Gold Plating?

[BH1]

Hi!

Does anyone here do their own gold plating? I recently bought a full gold plating tank kit and I'm following the instructions to a T but its not giving me good results. I am getting a streaky/cloudy uneven looking finish.

I am plating 2.5 microns of gold onto sterling silver by tank plating. Any idea why it would be turning the mirror finish sterling silver pendants cloudy/uneven gold? Not sure what I could be doing thats making it go like this. I have asked the company and told them the exact process I'm following and they don't seem to know why either. Not great.

[Lucie]

How are you cleaning the pieces before plating? Are you using an ultrasonic?

[BH1]

How are you cleaning the pieces before plating? Are you using an ultrasonic?

Yes ultrasonic cleaning. I really have no idea why its not getting good results.

[china]

Gold plating and plating in general can be finicky I do not do it myself although I have a friend who does, you are most likely doing all this but here goes,
Every must be clean beakers solution, items to be plated etc.
Temperature must be correct and consistent
Make sure the solution is not tired ( weak )

I will be catching up with him tomorrow ( Friday ) if he has any other pointers I will post them

[josef1]

In not sure with gold but I know you should plate the silver with a barrier coat first of something like nickel before you rhodium plate or the silver contaminates the rhodium and leaves it streaky / blotchy. I would imagine its the same ? its called an under plating.

[pearlescence]

Not nickel surely, if you want to sell it in the EU?

[josef1]

yeah I know but im sure it is or was. Your right maybe its to do with the gold forming a barrier or I just got it wrong lol could be copper

[J Allison]

I do copper then silver , havent tried gold yet but thinking about brush plating for gold

[ps_bond]

Brush plating I just use the gold solution over silver. Very thin though.

[misspond]

Can't comment on tank plating as I only use a pen plater - which is very thin, but have never noticed blotchy results. I just clean my metal with hot soapy water and a scrubbie and have had reasonable (if thin, that's the nature of pen/brush plating sadly) results.

[china]

BH1,

This is the set my mate has you may want to have a look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRUTbMAi1o0

[BH1]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! And I will take a look at that set. I ordered a new bottle of gold plating solution because it seems like I have received a contaminated gold solution hence the reason I'm getting bad results. I am just about to try it out with the new solution so will report back. Fingers crossed!

[Dennis]

It's a a slick demonstration video but if you halt it near the end, you will see white patches on the knot of the ring. Obviously not as foolproof as claimed.

I hope you will be able to show us a more successful result BH1, but as always we are grateful for any new input. Dennis.

[china]

Dennis you are correct, I am not endorsing the product, personally I would not buy anything form that particular company. I was just passing on the set up my mate has, he is not a jeweller all he does is small scale plating ( mainly for jewellers and watch makers) and he uses this unit pretty much every day with no issues

[Dennis]

Nothing personal, Bob. It just reminded me of the annual Ideal Homes Exhibition at Earls Court London, which I used to enjoy as a teenager.
The demonstrators of systems and gadgets, far outpaced the gawping public and if you did buy it, you might never make it work at home.
A bonus was that there were copious samples of free food and drink and I was always hungry. Dennis.

[china]

I have to admit is does remind me of the vanish stain remover add, ( I don't know if you have that over there )

[BH1]

It's a a slick demonstration video but if you halt it near the end, you will see white patches on the knot of the ring. Obviously not as foolproof as claimed.

I hope you will be able to show us a more successful result BH1, but as always we are grateful for any new input. Dennis.

From looking at the video the white patches on the knot of the ring are just the reflective shine it looks like- unless I'm not looking at the right part.

But thank you for the suggestions everyone - I bought a new bottle of gold solution and I'm getting perfect results so it was obviously out of date solution or contaminated somehow. Returning original gold solution for a refund so all is fine! :)

[china]

Good to hear it all worked out it is refreshing when you know you have done everything in the correct manner, then you find the fault was not your doing

[Dennis]

Well done, thank you for your feed back. Dennis.

[misspond]

That's good to read, glad your new bottle sorted the problem out

[Ollie B]

ive done lots of gold plating and rhodium plating over the years and ive always used this process:
1. Clean the piece (ultrasonic)
2.Then rinse in clean water
3. Put into salts to de grease it of any further grease etc.
4. Then after salts rinse in clean water again.
5. Then Dip into de-ironised water
6.Then straight into plating solution and then rinse.
Ive not had any problems so far.
It seems alot but it seems to work for me. hope this helps.