Alan,
Did you visit the web site of Caswell Plating.com? They do have
non-cyanide-based electroless plating products, which are greater in
quantity and higher cost than what you need, but they also have "Plug
N' Plate" kits for copper, nickel, silver, chrome, gold, tin, etc.
These kits consist of the plating solution, typically 8 oz., except
for gold and silver, a conductive stainless steel wand, and cloth
bandages that go on the end of he wand to wipe the plating element on
the board. If you do not need the power unit (4.5 volts' worth of D
alkaline batteries will work), the kits cost under $20, except for
gold, which is $22. As I said before, I have the nickel plate kit.
If you want long-term protection as a slight trade-off for silver (and
subsequently, silver oxide's) higher conductivity, go with gold, which
is 74 on the IACS conductivity scale (pure copper, 99.99% is 100, the
baseline for the standard, and silver is 103.
For short-indeterminate duration, the existing bare copper coated with
lacquer will be the parsimonious solution. I've tried "Tinnit" once,
and found it not to be worth the trouble for most of my hobby boards.
My connections are being made with a tin-lead alloy, which as was
mentioned is not exactly a superb conductor, but hopefully, component
leads aren't just floating in the solder alone and are in contact with
the copper on the board.
Ted KX4OM
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "alan00463" <alan00463@y...> wrote:
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <alienrelics@y...> wrote:
> >
> > --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Stefan Trethan"
> > <stefan_trethan@g...> wrote:
> > >