[MR] Plating and Electroforming
rmhowe
MMagnusM at bellsouth.net
Thu Dec 20 10:50:05 PST 2001
Tim Bray wrote (some months ago and I just now discovered it):
> Magnus,
> I'm trying to find information about plating and electroforming
> so we can experiment with that. Do you have any suggestions?
> There is one book that has been recommended - "Electroplating
> and Electroforming: A Guide for the Craftsman" by Newman & Newman.
> Are you familiar with it?
> Thanks, Colin - Albion Works www.albionworks.net
Speaking of: Electroplating and Electroforming by Lee Scott Newmann
and Jay Hartley Newman, 110 photographs, 20 color plates, 96 pages,
paperback, Crown Publishers, Inc., One Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
My particular issue is 1979, ISBN 0517530597.
Yes, I bought mine probaby in the mid 80's.
It's a photographically and informationally comparable book to
-say- Tim McCreight's Metal Casting or The Complete Metalsmith.
It shows you how to do most things. I like it a lot.
................
Electro-plating -may- be a strictly 19th Century phenomenon.
Then again it may not. Future archaeology may tell.
Mercury amalgam with silver or gold is more historical
and dangerous.
..............
Two current suppliers apart from direct jewelery supply houses:
http://www.caswellplating.com/
http://www.dalmarplating.com/
.............
Others books I have are:
Electroforming and Electroplating Simplified by Dale R. Miller,
59 pages, no ISBN, no date. Dalmar Manufacturing Co., -once-
Chicago Ridge, Illinois, but they moved to Florida a while back.
Still in business. http://www.dalmarplating.com/
Telephone: 1-941-275-6540; Fax 1-941-275-1731
Postal Address: 11759 S Cleveland Ave, Suite 28, Fort Myers, FL 33907
Email General Information: dalmar at peganet.com
Sales: dalmar at peganet.com
These people supply plating machines and supplies,
although the cyanide solutions are harder to get these days.
Silver plating is generally brighter with the cyanide solutions.
............
Grobet USA (A major jewelry supply manufacturer who bought out many
competitors and sells only through local dealers) has their
Plating Guide No. 62.01215 which is 24 pages paperback, usually
available through many jewelry supply houses as well.
Grobet USA, 750 Washington Avenue, Carlstadt, New Jersey 07072
Phone 201-939-6700 Fax 201-939-5067. This one is 24 pages and
lists their products as well. Mine is dated 1998.
One of my area's particular supplier for Grobet's Jewelry Supplies is:
Tired Ted’s Tools, Equipment, Supplies, Jewelry
Henry ‘Ted’ Sowell, P.O.Box 2344, Lancaster, SC 29721
(803) 273-3402; Fax (803) 273-3294
tiredted at infoave.net http://www.tiredted.com
Now, all you folks from overseas should bug the mess out of him
and thoroughly confuse the man. ;)
...........
Another larger book on plating I have is:
Electroplating, "a practical handbook of diagrams, formulas,
processes, and instructions that will show you how to set up
and operate a complete amateur electroplating workshop, prepared
by the staff of Popular Science Monthly", Popular Science Publishing
Company, Inc., New York, 1936, printed in the U.S.A. by Quinn and
Boden Co. Inc., Rahway, N.J., 260 pages. This thing is pretty
inclusive if somewhat dated.
...........
I also have Principles of Electroplating and Electroforming
(Electrotyping) by William Blum, Chemist, National Bureau of
Standards, and George B. Hogaboom, Consultant, New Britain, Conn.
Third Edition, Second Impression, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.,
New York, Toronto, London, 1949 (dates to 1924). xv + 455 pages.
...........
Try bibliofind.com for the older books. I don't sell them, nor
do they have ISBN numbers. ;) I usually get questions like that.
...........
If you don't have this WHOLE SET and you think you're a craftsman,
you probably should. There is nothing comparable these days:
Popular Mechanics Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia for Home Owner,
Craftsman and Hobbyist in Twelve Volumes, J.J. Little & Ives Co.,
Inc., New York, Copyright 1955. Back in the days before television
when America was still a highly resourceful country with diverse
skilled craftsmen and a manufacturing industry not on its way
overseas Popular Mechanics Magazine (and the once great
Popular Science Magazine) had wonderful articles on making absolutely
everything and how to do it's. This particular set is a compilation
of about thirty years worth of material including woodworking,
metalwork, machining, casting, welding, all kinds of crafts -
and especially how to make your own machinery and equipment and
run it. Make your own welder for example...
Part of Volume IV contains:
Tricks of Fixing Clocks; Electric Drill Bracket (early homemade
drill press); Electric Fan Repair; Electric Handsaw Technique;
Electric Iron Repair; Electric Motor and Directional Switch for
same; Motor mounts; Motor Rewinding, Servicing, How to make an
Electric Torch for brazing; Electric Alarms; A rotating contact;
An electrical tester to make; A test light to make; Electromagnet
designing and building; ELECTROPLATING METAL (showing how to put
together the equipment; ELECTROPLATING with GOLD and SILVER;
ELECTROPLATING NON-CONDUCTORS (like butterflies, shoes, fruit,
leaves, etc.); ELECTROPLATING WITHOUT CYANIDES; Enamel Inlays
baked on metals; Enamel for colorful beauty; End tables; Enlargers
for Photography; Etching Glass and Metal; Extension Cords; Faceplate
Lathe from Polishing Head; Faucets and Valves; and that is only
an example of the first third of one of the twelve books.
Other books in the set contain making and using casting
equipment, archery equipment and crossbow construction, finishing,
and hundreds of other subjects. Nothing like it has been published
since that I know of. There have been many Popular Mechanics and
Popular Science Encyclopedia sets since, but none compare at all.
