Contact plating

[francomakou91]

My poldiac silver plating came off

I found a guy who will replate it for me with rhodium.

The brass contact is bare..

How should I plate the contacts? Replate with silver then rhodium or just replate silver?

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[Thrasher]

well if you can get silver that is best, the deal with rhodium is it is slightly less conductive then silver but is very very tough and does not oxidize..in my roller the connections and springs are rhodium over silver.
you have to decide if it is worth it, but in any case i would not get the rhodium without the silver under it.

 

[dam718]

How much is he going to charge to plate them in Rhodium? My understanding is that the Poldiac is being revised, and the follow on version will have Rhodium contacts.

In the mean time... If he is charging anything more than $25, have you considered just getting a new set of contacts straight from MMV?

POLDIAC | The "Poldiac" | mmvapors.com

Complete contact set for 18 Euros... $24.37 by current exchange rates...

 

[francomakou91]

He wants 30 dollars. So best to do silver under.

Should I only plate the stop of the screws? I don't want to mess up the threads

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[Richard75]

He wants 30 dollars. So best to do silver under.

Should I only plate the stop of the screws? I don't want to mess up the threads

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Plating won't mess up the threads... you're really only adding some microns of each metal.

The only thing I can recommend (unless your guy is going to do it for you) is to polish the brass up right before it's plated. Not only will the plating stick better, but it should help with conductivity.

 

[DillPickles666]

Contact your local jeweler for scrap silver, I've had some success with silver plating for under 10 bucks

 

[francomakou91]

Contact your local jeweler for scrap silver, I've had some success with silver plating for under 10 bucks

How? With a regular torch? Does silver melt easily

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[Richard75]

How? With a regular torch? Does silver melt easily

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Don't do that... then you'll actually mess up your center pin. The silver has to be electroplated onto the brass (and the rhodium electroplated onto the silver). While this can be done at home if you have the right ingredients and equipment, it's probably more complicated than it's worth at the moment. Just give it to your guy, it'll be 30 bucks well spent.

EDIT: There is a very simple technique for silver plating that works for refinishing a telescope mirror, but I guess it might work with brass... only problem is it requires silver nitrate, which is pretty expensive. If anyone wants the method, let me know and I'll PM it to you.

 

[Thrasher]

you can get cheap plating kits on amazon now a days but if you dont want to dirk with it let someone else do it

 

[francomakou91]

Thanks guys

Should I do that though? Plate rhodium?

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