Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find gold plating supplies and services

Gold plating is commonly used for jewelry, electronics, silverware, plumbing fixtures, guns, automobile accessories and personal mementos. Appropriate gold plating machines run from small, hobby-type equipment to larger, industrial models. An appropriate gold plating system and necessary supplies are readily available at most plating supply sources, and there are a wide variety of gold plating services available for your business needs, too.

I recommend: Becker Industries has a good line of plating machines; for more product information, click on the gold plating machine that interests you. Warren's Gold Mine carries a line of gold plating supplies, including chemicals, safety equipment and a training tape. Metal Art Specialties does electroplating in a variety of gold finishes for jewelry, engineering products and specialty applications.

Search for chrome plating equipment and services

Chrome plating is widely used in the automobile industry, but it's also useful for many engineering projects and for the treatment of industrial equipment and guns. Machines and supplies for chrome plating are readily available, as are companies that offer industrial or decorative chrome plating services.

I recommend: UsedPlatingEquipment.com offers pre-owned chrome plating equipment. Peacock Laboratories sells chemicals for achieving chrome plating. Chromplate provides decorative chrome plating services on many types of plastic and metal. Industrial Plating Company provides hard chrome plating suitable for machine parts and similar products.

Discover nickel plating kits and services

Nickel plating is often used in engineering and industrial equipment, but also for household items such as door knobs, fixtures and kitchen utensils. Another common use for nickel is as a coating in circuit board manufacturing. Kits for nickel plating are easy to find, as are professional nickel plating companies.

I recommend: Caswell offers a nickel plating kit that's designed to teach you how to achieve the process and provides everything you need to do so. Electrochemical Products provides nickel plating chemicals. Professional Plating offers nickel plating for high performance parts. Electro-Coatings offers nickel plating services for industrial needs.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Before entrusting your job to any plating service provider, be sure to see examples of their work. If you're going to send your job by mail, photographs of past work will do. Otherwise, examine samples in person.