Silver plating a mouthpiece

[arpthark]

I have a few mouthpieces that have some exposed brass that I would like to touch up. Most of this is on the shank, but one has a bit of brass exposed on the rim. It is smooth with no nicks or anything.

I'd rather not send them to a jeweler's if I didn't have to and thought it might be nice to just have supplies on hand for silver plating if it's not too complicated or prohibitively expensive.

Any experience with this?

[bloke]

As long as you're completely satisfied with the surface everywhere...

shine it up really nice, get it really clean (hot water & detergent), wipe it off one last time, wrap it in soft tissue or T-shirt material, and send it to Anderson.

They will plate over the entire mouthpiece...no "touch-ups".

If it needs any real buffing...never mind.

[hrender]

I've had a few different places do replating. Anderson's did an excellent job at a very good price. They also dressed some scratches on the rim and shank to the point that I don't notice them at all.

[arpthark]

Hi all,

Thanks, I have Anderson's in my back pocket if this becomes a pressing need, but I was wondering about the viability of a small silver electroplating setup at home, for touch-ups and things like that. Looking at something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Caswell-Plug-Pl ... B009XEVCTM

I'm guessing most people just send to Anderson's instead of messing around with this.

edit: although there is a review of someone touching up a trombone mouthpiece with this. Doesn't look too bad but who knows how long the silver will last. Hmm.

[bloke]

A couple of times over the years, there have been small plating rigs around here. Keeping everything maintained and absolutely clean is a serious challenge. Anderson’s up to the challenge.
There are several things that I have chosen to not do, since I also play music, and I have to keep my musical performance abilities up to a certain standard (well… I don’t have to… I could simply play really badly and stop getting called… but it’s sort of nice to get paid to do work where there are other people around, there really isn’t any arguing, I don’t perspire, I can wear decent/clean clothes, I don’t get bug bites, and I don’t get dirt flung in my face.)

[hrender]

IMO things are okay to DIY if the set-up and execution costs are reasonably low, the necessary instruction needed to do a good job is readily available, the risks ($$$) of failure are acceptable, and the ROI is positive. Silver plating seems like it may fall outside of those parameters unless you plan to do it a lot and want to spend the time and money to do it well.

[bisontuba]

Anderson's.....period...