Thanks to Mike and all who replied. Caswell 4336 Route 31 Palmyra NY 14522-9719 315-597-5140 www.caswellplating.com They have a black and white photocopy type catalog of plating supplies and equipment that they will send free. Caswell specializes in small piece and small batch plating. They supply to restores of automatic musical instruments, telephones, cars etc. They claim that several piano rebuilders use their products. Brownell's 200 South Front Street Montezuma IA 50171-1000 515-623-5401 They are a very well respected supplier of gunsmithing supplies, equipment, and tools. Gun shops deal with lots of plating as well as bluing and other neat voodoo metal finishes. Their selection of plating stuff is more professional/commercial oriented. The reason I'm going to do my own plating is my favorite plater retired at almost 70 years of age. He did excellent work at a fair price and would turn around a set of hardware in two weeks if necessary. Although there are hundreds of plating shops in the Chicago area, I have not found one since with the same quality of work and service at any price. I can't put a job on hold for six weeks waiting for a couple dozen bolts, screws, and duplex bars to be plated. It's tempting to skip replating a few duplex bars when that's the only plated hardware on a piano. I also don't like having hardware lost. You can't just go to the local hardware store and buy a screw to match one on a 100 year old piano. Electroplating can be dangerous and logistically difficult. The solutions can't be shipped UPS and must be bought in large enough quantity to justify the truck freight. Eletroless is much less toxic and all the stuff can be sent UPS. The procedure is pretty straight forward but I've not seen any electroless plating so I'm grateful for Mike's response. The key to good plating is the polishing and that's why it's getting difficult to out source it. Not many people at any wage have the patience to properly polish all the complex shapes and many screws in a set of piano hardware. I have no intention of it becoming a commercial venture, I just want more control over what goes out of my shop. Thanks again, Richard Anderson, RPT Elgin, IL
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