Electroplating wooden core buttons

[4to5to6]

A 48 button set of wooden core gold plated Aeola buttons needs to be freshened up.

 

The plan is to electro clean, rinse, activate, rinse, electroplate a nickel diffusion barrier all by full immersion in heated baths and then brush plate on about 5 microns of cobalt hardened bright 24K gold with a wand.

 

The wooden cores are the problem. The metal caps are crimped on hard so can’t be removed.  The wood needs to be sealed somehow so I can do the rinses properly to avoid cross contamination of the baths.

 

Any ideas?

 

The ends, pinky slides, thumb strap screws and loops were gold plated today and originally I was going to leave it at this but decided the end bolts and buttons, little and long screw ends.  This amazing one of a kind piccolo deserves the love 😍 

 

Edited October 12 by 4to5to6

[Theo]

My imagination came up with this - don’t know if it would work.  Short length of silicone rubber tubing with a button pushed in each end with a tight fit leaving the metal cap end projecting.  Some of the metal cap would have to be covered to make a seal.  
 

???

[4to5to6]

Thanks Theo.  Good idea.  Silicone caps are available to cover bolt threads, etc. while electroplating.  I guess I could just tape them up tight but was wondering if there is a product like a thick plastic or maybe wax I could dip the wood in and easily peel off later.

[adrian brown]

How about shrink tubing, the type used for binding electrical wires together? It comes in many sizes and thicknesses and you might even add some sort of sealant under the tube before shrinking? It probably needs a few test pieces first to check for air/liquid tightness.

 

Adrian

 

 

[4to5to6]

Thanks Adrian.  I never thought of shrink tube.  I have some of the double wall type with a sticky inside glue layer.  You can pinch the open end closed and it should seal.  Awesome idea.  I’ll try it.

.

Edited October 13 by 4to5to6

[alex_holden]

12 hours ago, 4to5to6 said:

Thanks Theo.  Good idea.  Silicone caps are available to cover bolt threads, etc. while electroplating.  I guess I could just tape them up tight but was wondering if there is a product like a thick plastic or maybe wax I could dip the wood in and easily peel off later.

 

I would be worried about a wax contaminating things, or maybe even melting in the heated bath.

 

I am wondering how you will electrically connect to the caps. When I do them they aren't on cores, so I just bend some copper wire and insert it in the hole (rather fiddly and time-consuming to do a lot of them).

 

I imagine the glue-lined heat shrink might be a pain to remove from the cores afterwards.

[David Lay]

Would it be out of place in a restoration to fill the wooden components' pores with epoxy resin by the vacuum process to essentially make the wood impervious to the chemical baths?  Vacuum bag them, infuse them, and the wipe the outsides before the cure.  You would need to assure the metal was epoxy free prior to plating, of course.  (There is a wood flooring product infused with vinyl which could stand up to being flooded called Permagrain.)

[Stephen DOUGLASS]

'conductive paint' the wood ? I'm no expert, but just a thought.

https://www.stewmac.com/electronics/shielding/conductive-shielding-paint/?mtm_source=google&mtm_medium=cpc&mtm_campaign=|+GOO+|+SHOP+|+NBR+|+CatchallUSA&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3624BhBAEiwAkxgTOhbS7m53Skbkwo3Zpl9fS2UrzcrDECCpuq8Ex86NXQOlSmGctYUZ3hoC7SkQAvD_BwE

Edited October 13 by Stephen DOUGLASS

[4to5to6]

I would like to preserve the wood in it’s original condition as much as possible.

I could wrap and twist a piece of copper wire around the base of the cap for the electrical connection.

I think the dual wall adhesive lined shrink tube is the best idea so far.  I’ve had to peel this off of electrical connections many times and it sticks but always comes off clean.  I’ve never used it on wood but it should be fine.

 

Thanks for all the advice.

[alex_holden]

I'm interested to see how it turns out. I haven't tried gold plating, only nickel.

[Geoffrey Crabb]

This may be of interest for ideas.

 

https://www.goldn.co.uk/product/gold-pen-plating-kit/

 

Geoff