Plating questions

I need to plate some carbon fiber with gold is this hard to do?

I also need to plate some iron with silver, gold or platimum.
This is of lesser Importance to plating the carbon fiber with gold.

Thanks,

Yet if we have some 8-18 year old who have yet to
discover the beauty of opal, give he or she a pat on the
bottom as they pollish one of these jems from the sea.


Regards,
(woody)



E. W. Dailey

On Sat, 13 Mar 2004 08:48:45 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry
(DLAZ441) wrote:

Yet if we have some 8-18 year old who have yet to
discover the beauty of opal, give he or she a pat on the
bottom as they pollish one of these jems from the sea.

Nice phrase. I assume it's a quote from somewhere? (where?)
But it's odd in that the author misspells gems (jems (with a J) isn't a word
i've seen anywhere recently). And more, opals don't come from the sea...

(grin)

sorry I can't help you with plating your carbon fiber, but plating the iron
isn't difficult. You'll first need to plate it with an underplate that can
condition it to recieve the final plating. You can get the solutions from most
jewelery tools suppliers. I suspect you may need to be using cyanide based
solutions, since the alternatives are generally based on sulphuric acid or it's
salts, which will attack ordinary steels. If you do not already have plating
equipment and experience, and this is not a recurring need, it might be most
advantageous and cost effective to just send the jobs out to a commecial
plating shop.

You might also wish to consult some of the more science oriented newsgroups for
specifics on plating the carbon fiber. something like the sci.chem.coatings or
sci.chem.electrochem groups, or other groups in that general area...

hope this helps.

Peter Rowe

"DLAZ441" wrote in message
...
I need to plate some carbon fiber with gold is this hard to do?

I also need to plate some iron with silver, gold or platimum.
This is of lesser Importance to plating the carbon fiber with gold.

Thanks,

[Why? How much? Plating the iron shouldn't be too hard, since it's
conductive. Usually a layer of nickel plate is used as a substrate under
precious metals. Surface preparation is important, since the added layers of
metal are very thin - what you see is pretty much what you get, with all
tiny imperfections made much more apparent.

Carbon fiber might also be conductive; graphite, which is closely related,
was often used as a pre-treatment to give a conductive coating to plaster
statuary before electroplating it. You might have to experiment a bit to get
this to work.

You can either take your items to a plater, or set up to do it yourself. For
kits capable of handling small items, try www.caswellplating.com or
www.dalmarplating.com .]

Andrew Werby
www.unitedartworks.com

\

Would gilding rather than plating work?

Chunk Kiesling

"DLAZ441" wrote in message
...
I need to plate some carbon fiber with gold is this hard to do?

I also need to plate some iron with silver, gold or platimum.
This is of lesser Importance to plating the carbon fiber with gold.

Thanks,

Yet if we have some 8-18 year old who have yet to
discover the beauty of opal, give he or she a pat on the
bottom as they pollish one of these jems from the sea.


Regards,
(woody)



E. W. Dailey