Hi AVB,
Whoa !!!! it's just not that simple. In the plating procedure you have to have a particular solution which differs from process to process and none of those are cheap. The cleaning of metals is relatively affordable compared to the actual plating of them.
Basically Nickel Solution is totally different to Cyanide Copper as is Acid Copper or Cobalt Gold for that matter, etc etc etc. Man we used to love standing around the Nickel Bath on a cold morning, a sweet smell indeed along with great warmth on a winters morning. As such we never really hung around the Copper or Cadmium Bath for obvious reasons.
This is the reason why plating shops are mostly all long gone out of business as the EPA has closed many and the costs involved are huge. We just couldn't through the waste products down the drain in this country like the would do overseas. I witnessed a shop that went belly up go under the hammer and no one would dare even raise a hand and place a $5.00 bid to remove all the plating baths for scrap as they would've had to have reached into their own pockets and fork out a cool $100,000.00 for the removal and treatment of all the plating solutions before any of the baths could've been moved.
You just can't start up a plating line at home as you'll be hung drawn and quartered in a flash.
BTW I remember the console plating line they installed at Regency Park Trade School (TAFE) around 1979, now that one would've been a great little domestic line. That sadly went to scrap years ago when there were no more apprentices being employed in this country.
Out of around 25 to 30 Plating Shops we had here in Adelaide, I think we now only have 3, maybe 4 tops, employing around 10 blokes all up.
How Sad
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