Any electroplating experts in the house?

[1 nut in the water]

Well from my limited experience I have learned that coho will hit pink and steelies like the orange, red, blue, yellow so you could try painting half one of those colors. I have just readied 300+ spoons in anticipation of the upcoming season with a variety of colors and finishes...... Addiction is not always such a bad thing!

 

[bigboy70]

Amen brada man

 

[C_Run]

Well from my limited experience I have learned that coho will hit pink and steelies like the orange, red, blue, yellow so you could try painting half one of those colors. I have just readied 300+ spoons in anticipation of the upcoming season with a variety of colors and finishes...... Addiction is not always such a bad thing!

Feel free to add some pictures, I like this topic. Don't know when I'll try the plating again but intend to get some copper sulfate and try that method with less power from my charger. Will post on here whenever that happens. I've got a couple of ugly, I mean unique, spoons I've caught fish on already but can't find them right now for a picture. I think the fish might be a little less discerning than we think sometimes.

 

[1 nut in the water]

Something to do with this crappy weather! I would like to learn how to get a nice gold shine........

 

[bigboy70]

Are those all lil cleos?

 

[Mark1983]

Something to do with this crappy weather! I would like to learn how to get a nice gold shine........

Gold factory blades and spoons are coated with a thin layer of real 24k gold. You could try some gold and an electroplating rig. I would look for cheap jewelry at a pawn shop. Apparently silver is sometimes used because it is supposed to be much brighter than nickel or stainless steel. You may want to practice with something a little less expensive though.

 

[bigboy70]

Talk about an expensive hobby could be,worth it I'm debating screwing around with electroplating

 

[C_Run]

Gold factory blades and spoons are coated with a thin layer real 24k gold. You could try some gold and an electroplating rig. I would look for cheap jewelry at a pawn shop. Apparently silver is sometimes used because it is supposed to be much brighter than nickel or stainless steel. You may want to practice with something a little less expensive though.

I've got five gold plated spoons in my collection and have fished with one of them once so far. I lost one coho by the bank last time I was at Alsea with that one so I know they work. It's a great spoon , too, very heavy and good for faster water with a nice throbbing action. It'll be a shame once it gets lost like they all do.

 

[1 nut in the water]

Are those all lil cleos?

Spoon blanks from R & B

 

[bigboy70]

Nice, got them all looking good like a few of your paint job patterns different then any ive seen

 

[C_Run]

Here's an idea. How about posting some fish pics when some of these homemade spoons start producing and show the spoons?

 

[Tinker]

Uh, Chris, you aren't electoplating the spoons, you're just depositing copper granules on the surface - which is what we did in Chemistry class, too. True electroplating requires either a strong alkali (usually a cyanide solution) or a strong acid (usually a hydrofluoric acid solution) to react to the two materials and form a bond at the molecular level. Depostiing copper on the surface creates a thin, rough (granular) surface that will flake off easily. Sorry.

The copper sulfate technique is also a deposition method, although it gives the object a smoother surface than other techniques.

I hope it works well enough for your spoons, 'though. Please be careful with the copper sulfate solution, it's damned toxic.

 

[C_Run]

This is what I asked for, and electroplating expert. I did take some chemistry back in the 70's but, obviously, I am no Walter White. I should probably just stick to paint.

 

[Tinker]

I wouldn't give up on the idea until after I tried the copper sulfate solution, Chris. It's a better method to deposit copper than trying with an anode-diode alone. I don't have any experience using copper sulfate for plating on silver. Most often, copper is plated on nickel - since nickel is so much cheaper than silver.

If copper sulfate gives good results but still flakes off too easily, I'd try a polyurethane protective coat over the copper. The bad side is the copper won't tarnish but the good side is that you'd get to plate the spoons AND paint them!

Dude! Copper plating was something I had to work on once, long ago, and like all the other trash stuffed in my attic, occasionally something useful tumbles out. No need to compare me to a silly old bald man. Silly and old, I'll take. But I'm not bald!

 

[Jacks Tackle]

it looks to me like it could be a couple different problems, either reverse current (which is not likely) or the oxidation was not removed from the part. Could also be a lack of activation, or too high of voltage.

Typically Nickel is used as a base plate because it doesn't oxidise or tarnish like silver does. In cases where silver is used as a base to brighten a finish, it would usually be plated silver right before the next layer of plating is applied.

 

[C_Run]

it looks to me like it could be a couple different problems, either reverse current (which is not likely) or the oxidation was not removed from the part. Could also be a lack of activation, or too high of voltage.

Typically Nickel is used as a base plate because it doesn't oxidise or tarnish like silver does. In cases where silver is used as a base to brighten a finish, it would usually be plated silver right before the next layer of plating is applied.

Do you have an idea what the voltage should be and also what the solution ought to be? I am not sure what the metal is that the old spoons are made of but, once you start cutting the handles off a lot of old spoons, you can see that most are made of some shiny metal and a minority seem to be yellow like brass. The really pitted ones in my picture were brass and all the silver that was on them to begin with just turned into a nasty white paste and fell off. My fish finder battery, I suspect , is too strong of a current. The jar of solution became very hot during just a few minutes of my experiment. I haven't had time to go back and try again yet.

Also, is there a certain way to clean up or prepare the silver spoons for plating. I just kind of buffed them with steel wool until they looked pretty clean.