I've never seen anyone use conductive paint for electroplating a 3D print, really cool idea! very impressive final product, crazy to see how far you can go with 3D printing now if you're willing to put in the effort
This is a very interesting technique I haven't seen before! It seems like it could be really useful in more technical applications as well, such as 3D printing parts to have conductive surfaces in simple circuits or coated gears for mechanisms, I could see that in particular being quite useful to extend the material life of any mechanisms you've made with your printer.
I imagine finding a resin that can take solder temperatures would be a challenge, but if a good connection can be achieve without solder this could even be used to make 3d circuits.
id say its way more useful than that, from what i can see those surfaces are extremely smooth, as long as it doesnt add too much material or you account for it before you print it, you could build technical parts that slide smoothly past each other. 3d printed puzzles, nerf shells, and mockups all would benefit, no more acetone baths
I'm going to have to binge watch your channel. From beginning to this video again. I really want to do some electroplating and put my 3D printer back to use. Thank you very much for the inspiration!
Man, we are electroplating everyday at our institute, since we work with microelectronics from silicone-wafers to PCBs/DCBs, and i love what one can do with 3D printing, but i've never thought about combining those two things lol. Fascinating!
This is one of the greatest things I have ever seen.. I’d never try and take away from this achievement.. I’m just thinking out loud about the learning process involved in doing this, as opposed to making such a thing (almost) traditionally. This looks quite difficult, which is why most people don’t do it… This is totally not your first rodeo. I’m sure it’s a steep learning curve.
Amazing results! For a future video idea, could you experiment with electroplating a print with embossed letters on the other side? The idea would be to have a surface that looks like a smooth mirror, but when a light or LED is lit behind it, the writing would shine through the mirror revealing the writing. Not sure if that's even possible, but it would be awesome if it was! Thanks for your great and informative videos!
I once made a laser etched mirror acrylic pattern, which looked mirror like at the front, but when lit from behind created a galaxy pattern. So something similar may be possible. The front mirror did have a slightly frosted look, so it would need to be dialled in. Also that was a flat surface and over a 3d surface you'd probably need more complex laser equipment. Alternatively you could recess the text fill it with something and prevent electroplating in the recesses. It would be more obvious from the outside though. Or you could etch it away the way they do with etched scroll designs.
@@bradley3549 Maybe it could work with silver. But I don't think that the layer could be made thin enough with conventional (electroplating or chemical) methods.
@@Smorb42 Exactly that's what I've been trying to point at - vapor deposition. And actually there are transparent conductive layers too, Ben at Applied Science has done a REALLY excellent video on that.
*_"Ahhh, Isildur's Heir... It takes more to make a king than a broken Elvish blade.."_* This is absolutely gorgeous work, Bravo! Subbed :) If you want a suggestion for one to do that's quite timely as well, maybe king Visaerys' half-mask from House of the Dragon? In the behind the scenes they mention they 3D printed and brass plated that one, I reckon you can make it look better though
Honestly most of the time I dont love 3d printing vidoes, or 3d printed things/ products, because they just look like cheap plastic at the end of the day, but when you turn the 3d print into something like this, that is just awesome
Add a little polyethylene glycol to the solution, and buffer with Boric Acid in a napped polypropylene bag. Or a tea bag in one of those filter pouches. It'll keep the pH where you want it.
See the process of parts being anodising is quite interesting. I work in a auto-car parts in the anodising sector that make part for all major japanese car brands, and every last day of the week we put a metal plank on top of the tanks and climb on it while full of nickel solution to refill all the tanks resevoir with nickel little coins, quite dangerous. The tanks have about 16x16x3 and you can easly get yourself your own nice nickel bath if you don't pay attention.
awesome video! just so you know, if you tilt the container with the blue liquid (I don't know what it's called lol) so it's laying horizontal. air can go throw the handle and the liquid will pore smoothly. I don't know if I make sense but I hope I do.
