Stainless Steel Wire General Plating

[XK120DHC]

Like many of us, I do a "mixed bag" of electro (and electroless) plating... all small parts requiring 25amps or less. Most of the time I use copper wire to hang my parts in the solution, but bare copper wire has gotten expensive (no, I did not just notice that ;-} ) and the smaller gauge copper wire (often picture hanging stuff) is lacquered or otherwise coated, making conductivity nil, or difficult at best.
Enter 0.041" "Safety Wire".. I buy one pound spools of the stuff for other applications (including powdercoating & painting.. sandblasting is a quick method to clean the wire) and got to wondering if it would be suitable as a plating hanging wire? The 0.041" SS Wire will hold a load of weight, in theory, it should be very conductive, but will it "react" to the various degreasers (SP), acid dips (including Nitric), all plating chems, etc. and "other" solutions?
Copper wire will "plate" and lose it's conductivity, sometimes during a session. "Unplating" is not worth the effort and "cost" is a major issue.
My thinking (a dangerous past-time) is most, if not all, plating should not adhere to Stainless Steel (as I understand, not without a lot of pre-plating prep) so it "should" be a good alternative to copper??
Am I blowing smoke? (or smoking the wrong stuff? And just outta my mind? ;-}).
Please educate an ignorant thinker.. I would appreciate it.

[CarWiz]

SS will work but keep in mind that it has a higher resistance than copper. You may have to play with some readings so you know how to adjust your current. Some plating like copper and nickel seem to be pretty lenient. Brass on the other hand changes color depending on the current. The "yellow brass" look is a very narrow current band so if you're not dead-on, it can come out red or green.

When I'm browsing the salvage yard, I keep an eye out for copper wiring. I look for lengths over 12" and I'm rarely disappointed. 10 and 12ga. house wiring scraps are easy to come by and stripping the insulation is easy with a razor blade. That's where I get my copper (pipe) anodes too.

[XK120DHC]

Car-Wiz;
I appreciate the reply. I have a regular "romex stripper" tool.. cost me a buck back in the mid-'70's. I used the insulated wire for some parts.. keeps the "extra plating" down.
If using Stainless Steel wire is going to "mess" with my Amp settings, I'll stay with copper wire.. I got enough aggravation as it is without adding anymore ;-}
One additional question, tho.. With Electroless Nickel. I'm going to plate a brass bulb holder with the EN.. I had it in my mind that the SS Wire would kill two birds with one stone.. hang the part and "activate" the EN on the brass. The Plating Manual says, if the brass doesn't start plating, to touch with bare steel to "get it going". Would using the SS Wire be a "useful move" (a benefit to "start" the EN)? "Overkill" (too much steel contact, if that's bad) or Just Another "aggravation"?

[CarWiz]

I've never tried it. I would think the wire would be too small to start the reaction. I do know that you can have too much metal used for hanging parts. I HAD copper bars (pipe) over my tanks to use as connection points--Like power rails. I was doing some EN on brass and had hung the parts from an over-rail using copper wire. I have a piece of 5/16" steel rod I use to start the reaction. I couldn't get it start for the life of me. So I grabbed the wire to pull the part out thinking I better check the WBT again. As soon as I lifted the wire off the pipe, the part erupted in bubbles!

[XK120DHC]

I had not thought about "too much" metal.. or "not enough", either.. guess it's another factor in the plating equation..
On the lifting the hanger OFF the bar (in the EN Plating), I would have never thought that would be a problem, nor ever figured it out.. That Pearl Of Wisdom is worth a lot.. Thanks.