How/what was plating process for vinyl records?

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.

Considering 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.

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,