On 01/04/2017 11:48 AM, Kyle Owen wrote: > Will the desired thickness be enough with sputtering or evaporation? > For modern hard drives, sure, but my gut instinct is that you'd want > a thicker coating on the drum. I'd suggest sputtering over > evaporation since it will probably adhere to the surface better. I'd > think nickel electroplating would take less time and effort, though. > > Heck, I have about 4 L of nickel plating solution as well as an > anode, if someone wants to give it a shot.
Thinking more about this a bit... "Modern" aluminum-substrate plated media uses a layer of electroless nickel, which is then polished, then plated with a layer of electroless cobalt. I don't know if cobalt can be vacuum-sputtered onto nickel. Lubrication layers are often added in the case of Winchester drives. I suspect that the LGP30 drum heads require a substantial signal, so perhaps 5 micron cobalt plating wouldn't work. In any case, the low recording density might be better realized through a traditional iron-oxide-in-binder coating. --Chuck
