With this kit you’ll be able to accurately plate any thickness of gold you require from thin, decorative layers of 0.1-0.2 microns all the way up to thick layers of gold Vermeil standard (2.5 microns). It includes 1 Litre ofour Gold Plating Solution for tank plating which contains 4 grams of pure gold per litre. It’s formulated specifically for tank plating and gives consistently bright results.
Flexibility; you can scale the volume of your kit up or down by swapping in different volumes of our plating beakers. You can also switch easily between our different plating solutions, as the Spa Plating tank plating process is very similar across all of our tanks plating solutions.
To see these flexible options, please scroll down the the ‘Related Products’ section below.
MF Rectifier Mrk 2
To use this power source for tank plating, please follow the instructions for this laid out in our guide in our electroplating manual – click HERE for the link.
Hot Plate Stirrer
| Features |
Benefits |
| Fully variable heat control |
Allows you to keep your gold plating solution at just the right temperature for optimum performance |
| Solution is agitated with a magnetic stirrer at the bottom of the beaker during plating. |
Mechanical agitation is a far safer alternative to air agitation which can produce fine mists of plating solution. Air agitation also increases the oxidative breakdown of the plating solution. Mechanical agitation keeps the gold plating solution moving over the surface of the item being plated, again maximising the efficiency of the plating process. |
Glass tanks x 2
| Features |
Benefits |
Made of heat and
chemical resistant
glass |
Items being plated can be seen throughout plating process. |
Thermometer
attached to outside
wall of tanks |
Allows you to conveniently monitor the temperature of your plating solution. |
Options of 250ml,
500ml and 1litre
sizes available |
You can plate a variety of different sized objects individually or in small batches |
Mesh Electrodes x 2
| Features |
Benefits |
Made from MMO
(mixed metal oxides) |
- Cheaper alternative to platinized titanium
- Unlike others on the market made of stainless steel, will not contaminate gold plating solution
|
Tank Plating Stand
| Features |
Benefits |
Made from stainless
steel |
Non-corrodible and fully conductive |
Height of clamp fully
adjustable |
Can adjust height to accommodate small 250ml tanks up to and including 5 litre tanks |
Pivot system for
holding work piece |
Allows you to finely adjust the position of your work in the plating solution |
Electrical connection
to work via negative
lead, plugged into
small socket at
base of stand |
Avoids having to dangle work on negative lead, directly into tank |
Our Gold Tank Plating Kit, when used with our on-line Gold Tank Plating Calculator, means you’re now in complete control of the gold plating process.
Plating to vermeil standard requires a layer of gold of at least 2.5 microns on sterling silver and our kit will help you plate to these kinds of specific and substantial thicknesses of gold.
You’ll not only be confident that the layer of gold you’ve plated is of a uniform thickness, you’ll also know how much gold is left in your remaining plating solution and therefore how long it will take to plate your next item to the same or a different specification.
Our kit also offers you the flexibility of plating larger objects in our 500ml, 1 and 2 litre capacity Plating Beakers.
2. Setting up the gold plating beaker
Once the plating beaker is filled with gold solution and is on the hot plate stirrer, grip one of the red leads to its mesh electrode.
Turn on the hot plate stirrer and place the magnetic stirrer bar in the gold plating solution. Set the hot plate stirrer bar speed to 1 and the heat setting to between 0 and 1. You are aiming to heat the gold plating solution to 25 to 30 degrees centigrade, so you will need to adjust these settings as you go, to maintain a constant temperature. Check the temperature of the solution with the Temperature Probe.
3. Setting up the cleaner beaker
The other red lead should grip on to the mesh electrode in the cleaner beaker.
4. Connecting the Plating Stand
The black lead should be plugged in to the base of the Plating Stand.
5. Connecting to the power source
The other ends of the red and black leads should be plugged in to the MF Rectifier.
6. Calculating plating and powered cleaning times
You’ll need to work out the surface area you’re plating and decide the thickness of plate you require.