This was interesting. I just got into Resin 3D-printing and did not know about this. I wonder if I can use it on some jewelry I printed for myself and still be skin-safe. Maybe with a sealant. Thank you for the ideas.
@@hen3drik Thank you, I will. I still react (slightly) to gold but I did not know about Palladium. If anything I apply 3 coats of sealant typically to jewelry.
@@RoseKindred have you tried nickel free gold or other metals? It's very rare (though possible) to be allergic to gold, typically it's the trace nickel that causes allergies.
@@szurketaltos2693 To be honest, it never occured to me to look into the gold itself. So thank you. I used to work in the mall and I know some of the costume jewelry and the stuff in the cases would cause issues. I also have a class ring that is supposed to be gold that I react with. It is weird, some titanium, some gold, and sterling silvers, can cause issues but it is not consistent if that makes sense. So yea, perhaps it is the impurities or mix I react to, but not sure if it is nickel, I'll have to look and see if anything I have is made of it specifically to test.
@@RoseKindred you're welcome. See if you can find explicitly nickel free stuff, or 24k gold should be free of nickel as well I think. My SO has a nickel allergy and as far as I can tell, isn't allergic to any other metals. Costume jewelry generally has a ton of nickel.
My stomach lurched when you scraped it. Very informative and inciteful, I always just think of using aluminum tape and some polish compound or steel wool to get a desired finish lol. But the durability of this is very surprising combined with the threaded rod core. Id want to do this with the sword of the witch king probably. But sky's the limit I suppose. How important is rotating the part during the plating process and having it vertical. I can picture having a longed blade horizontal and not rotating in a trough
You sound so cool my guy. I feel like you're a weapon smith for "The Kingsmen". I feel like anything that you would hand me, could kill a man. 😎😂🤙🏻✌🏻🙏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Hey Hendrik! I'm thinking of trying electro plating thanks to your videos. I come from model building so 3d printing is new for me but some of the skills can be used for both hobbies. Could you do a video on graphite paint for electroplating a print so that it looks blue or some other colour other than just metallic?
I would be very interested in seeing two of the same print, one done in electroplating, and one done in simple chrome ink airbrushing, like Molotow or alclad. It seems like a ton of effort for a metal finish to electroplate.
Very cool, I would like to have seen a light sand blast and vapor deposition process instead of the paint on lacquer as a first pass, but it came out amazing!
From what I understand of the process, some of your finish on the bade part might be due to the steel of the threaded rod. My wife does a lot of electroforming and is very careful not to get anything with iron in the solution.
Good point, but that‘s not the case here. It happend before I ever put in the rod. It‘s zinc plated iron, too. I think it may have to do with the speed and contact area of the wire.
@@hen3drik darf ich dich bissel nerven? =) Warum denn nicht? Der Drucker steht ja bestimmt so wie so viel Zeit ungenutzt rum. Ich möchte kleine Modelle drucken mit guter Auflösung für Formenbau zum Kerzengießen, aber Anschaffung von so einem Gerät rentiert sich da nicht.
@@hen3drik that's a bit less than I expted. Is it possible that the huge weight increase was because of the water/electrolyte that your parts absorbed?
This AWESOME! For someone looking to get inton3d printing. Would you recommend resin style like this or the other style with a table. More or less I'm looking into 3d printing for cosplay. I would paint manually. Electroplating looks like a headache haha.
There's more post processing on fdm than resin, because fdm is more coarse. But fdm usually comes in larger bed sizes, so you can typically make larger parts. Fdm is less hazardous for your health (don't inhale either during printing process, but resin is clearly worse if you had to rank them). Resin gets MUCH better fine details when it works. Basically, it comes down to the type of cosplay. If you are printing a full suit of thick heavy armor, fdm is probably going to be easier, and the fine detail less important. If you are going to be making lots of fine parts that need lots of detail, belt buckles pins, buttons, you may be better off with resin. Having said all that, there are clearly some larger format resin printers, as shown here, but you willneed to evaluate the various prices of printers. The resin printers have some advantages, in that mechanically they are simpler. Personally I only have an fdm, the resin printers interest me, but the handling issues with resin put me off until I have a larger workspace that is away from human occupation. (I print in a study, not a well ventilated garage)
Hi, and can you list the equipment and solutions that you use, as well as what conductive paint you use, and in general if it is not difficult to make a video dedicated more specifically to the technological side of the process.