............
The Amateur Craftsman's Encyclopedia of Things to Make is an old
favorite of mine. One book, - "a Complete Manual for the home-workshop
enthusiast with detailed drawings and instructions for making toys,
novelties, sporting equipment, models, furniture, house and garden
conveniences, radios, photographic accessories, and scientific
instruments - painting - workshop methods - metal working"
Prepared by the Editorial Staff of Popular Science Monthly, with
over 1400 Working Drawings, Diagrams, and Illustrations; Grosset
and Dunlap Publishers, New York, 1937. About a hundred separate
authors of the articles. Hardback, 342 pages.
This contains:
Plating Metal on Wood pages 300-301.
How to Type-Write Your Name Indelibly on Metal Tools 301.
It's Easy to Get the Right Current for Electroplating - "use a
storage battery, make a motor-generator set from two old auto
generators, construct an electrolytic rectifier for use with a
lamp blank or step-down transformer, or adopt other simple and
inexpensive methods". Pages 302-5. There are also articles on
etching metals.
...........
Theophilus discusses the expendable apprentice mercury amalgam
method in his Divers Arts (Dover). That method is basically for
dummies or those with more than adequate ventilation and good
health insurance. ISBN 0486237842 Circa 1122 AD.
...........
Herbert Maryon lightly covered Gold on Silver Gilding with Mercury
Amalgam in his wonderful Metalwork and Enamelling page
262. I have the 5th Edition (1971), Dover 22702-2,
xii + 335pp., 300+ figures, 36 photographs with notes,
bibliography, tables, notes.
...............
Peter James and Nick Thorpe in their book Ancient Inventions;
Ballantine Books, New York; 1994; ISBN 0345364767 Hardback;
675 pages, many illustrations. $29.95; make reference (but
no illustrations) to ancient batteries being found and
their possible uses for electoplating in Iraq. I have seen
these illustrated elsewhere. Basically look like a clay
handgrenade with internal metal electrodes, activated
presumably by fruit acids.
................
Oppi Untract has covered it in Metal Techniques for Craftsmen -
A Basic Manual on the Methods of Forming and Decorating
Metals - with 769 illustrations, Hardback, 509 pages,
ISBN 0385030274, my copy 22nd edition, copyright 1968/75.
and his:
Jewellery - Concepts and Technology; Doubleday and Co.,\
Garden City, New York, 1982/85, 3rd Edition, ISBN 0385041853;
Hardbound, 840 pages, numerous illustrations, covers it
fairly extensively.
(These two books are considered Bibles of Modern Metalsmithing
even though they contain traditional techniques. They are
quite expensive. My suggestion is you buy them from
Hamilton Bookseller (on the web) and save a bundle. Back
when I was checking prices for a friend, the pair were
$75 less there. http://WWW.HamiltonBook.Com/ )
...............
Tim McCreight lightly touches on acid plating Copper onto metal
in his Complete Metalsmith (a bible for modern metalsmithing -
this guy is almost always good in every book he writes). He writes
a few pages more on anodizing aluminum and electro-reactive coloring
of metals. His Practical Casting Book is also a bible for moderns.
..............
The Japanese Bakufu ('Tent Government' of the Tokugawa Shogunate)
had a sneaky method of depletion gilding of silver which they used
to enhance their gradually devaluing coinage. They used Plum Vinegar
to leech the copper off the surface and expose the silver or gold which
decreased in content percentage with each successive reign. It did
not fool anyone and of course the older coins were hoarded each time
and no one wanted to trade in the newer coinage. Many metalsmiths
died each time they did this by inhaling lead fumes while
refining the metals for recasting. I once read a document in which
a government official was commenting on the projected loss of same.
..............
Gilding on glass and wood is discussed rather cursorily in
Singer's History of Technology Volume II. Volume II is medieval.
Volume III is Renaissance to Industrial Revolution. III has a little.
..............
I looked at De Re Metallica by Agricola, but it wasn't obviously
covered in this large book. I suspect it is in Birringuccio's
Pyrotechnia, but that is one I do not own.
..............
Metal Working, A Book of Tools, Materials, and Processes for
the Handyman, by Paul N. Hasluck, with 2.206 illustrations and
working drawings, 760pp., 1907, David McKay, Publisher, 610, South
Washington Square, Philadelphia. Reprinted by Lindsay Publications,
P.O. Box 12, Bradley, Illinois 60915-0012, currently available.
ISBN 1559181265, Hardback. http://www.lindsaybks.com/
Lindsay Publications, Inc., P.O.Box 538 Bradley, IL 60915-0538
(fax 815) 935-5447, (815) 935-5353 phone; lindsay at lindsaybks.com
Other chapters include:
Foundry Work; Smith's Work; Surfacing Metals; Polishing Metals -
machines and processes; Annealing, Hardening, and Tempering;
Drilling and Boring; Taps, Screw-plates, and Dies; Soldering,
Brazing and Riveting; Forging Iron and Steel; Working Sheet Metal;
Repouss'e Work; Oriental Decorative Brasswork; Finishing, Lacquering
and Colouring Brass; Lathes and Lathework; Spinning Metals on the
Lathe: Tools for Measuring and Testing Metalwork; Building a
4 1/2" Center Lathe; Gold and Silver Working; Making a Skeleton
Clock; Building a Small Horizontal Steam Engine; Boiler Making;
Building a Petrol Motor; Making Water Motors; ELECTOPLATING 697-711;
Wire Working; Electic Bell Making; Making a Microscope and Telescope;
Index. The Gold and Silver chapter includes ancient jewelry including
Etruscan and Celtic. Very comprehensive for it's time.
.............
Master Magnus Malleus, OL, Atlantia (SCA), GDH, © 2001 R.M. Howe
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