Gold plate your own whistles

[Daniel_Bingamon]

Micro Mark has come out with an experimenter plating kit.

http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.as ... t&ID=83084

I noticed that they also have nickel and chrome plating as well.

So, take those copper and brass high whistles and gold plate 'em.
Just make sure you remove any laquer first.

I have no idea how well this product works, maybe Thomas H or Bill W will have something to say about it. It appears to be a brush on plating method.

[yoemichel]

Micro Mark has come out with an experimenter plating kit.

please, check my topic. I wrote you something, and for the whole forum too.

[feadogin]

So, take those copper and brass high whistles and gold plate 'em.

I thought this was an April Fools joke!

J.

[Darwin]

I've been toying with the idea of using gun bluing on my Serpent Village Smithy, but this is very tempting.

I wonder how many square centimeters can be covered with 4 oz. of plating solution.

Looking at the page for the solution itself, I see that it says: "For nickel, copper and copper alloys, chrome and silver parts...", so I guess steel would have to be pre-plated with the chrome or nickel solutions (or with copper). That starts kicking the price up a bit.

[Wanderer]

This is the exact same gold-plating kit I toyed with in 2000 (we wanted real gold coins for ren-faire, and Sacajawea dollars weren't gold enough for us..ah the folly of the internet economy).

I found the kit not terribly simple to use, but it worked well enough I supppose. I wouldn't use it for large items or anything jewelry quality, at least not with the limited practice I got.

Word of warning, most gold plating kits (and this one is no exception if it's the same I used) dissolve the gold in a cyanide solution..which means it'll kill ya if you're not careful.

And it stinks

[brewerpaul]

I tried the link and got this:

The page cannot be displayed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please try the following:

Click the button, or try again later.


Or

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80004005'

[DBNMPNTW]Specified SQL server not found.

/ARES/500-100.asp, line 34


April Fool? Just when I was thinking of gold fittings for my whistles....

[Wanderer]

It worked for me earlier but is down now. It was the exact gold plating kit i'd used before..basically two electrodes you plug into the wall via a brick (lowers the voltage so you don't die). One electrode is put in water, the other you cover with a swab and dip in gold-cyanide solution, and rub on what you want to plate...a few passes and you've got a gold sheen..cheep man's electroplating. As it looks just like what I've used, at about the same price, I'd imagine it was legit.

The SQL error appears to be saying their sql service is down.

I tried the link and got this:

The page cannot be displayed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please try the following:

Click the button, or try again later.


Or

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80004005'

[DBNMPNTW]Specified SQL server not found.

/ARES/500-100.asp, line 34


April Fool? Just when I was thinking of gold fittings for my whistles....

[Monster]

Interesting, but wouldn't it be a lot easier to send something off to a professional plating company? Probably cheaper and safer too, unless you really know what you are doing.

Ok I'll get one.

[Daniel_Bingamon]

Seriously, It's not an April Fools, I checked the link and it's working.
I've heard of people using this method before, in fact Thomas Hastay mentioned something similar to this on the MIMF.com forum.

Now, Music instrument companies take their silver plating work to http://www.andersonsilverplating.com/index.shtml I think it's around $40 for silver plating and there is a minimum. I've heard that they do gold plating (or used to) but it's not advertised.

Brass and Copper are generally base metals for plating. A plating company will put a thin layer of copper (via plating) on the material first and then plate it with and desired cover material.

Doing a nickel whislte might require copper coating first - unless it's nickel-silver, nickel-silver has copper already in it and might work the same way the brass does. Brass has copper in it and plates with no change.

Plating companies usually dip the piece in an acid solution briefly to clean it off and then plate the copper layer if needed and then the final exterior plating.

[Darwin]

Brass and Copper are generally base metals for plating. A plating company will put a thin layer of copper (via plating) on the material first and then plate it with and desired cover material.

Doing a nickel whislte might require copper coating first - unless it's nickel-silver, nickel-silver has copper already in it and might work the same way the brass does. Brass has copper in it and plates with no change.

But check out http://www.proplate.com/gold-plating.htm which says:

"Gold Electroplating - When gold is applied to a copper rich surface such as brass, bronze, or beryllium copper, metal ions from these base metals will diffuse into the gold layer and degrade its hardness and non-oxidizing properties. An antidiffusion underplate such as nickel (electroless or sulfamate) should be applied to prevent this. We recommend electroless nickel under gold where part flexure of deformation is not expected and a bight finish is desirable. Where part flexure or deformation is expected, we recommend sulfamate nickel as the underplate because of its higher ducility."

[Thomas-Hastay]

For those of you with worries about acid solutions , "electrostatic gold painting" does not use toxic chemicals to produce a good plating on a conductive metal surface. I will sum up this simple process and print it here.(it is mainly intended for heavy electroplate that needs no clearcoat for protection against salt-acid/sweat corrosion.)

A much simpler process with very good results would be "Gold Leaf". Very thin sheets of gold(three colors),silver,platinum or copper leaf can be applied to a sanded/rough surface and "burnished/rubbed" to a fine sparkle. This burnished "Leaf" surface can then be covered with clearcoat for protection. This process <b>includes</b> metal leaf over wooden instruments! With a simple etching kit, used for electronics, you have the added option of gold foil etched artwork over any instrument. All this can be done without chemicals or electricity(except mild chem. etching). Metal Leaf is sold in most major craft outlet stores.