DIY Pen Plating

Hello everyone!

I'm Michelle - the creative behind BanasLabs and I'm here to talk a little bit about how I do Pen Plating with precious metals without spending the ~$350 or so a commercial pen plating setup costs.

While they're very nice and I'm sure make things very easy to do, that's a pretty high barrier to entry! I'm going to show you how to do the same thing for just a couple bucks - if you don't already have the supplies around!

Here are the supplies you're going to need:

• Something to plate
• Pen Plating Solution (Pictured is Rio Grande's Silver Pen Plating Solution)
• Battery Holder
• AA Batteries
• Alligator Clip Leads
• Q-Tips
• Solvent for Cleaning (I'm using the Midas Acid Dip)
• Distilled Water for Cleaning
• PPE - read the SDS for your solvent and plating solution!

The solutions I'm using do not require masking in typical use in a well ventilated area, but be sure to read the SDS for what you're using!

The first step is to make sure the piece you are trying to plate on is as clean as possible. I'll be plating over this copper pendant - so I give it a quick dip in distilled water, into the acid dip, and another rinse in distilled water.

I'm using the acid dip because I already have it on hand, but you can give your piece a thorough cleaning with acetone or alcohol and it will work just as well. Just be sure to give it a good rinse in distilled water and dry it thoroughly before moving forward - and wear gloves while you work! You don't want your skin oils getting all over the piece.

Now we get set up and start to plate.

• Connect your alligator clip leads to the battery holder and put your two batteries in.
• Connect the negative lead to the piece and your positive lead to the q-tip
• Make sure the lead is connected well onto the cotton - you need the clip to be where the q-tip gets wet
• Dip your q-tip into the solution and brush it over the piece you're plating.

Most pen plating solutions operate between 1V and 4V - perfect for two AA batteries. I've plated successfully this way using both Rio's Silver and Cohler's 18k Gold. Double check your solution, of course!

You'll most likely need to do multiple coats to get a sufficient plate that will hold up to any sort of polishing and wear. Give it a few good coats and take your time!

Pen plating solutions are nasty - be sure to give your piece at least another rinse if not a total cleaning. I like to acid dip my pieces a second time.

Here you see the piece after cleaning and after some further work - I used a tiny diamond point bit to clean up the copper I didn't mean to plate in silver since I was a little messy and then used a patina solution that reacts with copper but not silver.

I hope you found this helpful - and check out the quick video I did of the process on tiktok as well!

Video Here!