Help with gold plating?

Hi All:

My wife likes a particular swiss army ss watch and would like to have one
in gold, which is not made. Is it feasible to buy a new one, have it
disassembled and gold plated? I know this sounds silly, but?

Thanks, Tom

dtbray wrote:

Hi All:

My wife likes a particular swiss army ss watch and would like to have one
in gold, which is not made. Is it feasible to buy a new one, have it
disassembled and gold plated? I know this sounds silly, but?

Thanks, Tom

Plating does not hold well on stainless steel.
--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

"dtbray" wrote in message
news
Hi All:

My wife likes a particular swiss army ss watch and would like to have one
in gold, which is not made. Is it feasible to buy a new one, have it
disassembled and gold plated?


I just bought a gold plating kit for about $50 and have been having the time
of my life with it. It's called Plug and Plate and I found it on the web
somewhere.

It puts a beautiful gold plating on a ring in about 10 seconds. I suspect
you could just plate the whole watch without causing much grief. My guess
is that only the outside would get plated because there is no current path
for the internal parts.

js


--
Astronomy, Beer, Cheese, Gems, Sausage http://schmidling.netfirms.com

On Sun, 30 May 2004 00:03:06 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Jack Schmidling
wrote:


It puts a beautiful gold plating on a ring in about 10 seconds. I suspect
you could just plate the whole watch without causing much grief. My guess
is that only the outside would get plated because there is no current path
for the internal parts.

the problem is with plating steel. In this case, the watch is almost certainly
made of stainless steel. Stainless IS stainless because the surface forms, on
contact with air, a thin, colorless, surface oxide layer which is impervious
enough to the effects of corrosion, to stop further oxidation. It's a process
called passivation of the surface. If you attempt to plate the watch case with
a normal plating bath, the gold will appear to plate normally. But it does not
adhere well, often simply rubbing off with the simple friction of a finger
rubbing the metal.

One can improve the plating with special plating solutions designed just for
this, which "activate" the steel surface again by removing that passivated
surface layer. Even then, the adhesion of the plating is not all that great.
Regular plating shops that do professional grade plating on stainless can do
it, using a sequence of steps, but it's not likely something any jeweler will
have available, and not all the electroplating shops you'll find will be able
to handle stainless properly. Also, generally the steps needed to get the gold
plate to adhere to stainless involve somewhat corrosive materials, which might
affect the fit and finish of the watch parts.

All in all, this is a job that should be addressed with some serious caution,
unless one is willing to risk just trashing the watch if it doesn't work.

You might also wish to ask this question on alt.horology. Someone there might
have greater experience with this problem.

Peter

"Peter W. Rowe"

the problem is with plating steel.....

I was afraid of that but my only experience is with silver.

js


--
Astronomy, Beer, Cheese, Gems, Sausage http://schmidling.netfirms.com