I've never seen anyone use conductive paint for electroplating a 3D print, really cool idea! very impressive final product, crazy to see how far you can go with 3D printing now if you're willing to put in the effort
This is a very interesting technique I haven't seen before! It seems like it could be really useful in more technical applications as well, such as 3D printing parts to have conductive surfaces in simple circuits or coated gears for mechanisms, I could see that in particular being quite useful to extend the material life of any mechanisms you've made with your printer.
I can see this being a cool technique to have the perfect Dinn Djarin suit of armour.
I imagine finding a resin that can take solder temperatures would be a challenge, but if a good connection can be achieve without solder this could even be used to make 3d circuits.
@@isodoublet if the part doesn't need a mirror smooth finish then FDM should be fine. Though honestly I'd probably go with lost PLA casting instead.
id say its way more useful than that, from what i can see those surfaces are extremely smooth, as long as it doesnt add too much material or you account for it before you print it, you could build technical parts that slide smoothly past each other.
3d printed puzzles, nerf shells, and mockups all would benefit, no more acetone baths
It's not uncommon for us to use similar methods when making printed circuits boards.
I wouldn't mind seeing a specific list of what you're using/buying. What amounts, which brands, etc. This looks awesome to try out!
OMG the Helm of Doctor Fate would be _siiiick_
RIGHTTTTTTTT omgg
Na dann .... Drucker anwerfen 😀
Too big for most SLA printer beds, would also be difficult to break into printable sections.
@@superchroma fdm 3d print it and sand and fill it
SO FATE DEMANDS!!
MY GOODNESS the result is just AMAZING. So well done!
Oh thank you Joel!
impressive project 👏😎
I'm going to have to binge watch your channel. From beginning to this video again.
I really want to do some electroplating and put my 3D printer back to use.
Thank you very much for the inspiration!
Man, we are electroplating everyday at our institute, since we work with microelectronics from silicone-wafers to PCBs/DCBs, and i love what one can do with 3D printing, but i've never thought about combining those two things lol. Fascinating!
Thank you for using our files! This project it truly inspiring to watch! ❤
I did not know you can electroplate plastics like that. Rather interesting. You learn something new every day :)
its the metallic copper paint he uses at the beginning that allows him to electroplate it.
I can't believe I'm only now finding out about Electroplating. I hope this channel really blows up!
wow that's the first time I've seen someone electroplate plastic printed parts. So many endless possibilities for movie and cosplay props!
This is one of the greatest things I have ever seen..
I’d never try and take away from this achievement..
I’m just thinking out loud about the learning process involved in doing this, as opposed to making such a thing (almost) traditionally.
This looks quite difficult, which is why most people don’t do it…
This is totally not your first rodeo. I’m sure it’s a steep learning curve.
Thank you, it’s very steep, indeed 😅
This is amazing, it looks completely real. I definitely want to try this on my 3D printed parts. Great job.
Amazing results! For a future video idea, could you experiment with electroplating a print with embossed letters on the other side? The idea would be to have a surface that looks like a smooth mirror, but when a light or LED is lit behind it, the writing would shine through the mirror revealing the writing. Not sure if that's even possible, but it would be awesome if it was!
Thanks for your great and informative videos!
The metal is completely opaque even in very thin layers, so this would not work.
