3 ms·
Gold electroplating can utilize some relatively nasty chemicals such as cyanide and cobalt but some ways are more safe than others. You could more easily and in
by blackfawn 6y ago
Gold electroplating can utilize some relatively nasty chemicals such as cyanide and cobalt but some ways are more safe than others. You could more easily and inexpensively nickel plate it with household materials (and a nickel plating layer is often used as a flash layer for gold plating anyway.)
Simply tinning the copper with solder would likely be the easiest option although I couldn't say how durable that would be against contact wear over very long periods of time. I'd suspect just as durable as nickel or gold plating would be...
- jstanley 6y agoI wasn't suggesting I'd gold plate it myself, I meant I could just buy gold-plated wire, as long as it would be sufficiently durable.
- jackyinger 6y agoYes, hard gold plating is pretty durable. Take a look at the plating on PCIe card and DIMM contacts. Or just about any high quality connector. Switches have an advantage over these connectors in that they touch rather than slide. So wear and tear is much less of a problem.