Hi Jon, I don't know the theory behind electroplating, but what I gather, used to happen was. They sand blasted the frame and then dipped it in mild acid to clean all the muck off. You connect a negative electrode to one end and there is a bath full of liquid gold charged positive they dip the frame in and the gold is bonded to the frame. Whether it was baked after I'm not so sure. The piano Company stopped using that method a little after I left, apparently the electroplating Company damaged a frame in transit and it was a customers piano whoops. Both Companies a year later went bankrupt with in weeks of each other. Which was fortunate for me, as I was able to buy a lot of the bankrupt stock. The piano stock that is. Regards, Barrie. In article <1.5.4.16.19970105195141.1fd77ac8@capecod.net>, Jon Page <jpage@capecod.net> writes >I can't imagine electroplating on a plate. It would have to be taken down to >the metal and sanded smooth. The only other method using electricity which I >know of is powder coating (and this requires baking at high temps.) >Is the ol' translation thing going on here? >Jon Page >Cape Cod. Mass >jpage@capecod.net >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >At 09:39 PM 1/5/97 +0000, you wrote: >>Hi Newton, >> >>First let me give you a little history of why we chose electroplate. >>The Company I used to work for had a separate polishing Department and >>enclosed spray booths. That Company closed, I went self-employed and a >>new Company was set up in a new building with the old Management. >> >>I worked for this Company for two days a week. Now they had an open >>plan workshop with one of the new type of extraction units for spray >>booths. Anyone who has worked near a spray polisher, knows no matter >>how good the extraction system is, the celleouse over spray settles >>everywhere. So you can imagine what happened when they sprayed the gold >>celleuose on to the frames. Little gold spettles appeared everywhere. >>Not much cop, if you have just spent a couple of hours matching up >>ivories and polishing them to find out the following day little gold >>spettles stuck to your ivories:-(( well upset. >> >>So we opt for the electroplating, this cost us a hundred and twenty >>pounds, this included the Company picking up and re-delivering the >>frames or plates as you call them. The finish is quite impressive and >>extremely hard wearing, I would difinitely reccommend it for very >>badly chipped and marked frames as the electroplating fills these up to >>a smooth shiny car show room finish. >> >>However, (there is always a however in life) we did leave the Agraphs in >>the first frame, that we did. They looked impressive but sadly the >>piano sounded crap. We put it down to the electroplating altering the >>dimentions of the bearing points within the agraph. So the next frame >>the electroplated without the Agraphs with instructions to the Company >>to ensure that the threads of the agraph holes should not be plated. >>How they did this I'm not so sure but they did comply. I personally >>prefer shiny brass agraphs myself, even now whenI re-string a piano, >>the last one just been before Christmas with agraphs. I removed them all >>clean them with a soft brass brush and gently buffed them up on the >>buffing wheel. >> >>At present, I personally am using aerosole cans with the colour "Ford >>Arizona Gold metalic", as all of the frames I tend to do come across >>these days are not too badly damaged, they only need freshening up, I >>put three coats on, cutting back on each coat and finally T-cutting to >>bring up that high gloss shine. >> >>Hope I haven't bored you to death. >> >>Kind regards, >> >>Barrie. >> >> >>In article <9701051545.ZM8700@niflheim.rutgers.edu>, Newton Hunt >><nhunt@rci.rutgers.edu> writes >>>Hey, Barry, >>> What would be wrong about gold plating agraffes? How much does gold >>>plaing a plate cost? Tell us more! >>> Newton >>> nhunt@rci.rutgers.edu >>> >> >> >> >> >> >>-- >> >>Barrie Heaton | Be Environmentally Friendly >>URL: http://www.airtime.co.uk/forte/piano.htm | To Your Neighbour >>The UK PIano Page | >>pgp key on request | HAVE YOUR PIANO TUNED >> >> >> > >Jon Page >Cape Cod. Mass >jpage@capecod.net >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > -- Barrie Heaton | Be Environmentally Friendly URL: http://www.airtime.co.uk/forte/piano.htm | To Your Neighbour The UK PIano Page | pgp key on request | HAVE YOUR PIANO TUNED
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