On Wed, 16 Nov 2005 14:56:39 GMT, Ignoramus7434
wrote:

Andy, I will check my welder for what the minimum amperage of its
output could be.

The _voltage_ will be too high. You don't have any way of reducing this
(for any welder I've seen) down to the low voltages required.

Besides which, electroplating is a foul process. If you're into the
region where you need kW of power, then it's a serious chemical waste
handling problem. For "backyard" scale work you can just lash something
up from the junk pile.

Here's a piece of electroformed copper (the underlying skeleton is
plastic) about 12" across - work by a friend of mine. Nothing more
obscure electrically than scrap-box transformers.
http://www.jarkman.co.uk/catalog/random/butterfly.htm