Does anyone have experience with cyanide-free silver plating? How does it
compare?

Second question, does anyone know how to go about getting potassium cyanide
in the UK? You used to be able to get it from a chemist's shop by signing a
poisons register, but I don't know if that still holds - and chemists don't
seem to sell that kind of thing any more.


--
Peter Fairbrother

"Peter Fairbrother" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have experience with cyanide-free silver plating? How does it
compare?

Second question, does anyone know how to go about getting potassium
cyanide
in the UK? You used to be able to get it from a chemist's shop by signing
a
poisons register, but I don't know if that still holds - and chemists
don't
seem to sell that kind of thing any more.

You will probably need to get it from a chemical supply company. When I was
about 12 years old I worked out a way to make it from potassium
ferrocyanide, which was easy to get hold of as it wasn't very toxic and
often used in photography.

Leon

If there are jewellers/goldsmith supply houses and you are a customer
with a buisiness presence they might sell to you, they will not deliver
to a residence as far as I know. Nasty stuff in a world filled with
fools.

"Peter Fairbrother" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have experience with cyanide-free silver plating? How does it
compare?

Second question, does anyone know how to go about getting potassium
cyanide
in the UK? You used to be able to get it from a chemist's shop by signing
a
poisons register, but I don't know if that still holds - and chemists
don't
seem to sell that kind of thing any more.


--
Peter Fairbrother

Can't answer your question about cyanide free plating, but here in the
States the jewelry supply houses generally sell plating solutions. It's not
exactly an economical way to get where you're trying to go, but better than
never getting there. It's getting almost impossible to buy chemicals of
any kind here in the States.

You might consider talking to a plating house to see if they'd be willing to
sell you what little you may need, assuming it's not against regs in your
country. Dunno.

Harold

It's getting almost impossible to buy chemicals of
any kind here in the States.



Bought a gallon of nitric acid ~12 years ago, waltzed right in an paid
for it and waltzed right on out. Had I dropped the [glass] bottle in the
parking lot it would have evaced the block.

Meebee its a good thing them regs is tough now. still have 3/4 of that
bottle and sweat bullets every time I have to move it.

Without going into the gory detail, I can tell you from personal
experience that it's difficult or impossible to get an acceptible
silver plated surface without the use of cyanide based chemicals. The
same is true for gold and other precious metals like rhodium.

You should be able to purchase the materials that you need from any
electroplating supply firm, even in the UK, although as here in the US
they may be unwilling to sell to individuals due to liability
considerations.


Harry C.

wrote:

Without going into the gory detail, I can tell you from personal
experience that it's difficult or impossible to get an acceptible
silver plated surface without the use of cyanide based chemicals.

That's pretty much what I thought. I need the best plating I can get - it's
for the insides of the LOX pump in a small rocket engine turbopump. Any
hints?


You should be able to purchase the materials that you need from any
electroplating supply firm, even in the UK, although as here in the US
they may be unwilling to sell to individuals due to liability
considerations.

For years we in the UK used to have to sign the poisons register to buy
cyanides, and you might have to get someone like a doctor or a policeman or
your local MP to vouch for you if the seller didn't know you personally -
pretty reasonable, and no direct seller liability problems (we don't in
general have those here anyway, or at least not as bad as the US does).

I don't know if that's still true though, what with the HORRegulators,
starring Nanny Blair and the Auntie-Terrorists.


--
Peter Fairbrother

wrote in message
oups.com...
Without going into the gory detail, I can tell you from personal
experience that it's difficult or impossible to get an acceptible
silver plated surface without the use of cyanide based chemicals. The
same is true for gold and other precious metals like rhodium.

The plating shop I used to use ran a phosphoric gold process, but I have no
clue about how it was applied, nor if it was necessary to do a strike with
cyanide first. They plated to Mil specs, and were highly respected and
well known for their quality. Sadly, I no longer live in that state, so
it would be difficult for me to inquire. Having refined precious metals, I
understand that the introduction of certain metals to cyanide solution can
be trouble. One of the procedures I used to use to recover gold or silver
from solution was to introduce zinc flower. The reaction was almost
instantaneous, with an almost perfect recovery. That can interfere with
plating, just as iron interferes with copper plating from an acid
electrolyte. There's a place for each process, and often they must be used
in conjunction.

You should be able to purchase the materials that you need from any
electroplating supply firm, even in the UK, although as here in the US
they may be unwilling to sell to individuals due to liability
considerations.