I once made a laser etched mirror acrylic pattern, which looked mirror like at the front, but when lit from behind created a galaxy pattern. So something similar may be possible. The front mirror did have a slightly frosted look, so it would need to be dialled in. Also that was a flat surface and over a 3d surface you'd probably need more complex laser equipment.
Alternatively you could recess the text fill it with something and prevent electroplating in the recesses. It would be more obvious from the outside though.
Or you could etch it away the way they do with etched scroll designs.
@@bradley3549 Maybe it could work with silver. But I don't think that the layer could be made thin enough with conventional (electroplating or chemical) methods.
@@CoolKoon electroplating can be vary thin, however the conductive base layer is not. It would probably require vapor deposition or something.
@@Smorb42 Exactly that's what I've been trying to point at - vapor deposition. And actually there are transparent conductive layers too, Ben at Applied Science has done a REALLY excellent video on that.
Best finishing job I've seen on a 3d print in a long time
You’re amazing dude, this is what I’ve been looking for for 2 years!
This is something I've been thinking of doing but don't see a lot of people talking about. Subbed for the excellent video.
*_"Ahhh, Isildur's Heir... It takes more to make a king than a broken Elvish blade.."_*
This is absolutely gorgeous work, Bravo! Subbed :)
If you want a suggestion for one to do that's quite timely as well, maybe king Visaerys' half-mask from House of the Dragon? In the behind the scenes they mention they 3D printed and brass plated that one, I reckon you can make it look better though
It takes more to make a king than a broken Elvish blade... (apparently the 3D printer of Imladris was a key component...)
Looks fantastic. Your videos are very satisfying to watch.
This channel deserves so many more views. This is the coolest science project I have ever seen
wow you are amazing. This was my first video I had seen but I will be sticking around for sure!
Honestly most of the time I dont love 3d printing vidoes, or 3d printed things/ products, because they just look like cheap plastic at the end of the day, but when you turn the 3d print into something like this, that is just awesome
Add a little polyethylene glycol to the solution, and buffer with Boric Acid in a napped polypropylene bag. Or a tea bag in one of those filter pouches. It'll keep the pH where you want it.
See the process of parts being anodising is quite interesting. I work in a auto-car parts in the anodising sector that make part for all major japanese car brands, and every last day of the week we put a metal plank on top of the tanks and climb on it while full of nickel solution to refill all the tanks resevoir with nickel little coins, quite dangerous. The tanks have about 16x16x3 and you can easly get yourself your own nice nickel bath if you don't pay attention.
I am soooo excited to try this. I have an entire suit of Sith Trooper Armor I need to chrome....gonna get expensive though
I wish I could do this I have quite a few printable props like rings that would look AMAZING with this technique
This is so cool. Do a mandalorian helmet next :)
Very cool Hendrick, I didnt even think of electroplating resin objects
Alucinante proyecto, queda espectacular el producto final... totalmente realista...
Damn dude that narsil print is so pretty
Propmasters and cosplayers must be watering at the mouth at what they could do with something like this.
Spitzen Video!
Hab ich so noch nie gesehen.
thank you for having CC.
Thank you for your excellent videos! 👏👏👏
I'm inspired by your work to incorporate this technique for my work.
What a cool idea! Need to try this myself
I really need to take a look into electroplating. Seems easy enough. Still, some questions popped up. Need to investigate.
awesome video!
just so you know, if you tilt the container with the blue liquid (I don't know what it's called lol) so it's laying horizontal. air can go throw the handle and the liquid will pore smoothly.
I don't know if I make sense but I hope I do.
Cool! I'm going to go use this to customize Gunpla now.
Very cool! Thanks for the video, definitely saved it to my 3D printing playlist. 👍
this blew my mind.
Never seen this done before. Pretty interesting. Cool video
Pherhaps you should try to make a fracture like interface on the broken edge. Greetings from Brazil, you did a great job! I like it!
So beautiful! Thanks for this wonderful video!
Richtig schön geworden.
Danke
Im so glad I found your channel. What an amazing resource you provide. I can't wait to try this process.
