I've been researching a little more about plating, and whether it's 
worth the time/effort/mess/expense of getting set up to do it myself.  
Here's what I think I know:

- In order to electroplate an entire mouthpiece, it has to be buffed 
down to raw brass - all of the existing plating has to be removed, 
including the inside of the mouthpiece.  This requires a buffing wheel 
and jeweler's rouge, and makes a big ol' mess.
- The mouthpiece needs to be super-clean before plating, requiring some 
specialized process, and probably some solvents.
- You can't plate gold onto brass without an intermediate layer of 
nickel or silver.  If you want gold, you have to plate twice.
- Having a mouthpiece plated would cost about $25-$35
- The Caswell nickel plating kits are around $200
- Caswell "Plug N' Plate" brush-on kits start at about $35-$40 and can 
be used to touch up just the areas of the mouthpiece on which plating 
has been removed
- Otto Frei has felt-tip electroplating "pens" ($150) which seem to be a 
more refined version of the Caswell Plug 'N Plate.

My shop is just a workbench in my office, so the polishing wheel and 
jeweler's rouge thing is not appealing, nor is the prospect of using 
lots of solvents.  If I can just use the Plug 'N Plate to silver (or 
nickel) plate the areas of the mouthpiece that need it, that might 
work.  Of course I can just continue to reface the mouthpieces and leave 
it at that!

Any opinions/info/advice?  Thanks in advance for your help.

Dan T

Hi Dan,
  If you get a facing working the way you want it,it is best to leave it alone .
                      Regards, Mikole Kaar

Dan Torosian <dtorosian@...> wrote:
          I've been researching a little more about plating, and whether it's 
worth the time/effort/mess/expense of getting set up to do it myself. 
Here's what I think I know:

- In order to electroplate an entire mouthpiece, it has to be buffed 
down to raw brass - all of the existing plating has to be removed, 
including the inside of the mouthpiece. This requires a buffing wheel 
and jeweler's rouge, and makes a big ol' mess.
- The mouthpiece needs to be super-clean before plating, requiring some 
specialized process, and probably some solvents.
- You can't plate gold onto brass without an intermediate layer of 
nickel or silver. If you want gold, you have to plate twice.
- Having a mouthpiece plated would cost about $25-$35
- The Caswell nickel plating kits are around $200
- Caswell "Plug N' Plate" brush-on kits start at about $35-$40 and can 
be used to touch up just the areas of the mouthpiece on which plating 
has been removed
- Otto Frei has felt-tip electroplating "pens" ($150) which seem to be a 
more refined version of the Caswell Plug 'N Plate.

My shop is just a workbench in my office, so the polishing wheel and 
jeweler's rouge thing is not appealing, nor is the prospect of using 
lots of solvents. If I can just use the Plug 'N Plate to silver (or 
nickel) plate the areas of the mouthpiece that need it, that might 
work. Of course I can just continue to reface the mouthpieces and leave 
it at that!

Any opinions/info/advice? Thanks in advance for your help.

Dan T


                         


Mikole E. Kaar 
http://www.myspace.com/mikolekaarmusic 
  http://www.youtube.com/mikolekaar
Jazz Woodwinds 
Saxes, Clarinets, Bassoon, Flute 
(760) 568-1038
  

       
---------------------------------
Looking for last minute shopping deals?  Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.

I've used the little Casswell Plug n Plate for silver and, recently, for 
gold.  Silver goes on great if you've got the right material.  Easy to build 
up a thick plating.  For an entire mouthpiece, it might be easier to use a 
bigger kit.  I haven't figured out the gold yet.  I tried 1.7 volts (used 
for silver), 3V, and 6V.  The gold plated very slowly and tended to leave a 
gold wash of varying thicknesses.  Also, it came right off with any 
polishing cloth.  Something's not right.  I clean with hydrogen peroxide 
followed by rubbing alcohol.

Instead of using the little stainless stylus that comes with the kit and 
wrapping a tiny piece of cloth around it to hold the solution, I switched to 
a small paint brush with a metal ferrel.  Dip it deep enough for the 
solution to saturate up to the ferrel and hook one allegator clip to it.  
Works much better.

After you plate a little area, the metal comes out of the solution.  Wipe 
the expended solution off.  Otherwise, when you recharge with new solution, 
it gets dilluted with the old.  I also touch the brush to a towel before 
redipping it to pull out the old solution.  Probably not 100% effective, but 
makes the process go faster.

I recently bought one of the "gold-plated" metal Chinese mps that was talked 
about on this site.  I'm not sure that "gold" means gold.  In fact, coming 
from China and given the recent news on food and drug contamination, I 
wonder if cadmium, lead, plutonium, etc. could be an alloy component of the 
"gold."  My idea was to silver plate the gold mp to match an old horn.  
Haven't gotten to that project yet.

I never was pleased with my results from brush plating.  OK for my use but
the plating was too thin to offer it to a client for a fee.  It took a long
time too.  Maybe I just needed to work more of the bugs out.

I got better results with turning the brush plating kit into a small dip
plating process.  I have some photos of it on my site.  I had turned the
album off to the public since I decided I do not want to offer it to
clients.  I just turned them back on for you guys to look at.  It still
takes me too much time but the I like the results better.  It is fun.

http://www.mojomouthpiecework.com/Photos/tabid/59/AlbumID/386-18/Default.aspx


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ 

I can do the plating for ya'll in silver, nickel and 24K gold.

HIS,
doc
www.JandJWoodwinds.com

-------------- Original message from Keith Bradbury <kwbradbury@...>: -------------- 

I never was pleased with my results from brush plating. OK for my use but
the plating was too thin to offer it to a client for a fee. It took a long
time too. Maybe I just needed to work more of the bugs out.

I got better results with turning the brush plating kit into a small dip
plating process. I have some photos of it on my site. I had turned the
album off to the public since I decided I do not want to offer it to
clients. I just turned them back on for you guys to look at. It still
takes me too much time but the I like the results better. It is fun.

http://www.mojomouthpiecework.com/Photos/tabid/59/AlbumID/386-18/Default.aspx

__________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ 


 

--- In MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com, docfraz@... wrote:
>
> I can do the plating for ya'll in silver, nickel and 24K gold.
> 
> HIS,
> doc
> www.JandJWoodwinds.com
> 

Could you post some rates?

Hi Group,

To members of this group, silver $25.00 + return shipping, 24K gold with a silver basecoat $45.00 + return shipping.

HIS,
Doc
www.JandJWoodwinds.com
1-866-996-6394

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Keith Bradbury 
  To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 6:49 AM
  Subject: [MouthpieceWork] Re:more on plating


  --- In MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com, docfraz@... wrote:
  >
  > I can do the plating for ya'll in silver, nickel and 24K gold.
  > 
  > HIS,
  > doc
  > www.JandJWoodwinds.com
  > 

  Could you post some rates?



   


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