There was an article in Ham Radio magazine describing a variation of
this method of silver plating. It was in the mid 1980's. The method
involves attaching the negative lead of the DC current source to the
piece to be plated. The positive side is connected to a carbon rod
with a sponge wrapped around it. The rod/sponge is dipped into the
used fixer, then slowly wiped along the piece to be plated, where it
deposits silver. It takes patience and a bit of practice but I
silver plated the tank circuit in a 1 kW 2 meter amplifier and got a
small (but worthwhile for what I was doing) improvement in
efficiency and power output.
Paul N1BUG
George Henry wrote:
>
>
> It's actually used photographic FIXER that contains a lot of "free
> silver"...
> the fixer removes any unexposed silver in the film emulsion. For many
> years I
> recovered the silver from my fixer by adding powdered zinc, which will
> dissolve
> more easily in the solution than silver will, causing the silver to
> precipitate
> out. Collected over 28 ounces over the years.
>
> His method of silver plating probably involved connecting the negative
> lead of a
> low-voltage source to the "can", filling it with used fixer, and then
> suspending
> a zinc electrode in the solution, connected to the positive lead. The
> zinc goes
> into solution, and the silver, instead of precipitating out, plates out
> onto the
> can. If the fixer is sufficiently loaded with silver ("exhausted", in
> photo-speak), it will plate out on copper without any current source,
> but adding
> the batteries will speed things up & result in a thicker layer of silver.
>
> George, KA3HSW
>
> >
> >From: cecil ferguson <ke4...@bellsouth.net
> <mailto:ke4nna%40bellsouth.net>>
> >To: Repeater Builder <Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com>>
> >Sent: Mon, July 12, 2010 7:08:36 AM
> >Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Silver Plating - Cheap & Easy
> >
> >
> >A couple of years back, in an exchange with an engineer from Texas
> Instrument
> >Germany, who is working in Freising, Barvaria, I was told of a cheap
> and easy
> >silver plating procedure he uses on his duplexers. He uses Photographic
> >Developer (which has a really high level of 'free silver') and a
> simple one or
> >two cell power source = 1.5 to 3.0 volts. (While not discussed, I
> would suggest
> >
> >that 'used fluid' may be better than new and may be obtained very
> cheaply).
> >This should be an ideal solution for the DIYers in our group.
> >
> >If interested, why not contact Hans-Juergan Schott directly at <
> h-scho...@ti.
> >com >?
> >
> >This should be an interesting topic for our Tecnical Info page as well.
> >
> >Hans-Juergan, if you are monitoring, pls forward this procedure to us
> as I think
> >
> >many of us would be interested. Tnx.
> >
> >
> >73 to all,
> >
> >Cecil E (Gene) Ferguson. W4FWG
>
>
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