# My Latest Effort



## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

At the risk of becoming repetitive, here's last night's effort, gave the dial a clean as well.

After..










..and before










Note: the lug had been previously repaired in copper!


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## Philz (Oct 20, 2009)

Wow that's amazing. Would you like to share how it is done?


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## seemore (Oct 25, 2007)

All you need now is to find a good cheap plating firm if such a thing exists and your laughing.


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## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

Philz said:


> Wow that's amazing. Would you like to share how it is done?


Quite simple really. The bulk of the work involves patient and careful removal of metal with Wet&Dry emery paper (grades 600&1000). I made 'lollipop' sticks from bamboo chopsticks, to which I stuck strips of emery paper with x2-sided sticky tape.

Finally polishing off with a Dremel using 2 grades of cutting polish. I have 5 different polishing compounds for various metals, but I only used the green and pink ones on these. I'm not a metal polishing expert, but these seem to work OK.

The emery strips don't last long, so a lot of time goes in changing them frequently. Even so it only took about 4 hours to do, mainly with the 'filing'. I did electro-strip the chrome plate first, which is bit of a hassle to set up. Next time I may skip this stage and just file it all off.

I've done 4 now and I may get around to gold plating one or two, but they look nice the way they are so I probably wont bother with that. Attention to the dials is definitely the next priority.


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## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

seemore said:


> All you need now is to find a good cheap plating firm if such a thing exists and your laughing.


Such a thing does not exist in the UK. There is the Canadian firm RePlateIt which charge CAN$35 per 5 microns of gold, which is quite reasonable. You'd need to send it by signed-for AirMail though. I've already had a dial sent to the U.S. 'lost in the post'. I don't think insurance covers you once a packet leaves these shores.

I did enquire a year ago about gold plating a small Zippo lighter with a 'cheap' firm in Dorset. He wanted Â£200, or Â£45 for silver. I worked it out that he'd use about 50p's worth of gold...that's when I decided to look into DIY gold plating and discovered that things have moved on considerably these days. It's quite cheap to do and with no nasty cyanide involved.

If you Google 'gold plating', there are several firms. I did try it on a stainless steel Seiko, with quite good results. However this metal happens to be the most difficult to gold plate, and I set myself an uphill task, especially with the bracelet, but I was quite pleased with the result..










The trick is to maximise the life of the gold solution, because it's the expensive part. Answer - use a gold anode. An old bit of gold jewelry or sovereign does nicely. In theory you'd only have to buy the special solution once and it should last for ever?


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## Tony1951 (Dec 23, 2011)

You are doing some impressive refurbishment here Roamerman. It just shows what can be done when people assume that they CAN fix stuff rather than just chucking it away.


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## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

Tony1951 said:


> You are doing some impressive refurbishment here Roamerman. It just shows what can be done when people assume that they CAN fix stuff rather than just chucking it away.


Here's, a couple I've just replated. The one on the left is a restoration I've been savouring, because I really like the dial and it's in a really slim case. Pity I broke the original hour hand. Doh... Anyway now I've replated it, it's going to my repairer for a good service.










The right-hand one used to look like this..










It's waiting for the return of it's restored dial from Internationaldialco. I decided to have it done in black and gold, can't wait to see it.


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## Tony1951 (Dec 23, 2011)

That is remarkable work you're doing there Roamerman. Astounding really what you have achieved with those horrible old cases. I'm going to look up how to do that gold plating. That penny dreadful watch I bought at the end of last week has a god awful case, though the Brac 51 pin lever movement is working well now. I stripped it completely again this morning, cleaned it properly this time, and put it back together just for a lark. It's my practice movement just for now.


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## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

Tony1951 said:


> I'm going to look up how to do that gold plating.


There's a good manual to download from Spa Plating. It's a bit too comprehensive, as it covers all plating methods. There are plenty of videos on the net also.

Basically it boils down to just two products to buy. For gold plating, you'll need a gold plating solution, and stuff called MetaPrep Ultra (MPU) to prepare the metal for plating. It's brilliant stuff and a breeze to use. There are alternative solutions to MPU (alkali cleaner and acid etching solution), but the're just too complicated. The other equipment they sell, you can improvise with things lying around the house, without having to spend a fortune on 'kits' and stuff, which are quite expensive.

You will need a simple mains transformer with adjustable output (Maplins), and some crocodile clips and red/black wire. Also, if you happen to have a scrap gold ring to use as the anode, you probably never have to buy gold solution more than once. As it's the single most costly item (Â£50 for 250ml) you don't want to be buying it very often! I reckon you can gold plate to you're hearts content for less than Â£100 total.

