bits again and sometimes I like to try to grind to a layout line. I can blue up the part and scribe a line but when I start grinding the heat makes the line vanish. I've heard that if I put a tool bit into a copper sulfate solution I will get a strike plate of copper, and that I can then draw layout lines onto that.
One of the things about modern life is it's really really hard to just go buy chemicals. There isn't anywhere I know of where I can walk in and say "I'd like half a pound of technical grade copper sulfate, please." The easiest way to make up copper sulfate solution - i.e. dump some chemical into some water and stir - would seem to be out of reach. So I'm wondering - what's the best practical way to make up such a solution?
One thing that occurs to me is that in reading about electrolytic derusting they always say don't use copper for the cathode because it will plate out on your part. So maybe I could do that deliberately, and skip the copper sulfate bath entirely. (Hmm .. it would also be interesting to see where on the part got plated and where it didn't, as a quantitative way of settling the argument between guys who say line-of-sight only and guys who say well-what-about-engine-blocks.)
I believe I can go to the box hardware store and buy sulfuric acid under the guise of driveway cleaner or toilet scale remover or something. If I put some of that in a glass container and add copper until no more dissolves even when warmed, is the liquid that's left copper sulfate? Like how you might make up ferric chloride.
It's been a good long time since I took inorganic chemistry ..
metalmagpie
One of the things about modern life is it's really really hard to just go buy chemicals. There isn't anywhere I know of where I can walk in and say "I'd like half a pound of technical grade copper sulfate, please." The easiest way to make up copper sulfate solution - i.e. dump some chemical into some water and stir - would seem to be out of reach. So I'm wondering - what's the best practical way to make up such a solution?
One thing that occurs to me is that in reading about electrolytic derusting they always say don't use copper for the cathode because it will plate out on your part. So maybe I could do that deliberately, and skip the copper sulfate bath entirely. (Hmm .. it would also be interesting to see where on the part got plated and where it didn't, as a quantitative way of settling the argument between guys who say line-of-sight only and guys who say well-what-about-engine-blocks.)
I believe I can go to the box hardware store and buy sulfuric acid under the guise of driveway cleaner or toilet scale remover or something. If I put some of that in a glass container and add copper until no more dissolves even when warmed, is the liquid that's left copper sulfate? Like how you might make up ferric chloride.
It's been a good long time since I took inorganic chemistry ..
metalmagpie
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