Fantastic video - amazing sword
Thank you! 🫶
This is some sorcery. Looks amazing! Nice work!
I do this stuff on the daily, mainly D&D figurines
This is really cool! I'd like to try that with a keyblade if I ever had the energy and money to do it lol.
You turned plastic into metal. He's a witch. GET HIM!!!
Wow, this is amazing. Would be great for cosplay
Absolutely!
Your videos are incredible and super informative. Thanks so much for creating these.
Thank you so much!
amazing, flawless
Fantastic result! :-D
This was interesting. I just got into Resin 3D-printing and did not know about this. I wonder if I can use it on some jewelry I printed for myself and still be skin-safe. Maybe with a sealant. Thank you for the ideas.
Yes, if the final plating is like gold, palladium or Platin it‘s pretty skin safe. I did a golden ring video, maybe look it up.
@@hen3drik Thank you, I will. I still react (slightly) to gold but I did not know about Palladium. If anything I apply 3 coats of sealant typically to jewelry.
@@RoseKindred have you tried nickel free gold or other metals? It's very rare (though possible) to be allergic to gold, typically it's the trace nickel that causes allergies.
@@szurketaltos2693 To be honest, it never occured to me to look into the gold itself. So thank you.
I used to work in the mall and I know some of the costume jewelry and the stuff in the cases would cause issues. I also have a class ring that is supposed to be gold that I react with.
It is weird, some titanium, some gold, and sterling silvers, can cause issues but it is not consistent if that makes sense. So yea, perhaps it is the impurities or mix I react to, but not sure if it is nickel, I'll have to look and see if anything I have is made of it specifically to test.
@@RoseKindred you're welcome. See if you can find explicitly nickel free stuff, or 24k gold should be free of nickel as well I think. My SO has a nickel allergy and as far as I can tell, isn't allergic to any other metals. Costume jewelry generally has a ton of nickel.
I’ve never heard of electroplating 3d printed parts. This is so cool!
That was glorious and beautiful well done ❤
Great video, would love to see a video of what all different platings look like and what colours are possible
This is a good suggestion.
Always love your videos!
Absolutely amazing !
wow! amazing job!
Nice one man, awesome prop now!
_Actual_ gold plating pen. Amazing
Any chance you could do a video where you test the resistance of the plating to scatch and enviroment?
Looks amazing!! You should do the rest of the shards as well!
How did you know I was watching this in the morning?
Oh, I say Moin in the morning, at noon, evening and deep in the night 😃
Excellent work.
Can't wait for Mandalorian season 3 helmet, I'm working on painting mine wishing I could electroplate it
My stomach lurched when you scraped it. Very informative and inciteful, I always just think of using aluminum tape and some polish compound or steel wool to get a desired finish lol. But the durability of this is very surprising combined with the threaded rod core. Id want to do this with the sword of the witch king probably. But sky's the limit I suppose.
How important is rotating the part during the plating process and having it vertical. I can picture having a longed blade horizontal and not rotating in a trough
Rotation is to prevent anode shadowing. Movement is to prevent uneven electroforming. It‘s both not necessary but helpful.
Your videos are so cool. I can’t wait to get a 3D printer and there electroplating myself. Keep it up :)
You sound so cool my guy. I feel like you're a weapon smith for "The Kingsmen". I feel like anything that you would hand me, could kill a man. 😎😂🤙🏻✌🏻🙏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Stunning.
This is super helpful
Hey Hendrik! I'm thinking of trying electro plating thanks to your videos. I come from model building so 3d printing is new for me but some of the skills can be used for both hobbies. Could you do a video on graphite paint for electroplating a print so that it looks blue or some other colour other than just metallic?
Looks incredible. Great work!
That is freakin' awesome!
Awesome video
Nicely done!
I would be very interested in seeing two of the same print, one done in electroplating, and one done in simple chrome ink airbrushing, like Molotow or alclad. It seems like a ton of effort for a metal finish to electroplate.