That would certainly be my thoughts, too. Still, if you can get someone
to warm up to your project and share with them what you're trying to do, you
never know-----every now and then you encounter someone that takes a
personal interest and can't help enough. And then there's the other
times---------------sigh.

Harold


Harry C.

Peter Fairbrother wrote:
Does anyone have experience with cyanide-free silver plating? How does it
compare?

Many years ago I used some produced by an outfit called, IIRC, "Dalic".
It was _very_ good but expensive and I never could find a formula to
make my own.

Ted

"Ignoramus2026" wrote in message
...
How big is having a good power supply as part of the entire plating
process. The reason for this question is that four 100 amp 10VDC power
supplies HP6260B found their way into my home, and I am not sure
whether I should keep one of them or sell all of them.

I would love to gold plate some perfectly inappropriate things, such
as a bumper or parts of the boat trailer. Always had this strange
desire.

i

I'm far from an expert on plating, having done very little aside from some
cyanide copper and gold, each of which was a long time ago.

I used to part silver electrolytically, however, so I'm slightly familiar
with the process. One thing that's very desirable is to be able to
control voltage, which, in turn, controls amperage. I would think that it
would be desirable to have control from 0 to perhaps up as high as 30 volts,
depending on what's being plated and how. If your supplies have variable
output, I'd think they'd be ideal for plating, assuming you didn't have
need for greater voltage. I built my power supply for silver parting,
using a variac to control primary voltage.

Bound to be someone with plating experience that will set us both straight.

Harold

Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:

"Peter Fairbrother" wrote in message
...

Does anyone have experience with cyanide-free silver plating? How does it
compare?

Second question, does anyone know how to go about getting potassium

cyanide

in the UK? You used to be able to get it from a chemist's shop by signing

a

poisons register, but I don't know if that still holds - and chemists

don't

seem to sell that kind of thing any more.


--
Peter Fairbrother


Can't answer your question about cyanide free plating, but here in the
States the jewelry supply houses generally sell plating solutions. It's not
exactly an economical way to get where you're trying to go, but better than
never getting there. It's getting almost impossible to buy chemicals of
any kind here in the States.

You might consider talking to a plating house to see if they'd be willing to
sell you what little you may need, assuming it's not against regs in your
country. Dunno.

Harold


Along with Harold's idea - if it is small - how about a Silver Smith - Kitchen / Dinner
Silver repair places.

Martin

--
Martin Eastburn, Barbara Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

"Ignoramus2026" wrote in message
...
I would love to gold plate some perfectly inappropriate things, such
as a bumper or parts of the boat trailer. Always had this strange
desire.

Such inapproprate plated items are known as "bling".

Tim

--
"California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes."
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

On 1 Mar 2005 05:09:14 GMT, Ignoramus2026
wrote:

How big is having a good power supply as part of the entire plating
process. The reason for this question is that four 100 amp 10VDC power
supplies HP6260B found their way into my home, and I am not sure
whether I should keep one of them or sell all of them.

I would love to gold plate some perfectly inappropriate things, such
as a bumper or parts of the boat trailer. Always had this strange
desire.

Gold only need .003 to .007 amps per square inch. Someone doing
chrome might be interested in your supplies, because that takes lots
of current. It might also be useful in anodizing large pieces.

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 15:19:08 +0000, Peter Fairbrother
wrote:

Does anyone have experience with cyanide-free silver plating? How does it
compare?

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/silver.htm

I have no experience with this silver, but I've had excellent results
from Caswell zinc, nickel and copper.

Mike Caswell is a former Brit, may know of someone in the UK that
could help you.

Ignoramus12015 wrote:
On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 03:47:03 -0600, Tim Williams wrote:
"Ignoramus2026" wrote in message
...
I would love to gold plate some perfectly inappropriate things, such
as a bumper or parts of the boat trailer. Always had this strange
desire.

Such inapproprate plated items are known as "bling".

I found an amusing link:

http://www.goldplater.com/autodesc.htm

i

FYI I'm still waiting for a refund for an item they ruined back last
August. They are nice on the phone, but it took 3 months to find out they
runied it, and they don't return phone calls.

Todd Rich wrote:
(snip)
FYI I'm still waiting for a refund for an item they ruined back last
August. They are nice on the phone, but it took 3 months to find out they
runied it, and they don't return phone calls.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I got the promised check from them
in the mail this last Monday.