Hello,
I'm looking for advice on silver plating something and was wondering if anyone had any companies they could recommend. Also, I've never done plating before so any tips or guidance would be appreciated.
My plan is to use formica - my favourite material :0) and was wondering; does anyone know if plastics can be plated and if so if they have ever plated something other than metals and how did it turn out.
Thanks muchly in advance of your excellent knowledge!
Molly
Hi Molly
I did a bit of electroforming this year and the technician at the School of Jewellery in Birmingham suggested these 2 companies to me. I've not used either of them yet, but both offer plating servicies.
Hope this is useful!
Jenny
http://www.bjsco.com/services.php
http://www.foxsilver.net/our-work/technologies/
Hi molly,
I recently had a piece electroformed for a customer. The company I used was CIR electroplating - www.cirelectroplating.co.uk. I had contacted bjsco aswell and found cir was much cheaper. It took about a week and he prepped the piece, copper electroformed it and then silver plated it. I was very pleased with the result. Hope this helps! Xx
Hi Molly,
As far as i'm aware, some plastics can be plated, as i think you can create a piece in plastic using 3D printing which can be metal plated - not 100% though- it's still fairly new to me too!
As for plating, i found a great place in B'ham if that's any good? I had my Gold Plating done there & pretty sure he does silver, if you want me to dig out the details for you?
I've done electroforming at Uni which i would imagine is a similar process to plating; i made pods and such from all sorts of mixed materials - hessian sacks, wire, string, paper mache, plaster etc & these were all coated with a thin laquer before being dipped in the bath for copper electroforming.
Not sure how much help that was, will let you know if anything else springs to mind!
Steffi :)