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Electroforming on Wax?
Q. Hi all,
This is Rajesh from India. I am Hobbyist of wax art. Recently I read some article on hollow article prepared by using electroforming.
My idea is to create a wax art, paint it with electro-conductive material & electroform it using silver. I have searched a lot for electro-conductive paint for wax, but unable to locate any.
Please suggest me with the best option to do this (cheaper is preferred).
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Hobbyist - Pune, Maharashtra, India
May 27, 2010
A. Pranam Rajesh
Try graphite powder [on
eBay or
Amazon] or bronze powder [on
eBay or
Amazon]. You may prepare your own conductive paint -- simply mix bronze powder with very diluted nitro lacquer [on
eBay or
Amazon].
There are some very good infos on D-I-Y electroforming, some good and download free books on electroforming can be downloaded from internet archive website (even booklet by M.H.Jacoby -inventor of process/in german -- but try google translator, it is free. Hope it helps and good luck!
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
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A. Hi Rajesh,
A lot of people are doing electroforming on wax. Silver conductive ink
[on
eBay or
Amazon] is the best option and is available. Try looking for it.
Regards
T.K. Mohan
plating process supplier - Mumbai, India
A. Silver Electroforming can be done on wax in a Silver Potassium Cyanide Electroplating bath with higher metal concentration.
If the wax piece is finished properly than the result will be good ... Use a fine copper powder
[on
eBay or
Amazon] mixed with NC thinner [on
eBay or
Amazon] and NC lacquer [on
eBay or
Amazon] and spray it on the wax, this will make the wax conductive ... rest of the electroplating process. If you want to make it hollow than you will have to deposit higher thickness, drain out the wax, and after that do the surface finishing. We are doing silver electroforming very effectively using the above process ....
- Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India
August 30, 2010
A. Brass powder or gold powder or graphite powder; 3 powder : 2 lacquer : 16 thiner
Silver electroforming: 1-silver p cyanide, 2-potassium cyanide, 3-potassium carbonate, 4-potassium hydroxide, 5-antimony potassium tartrate, 6-selenious acid.
Good luck.
Majed Janineh- Beith Lehem, Palestine
September 20, 2011
Plating of 3-D Printed Plastic Parts?
Q. SIR, HOW CAN I USE VIPER RESIN PART FOR ELECTROPLATING OF GOLD OR SILVER WITH 3 MM THICKNESS . PLEASE DESCRIBE BRIEFLY.
THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE.
- MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, India
October 12, 2016
3-D Printers
on
eBay
or
Amazon
(affil links)
"How to Make Money with 3-D Printing"
by Jeffrey Ito
on
AbeBooks
or
eBay
or
Amazon
(affil links)
A. Hi Prateek. By 'use Viper Resin', I assume you mean how can you create a part by 3-D printing using this resin, and then gold or silver plate it?
Yes, you 3-D print the part, then you can metallize it with conductive ink or conductive paint or electroless plating technologies, and then you can do the electroplating. But 3 MM is very very heavy plating, about 100X typical plating thicknesses.
Obviously, each of these three steps are the subject of many threads here if you search the site, as well as books; but if you spend a few paragraphs telling us what you have experience in, and what you don't, we can start narrowing in on the things that may be most helpful to you. Good luck!
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Q. Thank you Sir For Your Reply,
Sir, You Are Right about 'VIPER 3D', My thought is to build a round ring with solid elliptical shape, having diamond groove and prong for diamond placement. Then I would coat it with a thickness of 0.8 mm which is necessary for diamond holding. Finally, I would drill at bottom to remove the resin via heating. It would help me create a hollow ring which would look a huge one but with less weight.
- MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, India
A. Hi again. I'm not familiar with the Viper resin, but it is possible that it can be melted or otherwise dissolved away. So, if you have the 3-D printing mastered, your project doesn't sound much different than the electroforming of hollow gold jewelry, which is traditionally done on wax. Good luck
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Is it necessary to remove wax from hollow electroformed jewelry?
Q. Please tell me if I have to empty my electroformed gold pendant of wax for sale and how can I do it?
Best regards,
- shiraz iran
February 3, 2017
A. It is not necessary to remove the wax, but doing so will make the electroformed product much lighter! You will, of course, use a low melting point wax and have designed the electroform to have an escape hole for it, so all you do is carefully heat the electroform to a suitable temperature and the wax will flow out. Alternatively, you can use a suitable solvent, but that will depend on the type of wax used.
Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
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