Lapidary / Gemstone Community Forum

Custom Designed Jewelry => Silversmithing / Metalsmithing /Soldering Saftey => Topic started by: redrockrods on May 13, 2015, 09:51:53 am



Title: Gold Plating with Cyanide solution
Post by: redrockrods on May 13, 2015, 09:51:53 am
This Rio Grande video makes it look like a walk in the park. No chem vest, chem goggles, vent hood, respirator, chem gloves, etc and the pretty lady next to him is practically naked.

The MSDS for the cyanide based gold plating solution Rio puts in the Materials list for this video tells a different story.

Is this really something I can do on my kitchen table with with cheap cellophane gloves for making sandwiches and stylish impact glasses?

Rio video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRn07Cc9COs

Materials list:

http://www.riogrande.com/Content/pen-plating-VID-psd#tabs-Materials


Title: Re: Gold Plating with Cyanide solution
Post by: Talia on May 13, 2015, 02:27:41 pm
It's pen plating, not vat plating, which means very small amounts of the solution is being used. Not a huge inhalation or splash hazard by any means. Yes, you'd want to wear safety glasses and gloves, which they do show in the video. No, you shouldn't use your kitchen table, if only because it's bad practice to do something like this on a place where you eat and put your hands. The gloves they're wearing in the video would be sufficient, since the plating solution isn't something that's going to eat through them.

The biggest danger I see here is if you were to get some of the solution on your hands and then touch your eyes or mouth. That wouldn't be nearly enough to hit the LD-50 level, but it could certainly irritate the area you touched. You should also never smoke while using chemical solutions, either.