Electroplating

[yerigh]

Hi Everyone.
Does anyone have any experience with electroplating? I’m thinking of buying the equipment to replate some old cases but dont know anything about it. I’ve been researching online but it seems there is a lot of different opinions. Some say there is cyanide in the acid then others say its safe now. I’m so confused.
What do you guys think, would it be worth it to replate cases when restoring old watches?

[clam71]

I’ve been wondering about electroplating as well. I’ve seen a youtube vid where a faucette was gold plated
using only clemical pads. The result was amazing. I’ll let you know if I find anything worthwhile.

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Yerigh and Clam71,
I wish I had something of value to add here but my attempt at doing my own plating was a total failure. There appears to be much more to it than what would be expected. I used a company in Los Angeles that did beautiful work. I would often send them really messed up cases which they would return looking like new. Also for worn rolled gold cases they would add gold to the worn areas to build it back up (like bondo in an auto-body shop) and then finish everything off I guess by plating and buffing. They also did rodium, nickel as well as all types of gold plating. I don’t remember the name of the company as its been quite a few years since I used them. I’ll see if I can come up with the name somewhere and will post it here. This isn’t meant to discourage you from trying…just letting you know that I couldn’t seem to get the hang of it.
I’m sure there are others up here with much more electroplating experience who can explain the process in detail.

Bob

[pkamargo]

Hi Yerigh,
Some years ago I purchased an electroplating kit. It works well, but you need to be very meticulous and methodic following all the steps to get a good result.
Yes, there is some cyanide among the chemical products you use in the process. But if you take a minimum safety care – and I believe that anyone that has ability to repair clocks and watches is not a disastrous person – the process is safe and you’ll not get poisoned.
If you very occasionally will plate some part, maybe it worth send it to a professional service, as Bob do. But if you intend doing this very frequently maybe better you purchase a good plating kit and get the practice to use it. Tip: kits that work with an immersion tank will make much better plating than those that work with little pads like a pen.

[clam71]

Hope this helps:
In younger days, I’ve had a few Harley Davidson motorcycles. Plating parts (mostly chrome) is common
for bike shops to refer customers to. Don’t think they do much gold work though !
My question.. just what metal is “siveroid” ?

[Bob Tascione]

Hi John,
A Silveroid case is actually Nickel and contains no silver.
Never could figure out why they did this. Guess they thought it sounded better than Nickel…or Nickeloid!
Enjoy,
Bob

[clam71]

HaHa ! SILVER-oid ? There must be (I guess) some other metal in that mix.
A nickle coin looks the same under all lighting conditions but my watch’s case
looks “silvery” under some lighting (mostly daylight) and has a slight brassy color
indoors. Curious, eh ?

[Author]

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