Gold Plating

[Black Hole]

Anybody know anything about it / can do it?

I have some rotary switches with silver contacts (can't get anything else in low quantity) and I want to increase their reliability. I've seen videos about how it can be done, but the chemicals are expensive for a tiny one-off job (and kits extortionate). If I knew somebody who already does it...

 

[Rodders53]

Why do you think gold-plating a wiping contact will improve reliability?

Any gold plating will just wear off leaving the underlying metals to make the contact and a quick Google says https://www.machinedesign.com/archi...-for-contact-materials-it-isnt-necessarily-so

 

[Black Hole]

Why do you think gold-plating a wiping contact will improve reliability?

Silver tarnishes, gold doesn't. Plenty of connectors are easily available with gold plating, just not the kind of switch I need.

I agree it would be subject to wear with cycling, but this is not going to be cycled much. Far more important to have a non-tarnishing surface, as we always did for PCB edge connectors etc.