Well here's my belated report... I got my setup set up and my graphite painted shell only plated at the end where the wire was touching. I will admit that i did not leave it in very long once I noticed that it wasn't EF all over the surface simultaneously. I removed the shell and "restrung" it on the suspension wire and it again plated only in the very immediate areas where the wire was touching; 2nd time was touching at both ends. The good news is what was plating was bright penny colored and shiny.
My question is if I had left it in to continue the process would the plating have continued to spread from those initial points to eventually cover the entire shell or would the EF just get thicker at these two points? In an Interweave video I purchased, the process seemed to cover the whole piece rather quickly and then got thicker over time rather than grow from where the wire was connecting which in that case was a glued on jump ring. Am I making sense?
Another possibility is that I handled the shell too much after painting with the graphite. I have painted another shell wearing gloves to minimize the transfer of oils from my hands and I'll test this out tomorrow or Monday.
Last question, does anyone know HOW CONDUCTIVE the paint needs to be in OHMs? I purchased a multimeter to be sure my paint was conductive enough since I was making my own, but I'm not sure how to read it. When I touch the two pins to either side of the shell the needle flies over to the "good" section so it seems like the shell is conductive...
Thanks,
Sharon in Iowa
|