Plating Tiny Contacts

the leaf can probably be masked with wax or some other inert coating so that only the contact surface is plated, probably have to remove the leaf from the insulator though.

it used to be that those insulators were built from tubes and wafers of insulating material and could be dissassembled and reassembled.

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This email has not been checked by half-arsed antivirus software

Why would you need to remove it from the insulator? The contact is near the end of the spring, so if the spring is masked and the contact exposed, the end of the leaf can be immersed and plated.

This seems an odd request. The contacts shown seem to be gold plated already, but it may be brass contacts instead.

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Rick C 

Viewed the eclipse at Wintercrest Farms, 
on the centerline of totality since 1998

You can pretty easily plate nickel or gold onto a contact by masking the area you do not want plated with a thin lacquer coating. nail polish would be more than adequate. For only a few parts brush plating for gold and electroless nickel plating for the nickel. I have done both. They are both easy but electroless nickel has the advantage of being harder and more easily built up into a thicker deposit. Which would work for your next post where you wanted thicker plating for a connector that gets a lot of use. I get my electroless nickel plating supplies from Caswell. For small quantities of plating supplies and large quantities of good advice they are the best outfit I have found. See the link:

I'm just a happy customer and the only benefit I get from posting their info is a warm and fuzzy feeling from helping my fellow human beings. I have been doing business with them for years and will continue to do so. Eric

I'm still looking into the advantages of electroless Nickel vs. Gold,(and what is Boron Nitride), but apparently this is going to be a learning process.

I'm on my way.

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Boron nitride is a very hard and slick substance. Cubic boron nitride is used, among other things, for making grinding wheels for grinding hardened steels. It is harder than tungsten carbide. I think only diamond is harder than cubic boron nitride. If I was you I would stay away from the boron nitride additive because it is not necessary for your needs and adds complication to the process because the solution needs to be constantly agitated to keep the boron nitride evenly distributed in the plating and the agitation needs to be kept going until the plating solution has cooled. If left to settle while the plating solution is warm it will turn into a useless clump in the bottom of the bath. Eric

The 'cubic' is important, because BN also comes in hexagonal form, and hexagonal boron nitride is like graphite. Lock lubricant (black) is graphite powder, and lock lubricant (white) is boron nitride.

'CBN' or brand name 'Borazon' are names for cubic boron nitride.

That's why I called it cubic boron nitride instead of just boron nitride when describing what it is and what it is used for. Because I don't know how many different forms it comes in. So thanks for the clarification. Obviously CBN would make a lousy sliding surface. I have a small lathe that I am, for a hobby, slowly making much more rigid and accurate than when it was originally made. After I get the ways done I am gonna do the electroless nickel/boron nitride plating on them. That's the closest I can get at home to the hard chrome plating done by the factory on my machine tools. I could certainly buy a bench top lathe cheaper but it has been fun so far working on the old American iron and the challenge is worth it. Especially since I have the inspection tools and skills to use them to check my work. Hmm. This post really should be over in rcm. It really ran off topic for this newsgroup and I usually don't post off topic stuff. At least the post wasn't political and didn't insult anybody. Eric

I have a small lathe that I am, for a hobby, slowly making >much more rigid and accurate than when it was originally made. After I

the ways done I am gonna do the electroless nickel/boron >nitride plating on them. That's the closest I can get at home to the >hard chrome plating done by the factory on my machine tools.

That means somebody didn't get to enjoy putting someone else down or didn't have hurt feelings after reading this ... whichever is better. Anyway, sometimes its tough to even tell what's too political or religious.

I'm on various lathe and metalworking groups, and with a whole lot of unfinished projects, so I had no problem. :-)

BTW. I assume that the cheapest kit I should be getting from Caswell is the "Electroless Nickel Mini Kit (5 Pint)" since I'm a beginner, correct?

Thanks.

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.