DIY Nickel Plating?

Sunny Boy · Post by **Sunny Boy** » Thu. Sep. 28, 2017 4:20 pm

scalabro wrote:Top shelf nickle restoration =

Strip
buff/polish
Etch
Copper
Buff again
Re copper if necessary
Buff again
nickel
Buff/polish
Nickle again if necessary
Buff/polish
$$$

D&S custom shop Holyoke Mass. Ask for Mickey or Jim and drop my name. Be prepared to be interviewed , don't talk back, have cash when the parts are done. They are one of the best shops in the nation. Lots of their work is on cars that win Pebble Beach and Amelia Island.

When Mickey "interviewed" me, everytime I said, "Scott", he kept repeating, "who",.... "who".

I finally said, Scott, the antique stove guy" and he stopped asking. Maybe I should have showed up with stove parts instead of very rare antique car parts ?

Paul

scalabro · Post by **scalabro** » Thu. Sep. 28, 2017 4:29 pm

KingCoal · Post by **KingCoal** » Thu. Sep. 28, 2017 6:02 pm

yeah...............................i have some artists and craftsmen i will recommend too but i've given up on telling anyone to "mention" me by name.

i'm at that stage in life where like another good friend of mine here on the forum says......................................

"one day i'd like some one to call me "sir" without adding " you're making a scene "

KLook · Post by **KLook** » Thu. Sep. 28, 2017 8:42 pm

Wow Kevin, If you are available when I pass on to the next life I would be honored to have the estate fly you in to give my eulogy !

I have met a lot of people over the years, as most of us have. I have been fed a lot of lines. You can't conceal advanced knowledge without... just not talking. You spoke to everyone with a question so casually, being assured of your knowledge. Without talking down or insulting anyone. Many people with advanced knowledge take the just don't talk route.

Kevin

Wish I could make the meet and greet this year...

Pauliewog · Post by **Pauliewog** » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 12:09 am

Sunny Boy wrote:
Very good information Paul !

Yup. Those cyanide bath tanks are for doing some forms of commercial copper plating - mostly as a base for a high-grade chrome plating process.

The cyanide copper bath is primarily used as a strike coat (Thin Base Coat) and must be applied to steel substrates first to ensure adhesion of other plating finishes such as brass or acid copper.

Although Cyanide Copper is still used in a number of plating shops, it is being replaced by Alkaline Copper which is more environmentally friendly. This is what I will be using for my strike coat.

The copper is not only very good for adhesion, it's also good to build up the surface for a filling and grinding to level any surface imperfections.

Acid Copper is used to create the high build film you described above but unfortunately requires a Watts Nickel, Cyanide or Alkaline Copper strike coat first.

Chrome doesn't get along well with steel and iron and it's somewhat porous, so it's not a good rust inhibiting surface like copper and nickel are. That's why the best chrome plating is sometimes called "triple chrome" - a layer of copper, then nickel, then the chrome.

And because heat will turn the chrome layer blue, and our stoves are normally not subjected to the harsh outdoor elements, this step is eliminated unless the stove is intended for display only.

Nickel does very well with clean, bare steel and iron and will not tarnish the way copper will, especially with today's chemical "brighteners" added, that come in the kit. And nickel seals very well and is good at preventing rust. So, no copper base coat is really needed on parts that are meant to be indoors. That's why you don't see copper under the nickel on stoves, and stove tools.

The nickel kits are not overly dangerous, like the plating solutions used in commercial shops. If you get the nickel kit plating solution on bare skin you just wipe it off and then give that area a quick rinse with the water spray bottle - that you should have standing by. The spray bottle is needed as part of the process to rinse the parts after plating and help maintain the plating solution's chemical proportions to the amount of distilled water in the solution (all covered in the book of instructions that comes with the kit).

The problem is that the kit is far from complete. By the time you get every thing needed to do stove sized parts you've spent at least, if not more, than what a good plating shop would charge to plate all the nickel parts on a stove.

What I am finding is in order to maintain the recommended cathode to anode distance, and purchase a rectifier that will provide the 50 amps per square foot required for nickel, I could probably have 4 or 5 stoves plated for less than the equipment and chemical costs to do parlor stove sized trim .

And you have to have a place safe and properly ventilated to do the plating, because the kit solution does give off some toxic and potentially explosive gases.

When I have a batch to do, I set my nickel kit up in my spray painting room because it has an explosion proof fan and duct system.

The pretreatment and acid / pickle chemicals are the most hazardous and fortunately are the same ones we are currently using for our Powder Coat and E- Coat lines.

Paulie

Paul

Sunny Boy · Post by **Sunny Boy** » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 1:01 am

When our stoves were new I don't think chrome plating was in use. If it was, it certainly wasn't popular. Chrome plating didn't start being used in the auto industry until about late 1929. Pretty much all the plating was nickel up until then.

Yeah, doing the big parts, and/or, large batches of smaller parts, gets really expensive.

I bought the kit to do the nickel plated parts for very rare 1929 and earlier updraft carburetors that I restore. I've had plating shops lose small parts and some of the carbs can take years and lots of money to find a restorable replacement. The biggest carburetor parts needing nickel are only about the size of your thumb, so they don't need a big power source. I found that I can use my old 6 volt battery charger powered from a 120v dimmer switch. That allows me to adjust the charger's output. It's worked very well for the small parts.

To test out the system, rather than risk the carb parts I experimented by nickel plating some of my range parts and tools. The biggest pieces I've plated so far are the fire box and oven door handles. The biggest parts of the range are the oven door medallion and the swing-out trivet shelves. So far, the battery charger has had to be turned down to the lower end of it's output range. So I think it will have enough output to handle those larger pieces, but not parts as big as the parlor stoves.

Two pix of a 29 Stromberg carb, followed by three pix of parts for my Glenwood range.

Paul

nortcan · Post by **nortcan** » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 12:24 pm

Very nice job Sunny, but I never saw that kind of carb. on a stove

Salutations

Sunny Boy · Post by **Sunny Boy** » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 12:32 pm

nortcan wrote: ↑
Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 12:24 pm
Very nice job Sunny, but I never saw that kind of carb. on a stove
Salutations

Maybe for a "Gas" stove ?

Paul

davidmcbeth3 · Post by **davidmcbeth3** » Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 4:18 pm

Sunny Boy wrote: ↑
Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 12:32 pm

nortcan wrote: ↑
Fri. Sep. 29, 2017 12:24 pm
Very nice job Sunny, but I never saw that kind of carb. on a stove
Salutations
Maybe for a "Gas" stove ?

Paul

Hybrid maybe?

DIY Nickel Plating?

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