In this case we’ll be plating gold onto a sterling silver ring to vermeil standard. This means we’ll be plating to a gold thickness of 2.5 microns. The surface area of the example ring worked out at 8 square centimetres.
Go to the Gold Tank Plating Calculator on the Gold Tank Plating Kit shop page and enter in the required data. Press the ‘Calculate’ button and take a note of the results.
Based on the above data, the amp setting on the MF Rectifier for gold plating will be 0.08 for just over 22.09 minutes and for the powered cleaning stage it’ll be 3 times the gold amps at 0.8 Set your Plating Timer for the gold plating time.
7. Preparing the surface of the ring for plating with MPU
First clean the ring with MPU using a soft tissue. Then make a small jig to hold the ring, using the Gold Plated Jigging Wire and the Wire Cutters.
8. Preparing the surface of the ring for plating with the Ultrasonic Cleaner
Hang the ring on its wire jig in the Ultrasonic Cleaner and turn it on – a couple of minutes should be enough.
8. 1st and 2nd of the 6 rinse stages
Briefly dip the ring into the first and second of the six rinse stages. The water you use can be ordinary tap water for 5 out of 6 of the rinse stages; we recommend for the last 6th stage that you use deionised
9. Powered cleaning 0.8 amps
The Gold Tank Plating Calculator has told us that the amp setting for the gold plating stage should be 0.08 amps. For the Cleaner stage, the amps on the MF Rectifier should now be set to 0.8
Leave the ring in the Cleaner for 2-5 minutes. Once it’s done, take the ring out of the Cleaner and pass it through rinse three and four of the six rinse stages.
10. Gold tank plating
Adjust the rectifier so that the amp reading is 0.08
Grip the wire jig (with the ring hanging from it) in the crocodile clip that’s fixed to the arm of the plating stand.
Make sure the Plating Timer is set to the right time (in this case 14.04 minutes) and start the timer as soon as you lower the ring into the plating solution.
11. Final rinse stages
After the plating has finished, take the ring out of the plating solution and pass it through the two remaining rinses.
We recommend that the last rinse should be deionised water.
12. Finishing with MetaSeal
The gold plated ring can now be finished with MetaSeal to bring out the lustre of the plate and help seal its surface.
14. Maintaining your tank plating solution
To maintan the plating solution in best working order, cover the beaker with cling film between uses. This will prevent dust and fine hairs getting in and reducing the eficiency of the solution. If you’re not going to be using the solution for more than three consequetive days it is best to re-bottle it.
At some point it’s also a good idea to filter your solution. Guidance on this can be found on the filter kit product page HERE.
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 £100
- 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.
Plating Durability
‘Hard’ vs ‘Soft’ gold plating
Q
Hello, can you advise me re durability of plating types. I have a battery pen plater and it’s great for detail on jewellery and I apply to vermeil standard but another jeweller said pen plater plating is not as durable/is softer than tank plating. Can you confirm if this is the case so I know which direction to go with my new kit.
A
Thank you for your enquiry.
The type of plating solutions we sell are hardened but then saying that, they are still quite soft when compared to other metals like copper and brass.
For any given thickness, pen plating is just as durable as tank-plated gold. The important thing is the thickness. Thick deposits can be built up with both pen and brush plating, but it may take a lot longer depending on the surface area and shape of the article you are plating.
It is possible, using our online calculators, to estimate how long it would take to pen plate Vermeil gold (2.5 microns). Once you have established the surface area of your work piece and knowing the thickness (2.5 microns) it is possible to input these into the calculator and get an estimate of time plated.
I have just done this for a ring of surface area 8 square centimetres and the time to pen plate it to Vermeil standard is 95 minutes (just over one and a half hours), while the time to tank plating it is 22 minutes.
So if you’re going for Vermeil-standard work, it may be the best idea to look at out tank/beaker plating kits.
Kind regards
Richard Palmer BSc(Chem.) MRSC
Director
