plug n plate gold plating

[goneflyin]

I got my plug n plate kit in the mail today and decided to try it out. I got it mostly for gold plating harmonica covers. How do you tell if an item is stainless steel or chrome plated? I used the chrome remover and it didn't seem to do anything, nadda, nothing. hahaha

Also why is the fast gold so much more expensive? If I understand right 4 oz. is $110. Is that just for the solution? the 4 oz solution on the plug n plate page is $29. I'm trying to get a nice even deep gold on these parts and I was surprised at how long it takes with the plug n plate setup.

How much of an effect does heating up the solution have?
Would hooking the wand to a more powerful power supply speed up the plating process?
Is there a way to extend the shelf life of the solution?
If I pour out some solution to use and then have some left over when I'm done, can I pour that back into the original bottle?
If I do dip plating how long will the solution last? Most harmonica covers are around 1"x4"
What's the most powerful power supply I can use with the plug n plate wand and solution?
What's the best bandage material? I bought a roll of gauze a the store tonight.
What's the best way to clean and polish the finish after plating?And how long after plating should I wate before polishing?

Maybe my solution was just a bit to cold to work well

Chris

[crob241]

Sir, I have been using both the brush and tank gold plating for some time and have some answers. You can use a magnet to test stainless, it is not magnetic usually. The fast gold has much more gold in it, the brush plate does have a short shelf live, I have tried putting it in the frige and that seems to help a little, temp does matter but be careful putting it in the microwave its better to use a double broiler setup and just heat a little. One thing I do is to use 24k gold anodes instead of the ss wands with yhe kit, I take a 2.5 g ingot, make it thinner and attach a strip of ss to make a wand and the color comes out very dark in a short time. There is no way around it but to get the deep gold color you need to put on a lot of gold. You may want to check into the small tank plating kit. thank you

[goneflyin]

I might try ordering more of the gold solution and try immersion plating with it. Since I'm plating harmonica cover plates they are pretty small so I should be able to immersion plate them with the brush plating kit.

I was also thinking about using a tank heater I have (like the aquarium type heaters) and put the bottles of solution in a small tub of water and put the heater in the water, so I would actually be heating the water up and that in turn would heat the solution.

Do you know if the chrome remover needs to be heated as well? I have the chrome remover as well as the stainless steel prep, but wasn't sure if those needed to be warmed as well.

Chris

[primerate2]

I want to have some old shooting medals that my dad won back in the 1930's gold plated so i can make them into jelwery for my wife. i don't want to do them myself. i think thr underlying metal is brass. would anyone here want to do those for me?
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