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Stainless vs. copper or bronze for best plateability?

March 28, 2015

Q. I am working on a project with a stainless element looking like a small water turbine, roughly 1.5" x 1.5" x 1.5"

We will cast stainless using loss wax / CNC / polish / plate
The product is not a part of any assembly, it's used as is after plating.

I need to plate it in
gold
silver
rose gold
white rhodium
black rhodium [adv: black rhodium plating solution on eBay or Amazon [affil links]

We can use any type of stainless for this project. Is there a specific stainless better than others for plating?

I assume we will plate everything over a nickel strike at least for gold, I'm not sure about other metals.

I can replace stainless with any other non-corroding metals if that simplifies the plating -- we already cast copper and bronze, so I can use those for plating instead of stainless if they are easier/cheaper to plate.

I would appreciate any input, typical plating thickness data, etc.

Thanks
Tom

Tom Leszczynski
- Cortlandt Manor, New York USA