Re-Plating Gold Trims

[TassoBarbasso]

Hi Guys,

 

I recently bought an Aurora Optima with gold-plated trims and green-blue "auroloide" body. The pen is wonderful but I knew at the time of buying that the gold trims were severely damaged. You can see a picture here. The thing is, I originally planned to leave it as it is, or send it for repair to a professional. However, I've recently found out that there are "gold plating repair kits" available online for a rather reasonable price. This is one example.

 

The question here is: as I understand, you create some kind of solution, put electricity in it, and put the metal object inside: somehow, gold will stick to it and it will be re-plated (Oh my, this is such a horrible technical explanation! ). If that is the case:

 

- Will the solution be hot? I guess I won't be able to put a plastic pen in a hot solution...

- Will the chemicals corrode or damage the auroloide body of the pen? (there is no universal agreement on what Auroloide exactly is: it may be cellulose acetate or nitrate, or just simple acrylic). I assume there is no way to re-plate without submerging part of the plastic, too.

- Will the result be visually pleasing, or will it just mess everything up?

- Will the black parts of the gold trims be plated, too?

 

Feel free to share your thoughts!

best,

Fabio

[FOUR X FOUR]

You did a good enough job at conveying what you're talking about. I don't know anything about this process but I wander if this process involves some sort of hardware, along with chemicals, and what the cost would be

[Greenie]

I have not yet ventured into replating, but I have looked into it several times.

 

There is a less expensive option called brush plating. You can also use find tips for the brush plating to focus on a more detailed area.

 

I keep getting tempted to buy the inexpensive version and try it on some clips or levers. What I wonder is if I can touch the plating contact to a cap band and then brush plate the band.

 

http://www.caswellplating.com/electroplating-anodizing/gold-plating-kits/gold-brush-plating.html

[FOUR X FOUR]

This stuff would scare me to try it. I have a TWSBI 580 with gold plated trim, that is beginning to wear off. It's not a big deal but your thread gives me the idea of using an aerosol spray

[FarmBoy]

What I wonder is if I can touch the plating contact to a cap band and then brush plate the band.

Yes you can.

[TassoBarbasso]

I have not yet ventured into replating, but I have looked into it several times.

 

There is a less expensive option called brush plating. You can also use find tips for the brush plating to focus on a more detailed area.

 

I keep getting tempted to buy the inexpensive version and try it on some clips or levers. What I wonder is if I can touch the plating contact to a cap band and then brush plate the band.

 

http://www.caswellplating.com/electroplating-anodizing/gold-plating-kits/gold-brush-plating.html

 

This brush-plating thing looks quite smart and cheap enough to try.

 

But there will still be chemicals going around, I guess?

[Greenie]

Does FarmBoy have experience with brush plating? Any experience, good or bad you could share? Like is the cheapest solution at the Caswell site good enough for pen touch up? Any tips or warning to avoid burning a part or contact point?

 

I really want to try it and have some pens I can't really make any worse to test things out on..... My concern is the limited shelf life of the solution and that my life is often too busy to find time to play with these things.

[TassoBarbasso]

What I wonder is if I can touch the plating contact to a cap band and then brush plate the band.

 

I'm not actually sure if I understand what you mean here?

[Greenie]

To brush plate, there is an alligator clip you use to hold the piece and make electrical contact. The other side of the circuit is the part you brush with. So getting the clip on a cap band might not be as easy as a clip or something you can contact broadly on both sides, like a clip or other removable piece.

[Ron Z]

I haven't found Caswell's solutions to be especially good, at least not their nickel. Not all gold plating compound is created equal - some has more gold than others, some also wears better than others. The stuff I use holds up pretty well, but the company went out of business.

 

I wouldn't recommend the single voltage wall wart plating supply. Being able to vary the voltage and regulate or watch the current draw is very useful.

[FOUR X FOUR]

Does FarmBoy have experience with brush plating? Any experience, good or bad you could share? Like is the cheapest solution at the Caswell site good enough for pen touch up? Any tips or warning to avoid burning a part or contact point?

 

I really want to try it and have some pens I can't really make any worse to test things out on..... My concern is the limited shelf life of the solution and that my life is often too busy to find time to play with these things.

I found the Caswell site a little confusing. It appeared to me that people that buy off that site must already have a working knowledge of how all those chemicals work

[Zookie]

I've wondered about this as well, but it seems to me to be more of a hassle than it's worth. I have also been thinking that it might be more cost effective to have a jeweler do it. Has anyone ever had THIS done before?

[northlodge]

To brush plate, there is an alligator clip you use to hold the piece and make electrical contact. The other side of the circuit is the part you brush with. So getting the clip on a cap band might not be as easy as a clip or something you can contact broadly on both sides, like a clip or other removable piece.

 

Alligator clips are okay to attach to say a pocket clip, but I would not recommeng these as the approach for replating a capband. There are better ways of creating a contact with the band

[Greenie]

This is starting to remind me of the many posts about retipping and why there are so few who do it. Replating can be done, but doing it well probably involves some startup costs that are only worthwhile if you do this kind of thing regularly - such as professionally. And it certainly can be done better with some actual knowledge and experience, which also takes being a professional.

 

Still, so tempting to try the cheap stuff just to see how it goes.....

[TassoBarbasso]

Ok, all things and opinions considered, I think I will send the pen off to a professional repairer. The risk of screwing up is too big. Any suggestion on good restorers who can do it?

[FarmBoy]

Ok, all things and opinions considered, I think I will send the pen off to a professional repairer. The risk of screwing up is too big. Any suggestion on good restorers who can do it?

In no particular order:

Daniel Kirchheimer

Rick Horne

Ron Zorn

 

These three come to mind, there are others as well.

[Stylomeister]

I've recently invested in some brush plating kit. It took me a while to figure this all out. The power source, the electrodes, preparation and how to plate gold onto different base metals and what plating solutions I wanted. I went with palladium, copper strike, nickel and gold with a mixer to vary the number of carats and hardness of the plate.

 

After you have got everything its not so cheap after all - a few hundred pounds in my case. I'm waiting until the easter break to figure it all out though as I don't want to mess up on my first try!

 

My suggestion is to spend a long time reading up on what you need and then figuring out the various costs once you've found a good metal plating solution supplier - eBay is also an option as many of the vendors have their own separate sites outside as well. I ended up getting a bench power supply separately as the these can be sourced more cheaply as opposed to getting a 'kit' and simply getting the solutions, activators and electrodes from the plating supplier.

[Greenie]

Please follow up with your experience once you get going with this! I would love to hear the experience of a novice learner. Some skills can be worth trying to learn, and some not. I know that I could eventually figure this out, but how many tries does it take? Is anyone willing to share the fine points to help others follow in their steps more efficiently? Please share the failures, but hopefully many more successes.

[FarmBoy]

Because electrochemistry in the lab can be fun, I have a question that pertains to home plating work.

What does one do with the heavy metal waste (spent plating solutions) when done plating?

 

Farmboy

[Stylomeister]

I think that becomes more of a problem when you are tank plating and doing a lot of it vs. using up very small quantities with brush plating. Bizarrely, I actually saw someone selling some spent gold solution on eBay and they were getting bids for it. I guess you can recycle this stuff if you know what you are doing (shrug).