some quick'n dirty tests with the gold plating kits:
the handheld tool is garbage, not worth the money at least to plate tube pins with gold. the problem is that you need a way to connect the pin(s) to ground of the 3 volt power supply but that is not shown in a picture you could see before buying.
so i had to use the small tub of the additional kit.
nevertheless also here is the problem how to connect the pins of the tube to ground.
some ideas were needed!
to connect all pins to ground i used a small metal sieve punching holes into it similar to the foam rubber disk:
now you can connect all pins at once to ground by pressing the tube pins through the holes and connecting ground to the sieve and then you can put the sieve with tube into the small tub with gold electrolyte:
so now the pins of the tube are plated with gold,
but
- you have to polish them with the metal polish paste part of the kit after plating them
- some optimization is needed, the current and correct voltage are very important
- cleaning before is important
- for a real good result you need a power supply with adjustable voltage AND adjustable current
both the gold electrolyte and the metal polish paste smell like a dead rat in the corner!
ok, so some additional tests and a new tool i have an idea for are needed (and maybe a gas mask)!
![size]](http://files.head-fi.org/images/smilies/basshead.gif[size=13px][/size])
