chemical milling of copper

[stevebo]

Great forum---lots of great info---thanks! I am working on a home project, and maybe you can help me. I have a small piece of copper pipe (its an end cap for a 1 inch copper water pipe). I want to reduce the weight of the cap by approximatly 1/2. (as bought from the store it weighs about 1.5 ounces---I would like to get the weight down below 5/8 of an ounce) I can accomplish this mechanically by milling the piece with a rotary file, but it takes alot of time---I am looking for an easier way. I know in the aircraft industry, they sometimes use chemical milling to form parts to the desired shape (they dip parts into a solution, and it dissolves part of the metal until it is at the desired thickness) Any ideas? Anything practical to try at home (without burning down the house?!) Any suggestions will be appreciated!

[John Cuthber]

You might wanrt to look at the chemicals used fo PCB (printed circuit board) etching.

It won't give a very tidy finish so you will still need to do some mechanical type work on it.

[CaptainPanic]

Just a thought:

 

Take a second piece of metal, call them both "electrode" , dip both in an electrolyte, apply a voltage and try to dissolve the copper. Opposite of copper production.

 

Theoretically, copper should dissolve equal along all the surface (both in and outside).

 

Alternatively, copper is said to dissolve in nitric acid or sulphuric acid. - not too practical because strong acids are kinda nasty. But I assume that this is the "chemical milling".

[John Cuthber]

"Theoretically, copper should dissolve equal along all the surface (both in and outside)."

who's theory is that?