Ionic cleaning or Electrolytic cleaning

What would happen if I hooked up my homemade ionic cleaner backwards
ie. anode on the tarnished object and cathode on the stainless steel.
Would this more or less be stainless steel (chromium.) plating the
silver. My set-up includes a battery charger, a stainless steel
strip, a plastic bucket filled with baking soda and water. What
amperage and voltage do you use and for how long. I have options from
6v/10 amps to 55 amps.

Thanks in advance,
Tracey Bell

Tracy,

My set-up includes a battery charger, a stainless steel strip, a
plastic bucket filled with baking soda and water. 

Could you by chance share in a little more detail what your ionic
setup isi I had gotten instructions from someone a while back on how
to create one at home, and although I don’t recall the specifics now,
it involved distilled water & Calgon. I couldn’t find the Calgon
variety that I thought I’d been told to get, so I got what I could,
and when I tried to test it with a penny as suggested, it made the
penny really gross. I never could get info again from her on what
might have been wrong. Anyway, yours sounds a bit easier, so I was
hoping maybe this is a good time to get new info & try again!

Thanks,

Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher
www.designsbylisag.com

I just followed the set up in the complete metalsmith and
instructions from previous orchid posts such as

But I am still in the dark about how much time and how much power. It
seems that it if you leave it in there very long the piece starts to
look like it was dredged up from under the sea. “Could you by chance
share in a little more detail what your ionic setup is.”

Tracy & Lisa,

Just to chime in. Calgon is basically sodium hexametaphospahate.
Used in soaps, detergents and food. It is available widely from
larger chemical suppliers. I last purchased 50# for around $85.00.
Adding sodium carbonate will increase the ph and soften the water you
are using, improving your cleaning action. I don’t know anything
about ionic cleaning but it should work in ultrasonic and it will
improve your laundry especially in hard water areas.

Daniel Culver

http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive/199708/msg00051.htm But I am
still in the dark about how much time and how much power. 

I love John’s description!

But for what it’s worth, I do the same thing with the power supply I
use to anodize titanium. I reverse the polarity-- attaching the
steel strip that is my cathode to the positive wire-- set the
voltage to about 12 (like a battery), use an alkaline cleaner
instead of the TSP I use for anodizing, and clip the negative lead
to the silver object. My anodizer only draws about 1 amp or so, so
it is slow-- not much fizzing-- but the results are pretty much
instantaneous just the same.

The power supply cost only about $120, from this place:
http://www.web-tronics.com/30serdigrobe.html.

You might not want to invest just to clean ionically, and I don’t
know of any other use besides anodizing titanium or niobium, but I
thought I’d mention it just the same. (If you want to get one and use
it on reactive metals, get the one at the bottom of the page, that
goes up to 120 volts.)

Noel