Question on gold plating
I just started trying to learn to gold plate and I'm currently doing some items in pewter then flash copper, then the nickle, finished up with gold. But when I first tried it I had my first 3 items come out great with a nice yellowish/orange gold appearance. They looked wonderful. The next day I setup to do some more and cant seem to get that finish back. I'm heating the gold solution to 140 degrees,same container,stainless steel anode and plating it for 30 seconds at 3 volts. But I just cant seem to get that finsh from the first day. Am I doing something wrong? How can I achieve that finish I liked so much the first time? I bought the 1qt of 24k solution and divided it into 2pints to fit my container and only did 5 items out of it that which are 1.5" round plating front and back. Have I depleted the gold that fast with just 5 half dollar size items dipped for 30 seconds?
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