Alain <ele### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> The copper holds well on the silver paint, but nether the nickel nor the chrome
> will. The copper plating is to thin to help protect from the heat.
Quite the opposite, probably - Cu is an excellent thermal conductor.

> Then the nickel makes an exellent bond with the copper, while the chrome will
> peel from it.
> Then the chrome will perfectly fuse onto the nickel. Also, the nickel makes an
> harder, more resilient, substrate.
Having had a quick peek at the binary phase diagrams, this seems to be
because Cr is soluble in Ni at low concentrations, and both Cu and Ni are
soluble in each other to a small degree, whereas Cr and Cu appear totally
immiscible.

The silver paint is probably just to give the substrate all-over electrical
conductivity so it can act as an electrode during the plating process.

Anyway, that's not how I made my styrofoam blob; I used a magic chrome corn
kernel in a giant popcorn maker. ;-)

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