   Jon's Original Puzzle Acorns  I have a buddy living here in
Austin, Jon Wolfe, who makes these beautiful little boxes from
large acorns. I’ve written about them before. When TechShop
recently opened its Austin-Round Rock location, Jon bought a
membership, and made a deal with his wife that he would pay for
it by selling stuff he made there. So, he’s been refining his
acorn box design for production—highly polished surfaces, tiny
intricate brass hinges, magnetic closures, flocked
interiors—with an eye to selling them as classy gift boxes for
rings, jewelry, and other small, precious objects. I’ve seen
some of his prototypes, and they’re just gorgeous.  Anyway, this
weekend, Jon came over, and we used my garage chem-lab to
silver-plate some brass hinge leaves for his prototype box
series. I had never electroplated anything before, and have been
curious about the process since my undergraduate days. My
impression, based on my survey courses, was that electroplating
is messy and dangerous—one of those jobs it’