Gold Pen Plating Solution

£44.70£72.14 + VAT

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Our Gold Pen Plating Solution contains 12 grams of gold per litre. We have developed this solution in-house specifically for our pen plating equipment.

It is ideal for selective or ‘spot’ gold plating of jewellery and electrical repairs such as PCBs.

This solution plates a shade of gold with a slightly redder hue which is between the Swiss watch industry standard of 2N and 3N.

Gold concentration: 12 grams per litre

Please click on the Videos tab to see how you can use this solution to gold pen plate with our pen plating equipment.

HS Code: 3824 99 70

Selective plating with our Gold Pen Plating Solution and our Battery Plating Pen. All our pen plating solutions work equally well with both of our plating pens. For illustrated guides to using our plating pens and solutions, please click HERE to take you through to our Electroplating Manual. To work out how much gold solution you will need and how much it will cost to plate your item, please click HERE for our Plating Calculator.

 

 

 

 

Our Gold Pen and Brush Plating Kit provides you with all the accessories you need for gold pen and brush plating. This kit can also be used with our rhodium pen plating solution. For a link to these products, please see the ‘Related Products’ section below this tabbed panel.

Work out how much pen plating solution you’ll need with our online Plating Calculator – just click on the calculator icon on the right and select ‘Gold Pen Plating Solution’ from the drop-down menu.

Here’s a video showing how to use our EasyPlater power source to gold pen plate;

 

 

Back to Product Description
Features Benefits
Specifically designed for use with our Battery Plating Pen and normal plating pen
Can also be used with all other types of plating pen.
Quickly builds a hard wearing layer of 24 carat gold for decorative and functional applications. Good for selective gold plating of jewellery and PCBs
12g of gold per litre 25ml bottle contains 0.3g of gold
50ml bottle contains 0.6g of gold

How to use our Battery Powered Plating Pen

Our Battery Powered Plating Pen is powered by long-life batteries which means it has no need for a separate power source. This makes it completely portable and easy to set up and store. When the batteries run out you can easily replace them - no need to throw the plating pen away and buy another one.
It is ideal for plating small areas such as jewellery and electrical items for example PCBs and electrical connectors on plugs.
It can be used for brush plating as well as pen plating, with the addition of one of our short electrodes and short swabs.
This plating pen can be used with our Rhodium Pen Plating Solution, as well as most of our Coloured Metal Mixers such as rose and green gold.
Because of its relative ease of use and flexibility, it is an excellent choice for those getting started with small scale electroplating.

1. The complete Battery Pen Plating Kit

Each of our Battery Powered Pen Plating Kits include, along with the pen, Gold and Silver Pen Plating Solution, Nibs, MPU, a Beaker, a Mini Contact Probe and Conductor Strips.

 

2. Preparing the surface of your work for pen plating

The surface of your work must be free of tarnish, oxides, dirt, grease and to be water-break-free to ensure a good plating result. To achieve this, use a little of the MPU on a piece of tissue paper and rub the surface of your work until the metal is shiny and you can see the true colour of the metal clearly. Please click here to see a guide on achieving a water break free surface.

To the right you can view a video of the battery pen being used to gold brush plate on silver clay. The battery pen is multi-functional. With the addition of a short electrode and short swab it can also be used to brush plate. The Battery Powered Brush and Pen Plating Kit includes both pen and brush plating attachments for complete flexibility.

3. Preparing the pen

This is how your pen should look once it is set up. The work is held in one hand and the nib in the other end of the pen (dipped in the gold Pen Plating Solution) is gently stroked over a small area of the surface of your work. This completes the electrical circuit and gold plating takes place.

Note that the ring is not being directly held by the crocodile clip; the electrical circuit is made by the conductor strip (grasped by the crocodile clip) being held in contact with the work. This stops the steel teeth of the crocodile clip scratching the surface of your work.

The next few steps will take you through in detail how to set up your pen.

4. Preparing the plating solution

Measure out the amount of solution you need with your pipette and put it into your beaker. To work out how much plating solution you need, go to our Plating Calculator which you will find on each of our product pages. Just enter in the size of the area you want to plate and how thick you want your plated layer to be and the Calculator will tell you how much plating solution you will need and how long you’ll need to plate. You will then be able to work out in advance how much it will cost to plate your item.

Do not try to dip the pen directly into your bottle of solution as this will mean the next time you want to plate a different item, the solution in your bottle will have a lower concentration of gold and it will take longer for you to achieve a required thickness of gold plate. You will also find it impossible to use the Plating Calculator accurately and you won’t be able to estimate how much it cost to plate the item.

 

5. Inserting the nib into the anode

Insert a nib into the small hole in the electrode of the pen. Make sure the nib is fully pushed down into this hole and the bottom of the nib is in contact with the anode.

