Gold Plating Lures

[RayburnGuy]

Does anyone know of a kit that will gold plate plastic baits that won't break the bank? Not looking for gold foil. Looking for a way to actually plate the lure.

 

thanks guys,

Ben

[RayburnGuy]

There are a couple ways I found to make the plating stick to plastic. One is indeed a metal based paint and the other is first putting it into an acid bath to etch it and then putting it into a palladium/ chromium solution. Either method is then followed by the plating process.

 

Whether or not they make a kit that doesn't cost hundreds of dollars is something I haven't found an answer for yet.

 

Ben

[dlaery]

I would look Casewell plating website.

[RayburnGuy]

Thanks dlaery. They have a ton of electroplating equipment on their site. Not sure I'll be able to justify the prices to do a few baits though. Not unless I started plating plastic blanks for sale.

 

thanks again for the info,

Ben

[BobP]

Ok, first, take an ounce of gold.......

 

 

After you finish them, ship them to Dubai for sale.

 

[Don-Art]

I have a old book. I know that they had a method of plating wood. I will take a look later and report back.

[joetheplumber]

If they're just your personal lures you could just send em to Dutch Fork custom lures. They can chrome any color you want. Not sure what process they use but they guarantee it not to fade away or peel off like most factory lures do. I talked with them on the phone a while back and they seemed like nice enough folks. I think there chrome lure prices are $9 each with a discount for multiple lures in the same color. If you only want a hand full it would definitely be cheaper than buying a whole chrome plating setup.

[RayburnGuy]

Thanks Joe. That would definitely be cheaper than buying a plating kit.

 

Ben

[woodieb8]

try a vacuum plater in yourregion. theres folks that plate plastics.

years back we did rapala bodies for custom painting. they were sweet

[RayburnGuy]

Thanks Woodie. I'll check into that.

 

Ben

[Don-Art]

I found the information in the old book.It specifically dealt with copper plating wood. It required coating the wood with graphite,a vat of acid and copper sulfate solution along with a power supply.

Doesn't sound like something a hobbiest would want to deal with in terms of safety and cost.Not exactly sure of the effect that you want to achieve. But you could consider a gold leafing kit or possibly the Rub-N-Buff products. I have heard of people using clear lacquer to seal it with some success.

Don

[RayburnGuy]

Thanks Don. I'll check that out as well.

 

Ben

[mark poulson]

Ben,

Looks like you stepped in it, bigtime! 

By the time you get through with all the plating, you'll have boat anchors, and be broke!  Hahaha

[Kdog]

Try ebay... no, i am not affiliated with them.

 

This Kit is for nickle but I have been told that Gold is available.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270983914256?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

[jwfflipper]

If they're just your personal lures you could just send em to Dutch Fork custom lures. They can chrome any color you want. Not sure what process they use but they guarantee it not to fade away or peel off like most factory lures do. I talked with them on the phone a while back and they seemed like nice enough folks. I think there chrome lure prices are $9 each with a discount for multiple lures in the same color. If you only want a hand full it would definitely be cheaper than buying a whole chrome plating setup.

you sure he is still in business? last time i tried to pull up his website it said it wasn't found

[RayburnGuy]

you sure he is still in business? last time i tried to pull up his website it said it wasn't found

 

They must still be in business Jeff. I emailed them and they said they could gold plate my baits for $10 each plus the cost of shipping. That's a little more than I can justify since I'd be looking at around $50 or so just to plate 4 baits. The kits I've found for plating ran around $300 so that's out as well. Looks like I'll be sticking to foiling baits for now.

 

I do thank everyone for their input.

 

Ben

[RayburnGuy]

I've put this one on the back burner Bob. Thanks for the link though. Interesting reading.

 

Ben

[mark poulson]

That was an interesting read, but, man, I'd hate to fish with the guys on that site.  They'd probably get in a fight over the PH of the water, or it's clarity!

[rgriffith1974]

Pretty interesting post.  I work for a company that does chrome plating on plastic for the automotive industry.

Plating on plastic is a very in depth process for plating parts for the automotive industry. 

The process we use is as follows ( major steps only)

 

1) Injection Molding: the parts we mold for chrome plating are molded out of plate-able grade ABS or PC/ABS resin.

This plastic contains butadiene in it, when molded properly the butadiene is evenly distributed along the surface of the part.

2) The parts are then placed on a plating rack / bar ( our bars would probably hold around 1000 crankbaits, maybe more)

3) Etching process - the parts are placed in a acid bath that removes the butadiene and creates a pourous surface on the part, this is a critical step, if you over etch or under etch you will not get a good adhesion

4) Palladium is placed on the part, well actually a tin & palladium, the tin is utilized to keep the palladium floating in the bath .  The palladium & tin stick to the part, and then the tin is removed from the part

5) An electroless nickel is then placed on the part,

6) After the electroless nickel, copper is added.  Parts come out and look like a brand new penny

7) A layer of semi-bright nickel is added

A layer of Bright nickel is added

9) A layer of micro-porous or micro crack nickel is added

10) Then the chrome layer is added.  The chrome layer is extremely thin 0.25 microns which is 0.00001 inches.

 

I would find it extremely surprising if this is the process used for crank baits. 

1) The plating process has a pretty significant weight variation, due to high current an low current areas on a bar, there are ways around this, but you pay for it dearly.

2) The scrap rate for this type of plating is generally 8 - 10%.  That gets factored into the chrome plating cost.

3) The finish on crankbaits is too perfect, I look at these out of habit, just like I look at the chrome wheels and chrome trim on vehicles in the parking lot at wal-mart.  I guess its because that's what I do for a living   LOL...  but anyhow generally there's no imperfections on these, that's not common for this process, there's always something you can find.

4) Cost....  This process isn't cheap, if they do use this process they either have there own plating line, or they are getting a low quality plating from china or Korea.   For our parts that are similar to the size of a crankbait we generally get around $2 a piece to mold and then plate the part.

[clemmy]

Ben, how about using real gold leaf when you are foiling?

Or, on a lighter note, I found this or ya:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2471446/Loo-paper-22-carat-GOLD-goes-sale-825k.html

Edited September 20, 2014 by clemmy

[RayburnGuy]

Clemmy I've tried the imitation gold leaf a few times and never was able to get the hang of applying it. For one thing it's so thin that if you even breathe on it the stuff it starts flapping and moving around. The reason I tried the imitation gold leaf was the price of the real gold leaf was a bit expensive for me to waste a bunch of it while learning how to apply it. I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube and those guys make it look sooooooooooo easy, but I must have too many thumbs.

 

Not sure what you were looking for when you found the link you posted, but I'm beginning to wonder about you.  To paraphrase Field of Dreams "If you build it someone will squat on it".

 

Ben

[wchilton]

Take a look at the "Plug and Plate" kits offered by Caswell plating.  They start under $40 and are very simple to use.  Gold is probably their most expensive but still not too bad at $68.  Since you'd obviously use a top coat for lures you could plate the gold pretty thin.  You'd have to check with them about actual coverage but I'd think you could get a dozen or more baits plated with the kit.