Re: plating xmas balls

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: dave pierson <davep-at-quik-dot-com> 


>Xmas decorations now fill the shops. I have seen silver 8-inch diameter 
>globes, which are probably aluminum coated plastic. Discharges strip the 
>coating. Now if I could metal plate one it may make a nice topload for a 
>small coil. I know its possible to plate almost any metal on any other but 
>some processes require nasty chemicals. The only simple solution I could 
>think of was ammoniacal copper. It will deposit copper and will not 
>dissolve the aluminum. Anybody else got any suggestions involving readily 
>available chemicals and anode material. Chrome would be nice.


    What little I have read is that chrome is tricky to do.
    Requires HIGH currents and many/most chrome compounds are
    toxic/carcinogenic or both.  Yes, commercial shops do it...
    In General chrome goes on over an undercoat of something else,
    typically (ahemmm) copper.
    (Some metals do not plate well on some others, use of
    an intermediate is routine....)

    best
     dwp