I dont know why this did not occurr to me sooner than this as I do a
lot of electroplating.

Put a thin layer of electrical conducting paint on the bottom of a
boat.

THEN: Run copper cables under the boat and apply DC so that you get
electroplating of the Cu onto the boat. Yes, it'd be slow in salt
water instead of a CuSO4 solution but it'd work. Every few months,
reverse polarity to clean the surface and then re-apply.

On 28 Aug 2005 09:16:13 -0700, wrote:

I dont know why this did not occurr to me sooner than this as I do a
lot of electroplating.

Put a thin layer of electrical conducting paint on the bottom of a
boat.

THEN: Run copper cables under the boat and apply DC so that you get
electroplating of the Cu onto the boat. Yes, it'd be slow in salt
water instead of a CuSO4 solution but it'd work. Every few months,
reverse polarity to clean the surface and then re-apply.


This sounds like the seed of a good idea.
But (there's always a but.) "Electrically conductive paint" is easy to
write about but hard to find.

Stick and rag airplanes which are coated with aluminum powder loaded
dope do not impede internal VHF antennas because the paint is not
conductive.

There ARE silver loaded epoxies used for PCB repair it's true.
Expensive ones.

So, first find your conductive paint!
(People who have electroplated flowers and baby booties have sometimes
used graphite powder, as a base.)

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

At work, I have conductive paints with carbon, silver, copper and Ni.
The Ni, Cu and carbon loaded paints are fairly inexpensive. I assume
that the Al loaded paints are not conductive because the fine Al forms
an oxide coating very quickly. BTW, it is now thought that the
Hindenburg burned so well due to the Al loaded paint, not due to the
hydrogen.

On 28 Aug 2005 13:55:48 -0700, wrote:

At work, I have conductive paints with carbon, silver, copper and Ni.
The Ni, Cu and carbon loaded paints are fairly inexpensive. I assume
that the Al loaded paints are not conductive because the fine Al forms
an oxide coating very quickly. BTW, it is now thought that the
Hindenburg burned so well due to the Al loaded paint, not due to the
hydrogen.

I'd be interested in a commercial source?

Brian W

Are you interested in the carbon , Cu and Ni filled paints? The carbon
based paint is commonly called Aquadag and is sold by companies such as
SPI for electron microscope sample prep. It is expensive (MUCH less so
than the silver based) if bought from them but my technician says he
has seen it sold in bulk somewhere else and I will ask him. I bought
the Ni and Cu based from an electronics supply house and forget which
one, they use toluene as a solvent.
As far as electroplating the boat bottom, I thought about it and there
are several issues relating to plating rate. For my normal
electroplating, a current density of 10 amps/ft2 will give a deposition
rate of .0005"/hr. I think you really need a thickness of .001". This
means either VERY long deposition times or very high currents. A
coating might take over a week requiring that the copper cable be moved
many times during that period.
The idea may have some merit but I havent worked it out yet.

Brian Whatcott wrote:
"Electrically conductive paint" is easy to
write about but hard to find.
I've heard that aluminum/silver paint on sparkplug wires has a good
chance of shorting out the plugs. Aluminun/silver paint is loaded with
aluminum flakes and is sold at Home Depot for $12-15 a gal. Sam