bright nickel plating

[bigsteve550]

Here is my bright nickel plating set up its saved me loads on money on chroming small bits and bolts etc, managed to replate all my S bolts to a good standard as well as the Wheel axle bolts, wheel spacers, chain adjuster blocks, metal carb parts.

The art is to get the metal soomth and shinny as what you see is is what you will get as the nickel will not fill in rust pits.

Against real chrome its a bits more golden but only if your looking, but nickel is great as its a low voltage (I use 3.5 volts) and low amp process and is not porus so will seal in the metal underneath, its used under chrome plating for this very reason as chrome is porus and with let mosture get through which then attacks the base metal which then rusts, hense the reason cheap flash chromed parts rust, as it only chrome plating straight on the bare metal.

But anyway I am happy with what I did and would recommed it to restorers for small to medium sized parts, its a chemical set up so you need to be careful also I clean the parts in a 20% solution of Sulfuric acid for 30 seconds before plating in nickel, that's very nasty stuff.

Couple of tips, I used a fish tank air brick to agitate the bath to stop gas bubbles getting on the work and also use a fish tank filter to clean it, also the best results are had if you get the solution up to 50 degrees C, I did this with 2 fish tank heaters with the heat limiters removed and i the morning to speed up the heat process i also used a cup water heater.

I heated the bath remotly by have water on the outside and heating that.

[malky]

Hi Steve, where do you get the nickel anodes from and what do you make the plating solution out of - I do my own zinc plating using white vinegar and epsom salts but think the nickel plating looks a bit more robust and will weather better
Mal.

[tz375]

Malky, where do you get Zinc anodes or do you just use an old carb body to make the sacrifice?

[Alan H]

Use an ex-wife for the sacrifice.
The plating won't be as good as a proper anode, but the satisfaction and saving on alimony will be worth it.

[malky]

I use uncoated zinc wheel balance weights - they work a treat
Mal.

[malky]

anyone here ??

[Suzukidave]

You can get zinc through the boating industry https://www.google.com/#q=Zinc+anodes+for+boats" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[cobraace]

Use an ex-wife for the sacrifice.
The plating won't be as good as a proper anode, but the satisfaction and saving on alimony will be worth it.

The plating looks good but damit Alan now i got coffee on the screen
























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