DISCLAIMER: there are many dangerous chemicals involved in this process. Thus, DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME. (I always wanted to say this)
So, as my italian fellas already know I’ve bought all the stuff for electroplating. I wanna share with you guys.
The base is a SS Rolex Datejust, pics following:
First step, the SS must be CLEAN. We’re gonna put all what we have to treat in a galvanic cleaning solution: this have an incredibly high PH in order to be able to dissolve any dirt/residual. Everything must be soaked for at least 10 minutes.
Now that everything’s clean and shining, it needs to be sprayed with an activator.
Second step is to create the electrolyte.
Here we need potassium cyanide to dissolve the gold, and a 1% of cobalt to give a bit of hardness.
After pouring the solution in a glass container, we immerse the cathode in it.
The cathode for gold plating needs to be graphite.
Now we connect the anode to the piece to be plated, and we soak it in the solution. Hydrogen gets released as a reaction in the process.
The max thickness obtainable is 15 to 20 microns. In order to get a 15 micron plating, we need to soak the pieces for 6 hours.
Last step is a good cape cod cleaning, to give it the shine it deserves.
Using a different output of current, it’s possible to wrap the tip of the graphite cathode with a little microfiber cloth, soak it in the electrolyte and do precision plating only on certain spots.
Bare sels on TT reps drives you crazy?
And here we have the final result, color may vary based on the output current from yellow to rose gold.
So, at the end of the day, plating bare steel/replate any kind of weared out “gold” rep is very possible.
And with REAL GOLD, actually
I’d love to hear you guys opinion.
Finished case:
So, as my italian fellas already know I’ve bought all the stuff for electroplating. I wanna share with you guys.
The base is a SS Rolex Datejust, pics following:
First step, the SS must be CLEAN. We’re gonna put all what we have to treat in a galvanic cleaning solution: this have an incredibly high PH in order to be able to dissolve any dirt/residual. Everything must be soaked for at least 10 minutes.
Now that everything’s clean and shining, it needs to be sprayed with an activator.
Second step is to create the electrolyte.
Here we need potassium cyanide to dissolve the gold, and a 1% of cobalt to give a bit of hardness.
After pouring the solution in a glass container, we immerse the cathode in it.
The cathode for gold plating needs to be graphite.
Now we connect the anode to the piece to be plated, and we soak it in the solution. Hydrogen gets released as a reaction in the process.
The max thickness obtainable is 15 to 20 microns. In order to get a 15 micron plating, we need to soak the pieces for 6 hours.
Last step is a good cape cod cleaning, to give it the shine it deserves.
Using a different output of current, it’s possible to wrap the tip of the graphite cathode with a little microfiber cloth, soak it in the electrolyte and do precision plating only on certain spots.
Bare sels on TT reps drives you crazy?
And here we have the final result, color may vary based on the output current from yellow to rose gold.
So, at the end of the day, plating bare steel/replate any kind of weared out “gold” rep is very possible.
And with REAL GOLD, actually
I’d love to hear you guys opinion.
Finished case:
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