Anybody done any custom plating?

[Cagey]

I'm curious if anyone has done any custom plating of parts. For instance, not everything you might want to use is available in gold.

There are a number of places you can send things to where they'll plate them for you, and they're usually pretty reasonable. But, I'm wondering about what would happen to the mechanics of some things once they're plated. In particular, I'd like to gold plate an LSR nut. But, I'm worried about plating the whole thing, as the bearings might not roll properly afterward. So, I guess I could take the thing apart, but I'm not sure that's such a great idea. Has anybody done this, or know where I could buy a gold LSR nut?

 

[mayfly]

I'm curious if anyone has done any custom plating of parts. For instance, not everything you might want to use is available in gold.

There are a number of places you can send things to where they'll plate them for you, and they're usually pretty reasonable. But, I'm wondering about what would happen to the mechanics of some things once they're plated. In particular, I'd like to gold plate an LSR nut. But, I'm worried about plating the whole thing, as the bearings might not roll properly afterward. So, I guess I could take the thing apart, but I'm not sure that's such a great idea. Has anybody done this, or know where I could buy a gold LSR nut?

I've had plating done, for car, amp, and motorcycle parts.

It DEFINITELY adds thickness.  Also, for a machined part like a roller nut, it's likely that the bearings will end up attached to the base if you try to plate the entire thing.  If you take it apart, it might not roll well either because of the added thickness to the part.  Finally, as the bearings turn, the gold will wear away, changing the height of the strings and possibly causing a problem.

 

[-CB-]

You can do your own plating - Caswell has been selling quality plating kits for a long time.

Some problems with plating -

There are compatibility issues.  That is, if the part is "chrome" vs "nickel" vs "polished"... depending on where you want to go with the plating, it may not work without stripping first. 

Another thing is the base metal itself.  Many guitar parts are made from zinc castings.  Not terribly strong and also, they can disintegrate with age and reaction to other chemicals.  Look at what perspiration does to zinc casting used in bridges and tailpieces... can literally rot them away.  So.. some guitar parts cannot be easily stripped and replated.

Caswell has a decent customer support program, and can help you with the particulars.

I knew a guy who used to gold plate steel gun parts, and he'd copper plate (easy) then nickel then gold, just like they do with chrome.  The reason for this is the adhesion of copper to steel is very good, its just about an electroless process.  Copper "wants" to attach to the steel.  Chrome can be made to plate steel directly, but... only in certain ways and not in traditional processes.  The nickel provides a base for the chrome and also provides an barrier to keep the copper away from the chrome.  Chrome sticks to nickel well.  Again... Caswell will provide all the details.

Another problem is bridging - where small openings will flash over and must be dealt with.  Plating will often grow from sharp corners or jump over grooves.  If the part is made to be chromed, care is taken in its design and manufacture to include radii and other anti bridging schemes.

You can put gold onto things extremely thin.  Most gold plating is in fact very very thin.  Thats one advantage of gold that partly offsets the price being so high - you just dont use that much gold in plating. 

Call up Caswell... they got the whole scoop.

 

[-CB-]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjFM1ynsNpc

There ya go

 

[Cagey]

I've done some more searching around, and the magic elixir from HSN probably won't work because it needs specific metals for the bond to take place and zinc, aluminum or stainless aren't on the list. I can't find what the LSR nut is made of, but the body looks cast - that is, it doesn't look like it's machined from bar stock or billet. Thing is, about the only metals that die cast well are zinc and aluminum, and I don't think they'd make a nut out of those metals because they're not very hard and won't take much abuse. So, I don't know what the hell the thing's made of. It is touted as being chromed, though, which would provide a surface hardening because of the chromium, so maybe it is die cast.

There must be some problem with gold plating it, though, or I'd think they'd offer it that way. Surely anyone who has all gold hardware on their fiddle would want a gold nut as well, if they were using a metal nut.

 

[-CB-]

I'd not be surprised if the LSR is cast zinc with the adjusters being steel or brass and the balls being steel.

I know ya gotta watch out for 'em when you change strings, as the balls can go rolling off into East Outer-Slobovia

 

[Cagey]

I know ya gotta watch out for 'em when you change strings, as the balls can go rolling off into East Outer-Slobovia

I'd heard that before, too, but it was back a number of years ago when they first came out with them. The design has since been changed so the bearing keepers actually keep the bearings in. You'd have to go after the thing with a tool and malice aforethought to get the bearings out now.

 

[-CB-]

Thats good to know!

 

[-CB-]

Ya know... what I do when I cant get matching hardware is try to contrast it.  That is, maybe black, going with gold hardware and black knobs or something... ?

 

[Cagey]

Ya know... what I do when I cant get matching hardware is try to contrast it.  That is, maybe black, going with gold hardware and black knobs or something... ?

That's a good idea, and since I intend to use an ebony 'board, a graphite Tusq nut would blend right in there and look good. But, I'm going to have a vibrato bridge on the thing and I have more faith in the LSR letting the strings move than I do any other kind of nut material. Maybe I'm not giving the Tusq enough credit?

 

[-CB-]

It costs more... but, you can get black and gold hardware, and mix-n-match the pieces.

For instnace, black stopbar with gold studs, or vice versa? 

Black bridge with gold saddles, or vice versa? 

We'd do that all the time when building up yuppy .45's for folks that would never shoot 'em.