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How/what was plating process for vinyl records?




Q. Hello to everyone...

I'm Jesus Arze from Mexico city. I'm interested on learn / know how the old plating process for music records was done in the past. Sure you remember days before C.D. age. When cool music was recorded on 12" vinyl LP's.

Plating was just a part of the process, I really would like to replicate this technical issue. My honest intention is to equip a home based workshop to produce my own old fashioned 12" singles, with my own music. I've been DJ-ing around 20 years -- I love the old music culture in "plastic" ;)

May you help me please?

Anyway, I want to say, you have a great community here, It's really cool to meet a site where people use to share knowledge, Great persons here.

Much respect. Thanks.

Jesus Arze
Techno Music - Distrito Federal, Mexico.
2006



A. Thanks for your kind words, Jesus. I can tell you how it's done, but it may require equipment that is too expensive for you, and knowledge that you may have to acquire, and chemicals that will be out of place in a home :-(

After the wax lacquer "master" was cut, it was sprayed with a two-part silvering solution (silver nitrate plus a reducing agent, the same idea as what makes mirrors reflective -- you can research this as the "brashear process"). [These days CD's, which are manufactured somewhat similarly to vinyl records, are metallized in a PVD (physical vapor deposition) machine rather than with the two-part silvering solution].

Then the silvered master was electroplated very thickly (maybe 3/16") from a sulfamate nickel plating solution. Then this newly electroformed nickel "father" was separated from the lacquer. At this point it couldI> be chrome plated to improve the wear capability to stand up better and separate from the vinyl better, and be used as a "stamper" for the vinyl discs. For your low volume use, you would probably use the "father" as the "stamper".

However, when you consider the large volumes of records produced, they were not usually stamped directly from that single electroformed "father" as I've described. Instead that "father" would be passivated with sodium dichromate and become the form against which a few "reverse" electroforms ("mothers") were made. These reverse electroforms would then be passivated and used as forms against which dozens of final "stampers" ("daughters") could be electroplated.

thumbs up signConsidering that we call threads and fittings and grooves of all sorts "male" vs. "female", it seems to me that we should call the final stampers "sons" rather than "daughters" since they are the same 'sex' as the "father" not the "mother"; but to my limited understanding of the industry, they are called "daughters" none the less :-)

There is a lot of detail and technology to each of these steps; for example the silver spraying is done on a "spin table" while the solutions are sprayed out of a two-headed spray gun; the mothers, fathers and daughters are often electroplated/electroformed on a revolving spindle rather than just hanging in a plating tank, etc. -- but hopefully this is enough info for you to see the overall picture. Good luck.

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2006




Are brass pump fittings useable on Nickel Sulfamate solution?

Q. Hello, my name is Lee. I'm building a DIY nickel electroforming tank that I wish to experiment making vinyl record stampers. I have all I need to get started more or less.

I just bought a better quality 12v pump to pull bath fluid out and through a couple of filters then piped back in and onto the face of the spinning substrate. The new pump has 3/8" female ports and I'm having trouble finding plastic fittings that small.

My question is: Can brass plumbing fittings be used? I have a feeling the answer is no due to the copper content in brass, can anyone offer some sage advice to a keen online student of the dark art of electroforming?

Thank you in advance

Lee

Lee Clark
- Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
January 21, 2016


A. Hi Lee. Because it's "common knowledge" that nickel plating solution will dissolve brass, I've never actually seen brass used in a nickel plating solution, so I can't swear that it's true. But I'll take a hundred to one bet that your fittings would quickly corrode and dissolve away, not merely contaminate the plating solution :-)

Regards,

pic of Ted Mooney
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
January 2016




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