Re-silvered badges

[z_chromozone]

Afternoon all,

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/29095552

I thought that I woudl share with you the pics of my re-silvered badges, but I can't seem to get photobox to host the pics like I used to, so here is the album link if you are interested.

I spent hours on these, and countless lunch breaks and evenings perfecting the plating process. The end results looked so fantastic that I decided to keep the badges silver all over rather than spray the grooves in black like the originals. Perhaps in the future I will revert back.

Sorry about the poor photography, glare is a problem with silver and my camera is a bit crap.

Just ask if you want to know how, but be aware most of the chemicals are controlled.

Z

Edited by z_chromozone on Monday 15th September 12:40

Edited by z_chromozone on Monday 15th September 12:44

[hvdweerden]

Nice job !!

[z_chromozone]

Thanks for the embedded pictures.

Z

[Barkychoc]

Come on then - do tell how you did it!

[z_chromozone]

Barkychoc said:

Come on then - do tell how you did it!

Here you go. If anyone happens to have access to all the things I list and want a detailed break down of the plating solution let me know.



A brief outline of what I did and the chemicals that were used.



Attack with a wire brush to remove any flakes of silver / oxidised material. Then go over the whole badge with a rotary tool – wire brush, to get rid of the smaller pieces and polish the grooves a bit.

Flat the raised portions of the badges with fine emery paper.

Sonicate the badges in a sodium hydroxide bath to remove any dust and grease.


(The next bits were carried out in a fume hood)


Dip the parts in fresh aqua regia (2:1 concentrated hydrochloric acid : concentrated nitric acid), not for too long. This removes any tin from the surface of the brass.

Rinse in deionised water.

Suspend the badge by the screw thread using a crock-clip in to the plating solution. (A mixture of potassium cyanide, silver cyanide, potassium hydroxide and potassium carbonate).

Insert a stainless steel counter electrode of similar dimension to the part I was plating.

Connect the crock-clip to the +ve terminal of a rectified (DC power source), I used ca. 3V and about 0.2 to 0.5A depending on the size of the part. Connect the counter electrode to the negative and throw the switch. Actually, I reversed the poles for a few seconds at the start of the process to activate the surface but you probably don’t need to do this.

Leave the part for about 1 hour under load.

Polish the hard white silver from the surface using a variety of methods, starting with the wire brush and finishing with silver polish and a burnishing wheel.

Note that I should have masked the reverse of the badge to save my expensive silver solution (doh).

[Barkychoc]

They do look good though I can see why some of the ingredients might be a problem.
Frost do some electolytic plating kits but I have no idea how effective they are and they are not cheap.