Can anybody sugest if I can use a reliable alternative to that
expensive kits that some companies sell for plating. I remenber a
friend of mine who have been in the trade for some 30 years . He used
to plate and strip with an old battery charger with no problem,and he
would not use any ammeter or voltmetter. He even used to
electrocleaning and rodium plating, and prepare his own solutions. I
would appreciate any sugestions. Marco.
I’ve heard of people using a door-bell transformer for plating, but I
don’t know the perticulars. I don’t have much occaission to do
plating in my own shop, so I bought an economy pen plater from
Stuller. It’s a great unit, and I believe I could use it for bath
plating if I wanted. I usually just touch up the bright cutting a
bit, or freshen the yellow gold plating on a chain repair. Pen
plating works great for me. The plater was around $115 but the
Rhodium solution was $95 for about 1 ounce. Gold plating solutions
is about $20 per ounce. These are prices for the concentrated
solutions used by pen platers. A second pen is about $45, so your
entire setup to do yellow and white is $275. If you could get by
with a transformer of some kind, you could probably set up for half
that.
David L. Huffman
I've heard of people using a door-bell transformer for plating, but I don't know the perticulars.
Yeah, me again; g’day. You’d need a rectifier as well as a
transformer; you must have DC current for plating, but a transformer
will only give AC (at 60cps in your country) Even a dry battery
would work, but a car battery would give too high a voltage for most
plating. However, a battery charger is excellent, especially one
with a built-in ammeter. That is the current thinking at my ohm. Don’t
be resistant to it.
Cheers
John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua Nelson NZ