What! Math! Oh Lord… I’m sunk. Not necessarily so. We can get through this just hang on.

In order to plate successfully you must first calculate the total surface area of the part you are going to plate. Once you have this write it down so as you progress and move to other baths you have the exact SSI. (square inches) ready and don’t have to refigure.

The reason for the calculations is that different baths take different amount of current to start the plating action.

For instance.

Your nickel bath takes .1 to .15 amps per square inch to cause the nickel to plate. But your chrome bath will take at least 1 full amp and sometimes upward to 5 amps per square inch to plate ( smaller items).

Now, you can just throw the part in and crank up the amperage until it plates. You will not be happy with the results though, unless you like the lunar surface look. So you must calculate.

The following diagrams are used to help you figure out how to calculate your square inches of surface. Once the total surface area is known then multiply it by the amount of amperage you need for your particular bath and plate away! It’s not really that hard once you get the hang of it. Get a cheap calculator. It makes life a whole lot easier! Dot stress out if you cant get it exactly right to the decimal. There is room for adjustment in amps and temp. As you progress you will be able to look at the smaller parts and pretty much know how much amperage to use.

LINKS TO CALCULATING AND CONVERSION TOOLS

http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/weight  

http://www.internetwoodworking.com/w5/equivs.html

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001657.html

members.cftnet.com/kc4vbt/web-docs/Converter/capacity.html

Important!!!!!.....If plating both sides multiply the answer by 2