There are other tips I can give if you decide to go ahead with it.


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## Tony1951 (Dec 23, 2011)

That's great info. As it happens my wife gave me a handful of tatty old 9ct gold rings that have been cut off various folk in her family over several decades. There's about four or five of them as I recall. I was going to weigh them in with something else I am probably going to send to British Gold Refinery. If I do send off the stuff, I will retain a ring. I'm hoping 9ct gold is good enough. I have some small skill in electronics of an amateurish sort so I can make a variable voltage power supply from junk I already have. What range of voltage is required?


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## Haggis (Apr 20, 2009)

Well done.


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## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

Tony1951 said:


> That's great info. As it happens my wife gave me a handful of tatty old 9ct gold rings that have been cut off various folk in her family over several decades. There's about four or five of them as I recall. I was going to weigh them in with something else I am probably going to send to British Gold Refinery. If I do send off the stuff, I will retain a ring. I'm hoping 9ct gold is good enough. I have some small skill in electronics of an amateurish sort so I can make a variable voltage power supply from junk I already have. What range of voltage is required?


The best voltage for gold plating is ~4.5v, but it's not too critical. Up to 12v would be best for chrome stripping. If you're handy with electronics that's great, knock off ~Â£15 for the start-up cost! A 9ct ring will do OK.

BTW You might like to check out Tescos Gold Exchange. I don't know about the one you mentioned, but Tesco will give 80% of spot price for scrap gold - Google 'tesco gold' website


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## Phillionaire (Jan 23, 2010)

Great results mate. Shows what a bit of love and patience can achieve 

I've only read about replating in some old watch books. Sounds toxic to me. Can they PVD coat in gold do you know? I know nothing about the plating process in general. Thanks for the lesson!


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

nice work roamerman , dont forget to pm me your addy so i can send you this old roamer i spoke about in the other thread last week , ive been told caustic soda will strip chrome tho ive never tried it (might be worth a try as you always lose some profile when sanding)


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## Tony1951 (Dec 23, 2011)

I looked at some vids on youtube about gold plating and it seems you can use caustic soda for cleaning and hydrochloric acid for conditioning the metal. They are pretty cheap, so it is really only the gold solution that is critical and expensive. That's what it looks like from the vids anyhow - obviously I've never done it. I might have a variable voltage power supply in a junk box in the garage. Must go and empty out that tea chest full of old electronic rubbish. The results Roamerman got are amazing. You could turn absolute junk into something very saleable and looking good.


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## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

Phillionaire said:


> Great results mate. Shows what a bit of love and patience can achieve
> 
> I've only read about replating in some old watch books. Sounds toxic to me. Can they PVD coat in gold do you know? I know nothing about the plating process in general. Thanks for the lesson!


I think it's the 'old books' that talk about toxicity, but these days the cyanide content of the solution is only 0.5 to 1.5%. As long as you take the usual H&S precautions it's safe enough to use in a domestic situation - hence the sudden appearance of firms offering to convert your chrome taps to gold-plated in situ. BTW I discovered the plating solution only works one way, it doesn't work the other way round for stripping off the plating (unfortunately). Odd that.

PVD is strictly a factory process and totally different. It's probably a cheaper way to achieve the same effect?


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## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

Tony1951 said:


> 'I looked at some vids on youtube about gold plating and it seems you can use caustic soda for cleaning and hydrochloric acid for conditioning the metal. They are pretty cheap, so it is really only the gold solution that is critical and expensive...'


I would avoid using raw alkalis/acids as they are somewhat harsh, and can damage the base metal too. It's amazing how things happen fast when you pass an electric current through. The cheaper chrome strippers can do this as well (as I discovered!). H&S precautions apply with all these solutions.

Some companies way overcharge for gold solution. It's bit of a pain, and you have to watch the poastage charges. So shop around for the best deals. I buy gold solution from Gateros, it's 3x cheaper.


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## martinzx (Aug 29, 2010)

Great transformation well done 

Martin


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

Roamer Man said:


> Phillionaire said:
> 
> 
> > Great results mate. Shows what a bit of love and patience can achieve
> ...


interesting, ive learned something new there  , ive never done any plating but was under the impression that if you swapped the polarity round on a plating machine it would strip not plate (work in reverse) , meh looks like its a myth if you have tried alrdy :/


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## Roamer Man (May 25, 2011)

pugster said:


> Roamer Man said:
> 
> 
> > Phillionaire said:
> ...


Ordinarily plating does work in reverse with other metals, and probably with the gold traditional plating electrolytes. However, these new tech solutions must work in a different way.


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