Dip the nib into the pen plating solution. Make sure the nib is fully soaked in the solution, otherwise there won’t be a complete electrical circuit when you come to plate and no plating will take place.

6. Dipping the nib into the pen plating solution

6. Pen plating

Now start pen plating by gently stroking the nib over a small area of your work with regular, circular movements. Keep dipping the nib in the plating solution at frequent intervals to replenish the gold in the nib. Remember to set your timer to the time the Plating Calculator gave you for plating to your required  thickness. You need to have plated the whole of the surface of your work in this time.

Once you have finished plating you can bring out the final lustre of your work and partly protect it from tarnish by applying our MetaSeal with some clean tissue.

7. Rhodium pen plating

As mentioned in the introduction, The Battery Powered Pen Plater can also be used with our Rhodium Pen Plating Solution. A slightly different approach to setting up the pen is required, because of the different composition of the Rhodium Pen Plating Solution and the Fibre Nibs that have to be used with it.

Draw out the required amount of solution from the bottle using a pipette and transfer it into the glass beaker that is supplied with our Batterery Powered Rhodium Pen Plating Kit. Using the tweezers supplied, place the fibre nib into the rhodium solution and let it soak for at least an hour so that the rhodium solution completely permeates into the fibre nib. After an hour, using your tweezers, place the fibre nib into the end of a pen. It is essential to use the tweezers as using gloved hands would cause contamination of the pen plating solution.

9. Functional applications

The Battery Powered Plating Pen is ideal for spot plating of electrical contacts on such items as PCBs and Photomultipliers. To connect the Mini Contact Probe to the black lead coming from the pen, just grip the wide end of the Probe with the crocodile clip.

10. Pen Maintenance

Please click HERE for a guide on how to maintain your battery powered plating pen.

How to use this calculator :

1. In the first box, enter the thickness that you want to plate to in microns (thousandths of a millimetre).

2. In the second box, enter the surface area of the article in square centimetres (cm2).

3. In the third box, enter the type of nib you are using.

4. You will notice that in the fourth box, the Calibration Factor is defaulted to 1. This can usually
be left as it is. You can read more about setting the calibration factor for more accurate results
in Note 1 below.

5. Click the ‘Calculate button’.

6. Read off the volt setting and the volume of solution that you will require.

7. Next is the coulomb reading that you will need to plate to. (See Note 2 below).

8. Amp-hours are also quoted below the coulomb reading and is an optional readout on the MicroPlater.
Amp-hour reading are available for coulomb readings above 10 coulombs.

9. The weight of gold plated and the percentage of gold remaining in the solution are displayed
in the final two boxes.

Notes

  1. When plating a number of identical items, the calculator can be calibrated to give more accurate results
    but applying a calibration factor. This is calculated by dividing the calculated thickness or weight by the actual thickness or weight.
    Note that if you’re using the weight method, you will require suitably accurate scales. Calibration Factor = calculated thickness or weight/actual thickness or weight.
    For example, the calculator reads that the weight of plate should be 0.032 grams when plated to 2.5 microns. The actual weight is measured at 0.035 grams.
    The Calibration Factor is: 0.032/0.035 = 0.91
  2. Be careful not to create a short circuit as this will cause inaccurate results or may invalidate them completely.

Operating Conditions and Deposit Data

Voltage Range 4.5 – 7.0 volts
Temperature 14 – 25 °C
Gold Concentration 12g/l
Electrode Plating Pen/Battery Plating Pen
Gold content in plate 99.9% (balance carbon)
Plating Rate at (3.5 volts, Platinum electrode) Approx. 0.5 micron per minute (spot)
Hardness 220 – 230 Hv
Density of deposit 19.3 g/cm3
Stress Medium stress
Special storage requirements Away from sunlight
Shelf life 1 – 2 years
Health and Safety classification Harmful
Special considerations Contains potassium cyanide (0.45%)
Transport (UN number) None: Not classified as dangerous for transport

Notes:

  • We strongly advise against the use of stainless steel anodes for most of our plating processes
  • Plating rates are calculated over a sample area which is permanently covered by swab.

General guide;

Certain small items, for example Swabs, Nibs and Plating Pens can be sent by normal post within the UK

  • The courier option for UK deliveries is FedEx
  • Free UK mainland delivery available on orders over £200
  • International orders usually 3-5 working days.

For all price quotations for deliveries, please add your items to our shopping cart. You will be able to see the shipping costs by clicking on the ‘Calculate shipping’ button in the cart and before checking out.

Please click on the link below to download the SDS for this product:

https://goldn.co.uk/msds/gold_pen_plating_solution.pdf