A Beginners guide to plating

[midlifecrisis]

Youll have to forgive the mention of an instrument in the following info. It was sent to me from my father who lives overseas, as I had asked him about replating a flute mouthpiece of a flute that was damaged at my wifes school. Hes suggesting to use jam jars for small items as theyre made of glass, and wont be hurt by the solutions used, but ultimately anything glass will do.

 

The principal of what happens is the same.

 

So you all know, my father is a metallutgist, and worked at the Ontario Science centre doing a metal casting and plating show for over 30 years, so this info comes from a good authority.

 

Here goes!

 

Any one with a power source such as a 12 volt battery or larger can do silver, gold, rhodium, copper, nickel, etc., etc.,plating and you and the parent responsible for the mishap will be happy to know that it will not be a detriment for the piece to be down to the base metal.

 

We will use the words anode and cathode during the plating process and it can be completed very successfully in empty jam jars.

 

The power source will be the battery and the anode will if my memory serves me correctly be a simple copper wire with an alligator clip attaching it from the battery negative terminal to the edge of the jam jar.

 

The positive terminal will again be a simple copper wire/alligator clip and this will be attached from the cathode (positive battery terminal) to the mouthpiece loosely ( I suggest threading the wire through the mouth piece as if you were making a ring to blow soap bubbles through and tying it back on it's self, when you jiggle the wire a little the mouth piece should be loose enough to move slightly so the plating solution can achieve 100% coverage.

During the plating process you will be able to see the mouthpiece or other item, turn a silver colour if you are plating silver or gold colour or whatever you are using and the whole process will only take a few seconds at the most. The longer you leave it in the mixture with the anodic/cathodic action going on the thicker the plating will be but the rougher it will become so only 60 seconds at the very maximum.

 

Now you are thinking to yourselves how the hell does all this happen and the answers are many fold. but we will keep it simple

 

You can buy a silver/copper/nickel/etc,. anode from a jewellery supply house which you fasten to your negative terminal and hang over the side of your jam jar in the plating solution which will be a weak solution of sulfuric acid. The acid attacks the anode and the silver anode will start to dissolve into the solution, these sub-microscopic silver particles become free from the anode and suspended very briefly in the plating solution and are then attracted to the cathode eg,. the mouth piece or other item, which you are jiggling up and down on its wire to assure 100% coverage

or

From the same jewellery supply house you would buy a product called "silver strike" (silver strike is not expensive and will last for ever) This liquid strike solution is poured carefully into a stainless steel beaker about the same size as a (you guessed it a jam jar) and the anode wire alligator clip is fastened from the negative terminal on the battery to the rim of the stainless steel beaker.

This strike solution if you are with me so far is the earlier mentioned acidic solution with the silver particle already dissolved in it.

 

When the power from the battery (I used a power supply set to 12 volts from the radio shack at OSC) goes on the same anodeic/cathodic reaction take place and as you jiggle the mouthpiece / item up and down slightly you will see the mouthpiece change to the desire silver colour. Take it out as soon as you are happy with the colour and rinse it under the tap for a while

 

Suggested Jewellery supply house would be in any area telephone book under you guessed it Jewellery supply houses or an alternative to all of the above would be a local jeweller who probably has a plating set up in his workshop or at the very least knows someone who does have one.

[NYUK]

me and another member on here bought the triple chrome kit some years back from caswell. it actually worked. but took all day to do 1 footpeg.