I did alclad II paint jobs before. optics is one thing. haptic the other. Effort is high, yes.
Very cool, I would like to have seen a light sand blast and vapor deposition process instead of the paint on lacquer as a first pass, but it came out amazing!
You know I’m doing this in my hobby room? 😅
@@hen3drik fair enough 😂 vapor deposition doesn't take a lot of room iirc
From what I understand of the process, some of your finish on the bade part might be due to the steel of the threaded rod. My wife does a lot of electroforming and is very careful not to get anything with iron in the solution.
Good point, but that‘s not the case here. It happend before I ever put in the rod. It‘s zinc plated iron, too. I think it may have to do with the speed and contact area of the wire.
I personally suggest the Overseer’s Mask from Dishonored.
very beeindruckende indeed
awesome man 🤠
Great job! It looks amazing! 😁
Gute Arbeit. Danke für das Video!
Welchen 3D Drucker hast du benutzt?
Danke, Elegoo Saturn 2 8K
@@hen3drik Danke! Arbeitest du mit dem 3D Druck irgend-wo in Deutschland?
@@hen3drik hey, nochmal! Ist es möglich bei dir gedruckte Teile zu bestellen?
Hi, leider nein. Ich biete keine Dienstleistungen in dem Bereich an.
@@hen3drik darf ich dich bissel nerven? =) Warum denn nicht? Der Drucker steht ja bestimmt so wie so viel Zeit ungenutzt rum. Ich möchte kleine Modelle drucken mit guter Auflösung für Formenbau zum Kerzengießen, aber Anschaffung von so einem Gerät rentiert sich da nicht.
Oh so this is how those cheap feeling yet somewhat good looking toys are made
Beautiful
Wow that looks incredible
I didn't expect such a high weight increase! Did you ever measure or calculate how thick the copper layer is?
I measure it once in a while. usually it's 0.2mm - 0.25mm after 4 hrs.
@@hen3drik that's a bit less than I expted. Is it possible that the huge weight increase was because of the water/electrolyte that your parts absorbed?
The prints absorbed nothing. It all because of the relative high surface and metal layer. Copper is heavy 😉
I clicked on the video accidentally :D but the music dragged me in
😇
Impressionante!!!!
just so beautifull...
Gold plating on a 3d print woah, that’s real compromise
You sound alot like Docm77 lol
I love it! :D
I know, I listened to him a year ago as others told me too. It‘s actually funny to hear smb sound like your own voice
oh that's hella cool
This AWESOME! For someone looking to get inton3d printing. Would you recommend resin style like this or the other style with a table. More or less I'm looking into 3d printing for cosplay. I would paint manually. Electroplating looks like a headache haha.
There's more post processing on fdm than resin, because fdm is more coarse.
But fdm usually comes in larger bed sizes, so you can typically make larger parts.
Fdm is less hazardous for your health (don't inhale either during printing process, but resin is clearly worse if you had to rank them).
Resin gets MUCH better fine details when it works.
Basically, it comes down to the type of cosplay. If you are printing a full suit of thick heavy armor, fdm is probably going to be easier, and the fine detail less important.
If you are going to be making lots of fine parts that need lots of detail, belt buckles pins, buttons, you may be better off with resin.
Having said all that, there are clearly some larger format resin printers, as shown here, but you willneed to evaluate the various prices of printers.
The resin printers have some advantages, in that mechanically they are simpler.
Personally I only have an fdm, the resin printers interest me, but the handling issues with resin put me off until I have a larger workspace that is away from human occupation. (I print in a study, not a well ventilated garage)
Hi, and can you list the equipment and solutions that you use, as well as what conductive paint you use, and in general if it is not difficult to make a video dedicated more specifically to the technological side of the process.
Ohhh man this opens a door to a whole new world could you make a mandalorian helmet!!
Yes