Method for Gold Plating ABS?

[trimmedup]

Is there a method used if you wish to gold plate a 3D printed object that was printed in ABS? I have a few prints that would make excellent charms and rings.

[bshadown]

Not gold, but theres a company that gives ABS a cooper-nickel cover using electrodeposition or something cant remember the name, but if you want a gold cover i sugest an standart ring made of metal and cover with gold.

[curious aardvark]

you can electroplate plastic parts.

First you need to coat the part in a conductive liquid. Once that's done you can use any electroplating solution to plate it.

Talked to a guy about it at last years TCT show. Presumably someone, somewhere sells the initial solution to make the part conductive and you can then use conventional electroplating methods.
ie: tank with solution, couple of electrodes on the model and an electric current.

He was making parst from nylon and then plating them with steel. reckoned they were damn near as strong as full on metal parts.

[JSenior]

This is worth a look: http://www.3ddc.eu/ourservices.php

I don't know what the prices are but the process looks impressive.

[bshadown]

It take back what i said, get a gold coating, they look amazing

[Papa Steve]

What is shown in the 3DDC link is pretty

At a recent 3D printer meet up one of the presenters demonstrated what can be done with metal paints over PLA and ABS.
He had aerosol cans of various metals. Tin, aluminum, bronze etc.
A couple models he polished to a high luster others had a patina finish. One model had gold leaf applied by hand.

An acetone vapor procedure was applied to smooth the ABS. He had some magic to smooth the PLA too ... I can't recall what that was ...

Just wanted to point out a nice finish can be done at home.

[Feign]

He had some magic to smooth the PLA too ... I can't recall what that was ...

Probably Ethyl Acetate

There's all kinds of discussion on it on the RepRap forums... Basically any kind of acetone will kind of melt PLA over time, but EA seems to be the magic formula for making it smooth. (a shame that the acetone in vinegar wasn't enough to do the smoothing, though I might have to try it out as it sounds like it had interesting effects.)

[awerby]

Smoothing is important, since plating doesn't fill the surface flaws - instead, it makes them glaringly obvious. As Curious Aardvark started to explain, the part then needs to be coated with a conductive layer, usually a lacquer filled with silver or graphite particles. Then, if it's going to be plated with gold, it needs an underplating with nickel first. The gold goes on last, just a few molecules thick. It's best done by professional plating companies, but you can do it yourself with one of these kits: http://www.caswellplating.com/plug-n...FQGRaQodInIAJw

Andrew Werby
Juxtamorph.com