Nickel Plating

Topics Last Day Last Week Tree View    Getting Started Formatting Troubleshooting Program Credits    New Messages Keyword Search Contact Moderators Edit Profile Administration
Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Nickel Plating
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Nicholas Lingg - Tarboro, NC on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 04:42 pm:

Has anyone tried to do any DIY Nickel plating? I'm looking for information on the Electroless Nickel process.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Spaziano, Bellflower, CA. on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 04:57 pm:

Nicholas,

Check out Caswell Plating. I know people that have used their products and have had great success with them.

I have no affiliation with them. Just letting you know what's out there.

Good Luck,

Mike.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Terry Woods, Katy, Texas on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 05:24 pm:

With any plating process, you are going to have used chemicals left over after the plating is done. What is the process and requirements for getting rid of these chemicals?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Matthew David Maiers on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 05:34 pm:

save them for next time? spread it on your toast?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stan Howe Helena, Montana on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 06:42 pm:

Caswell has a nickel plating that is toxic free. However, everybody I've talked to says the learning curve is pretty steep, the chemical bath has a short shelf life and they have not had great success with it unless the batch is fresh and they do a couple practice pieces first. I was going to buy one for copper and one for nickel and thought better of it.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By john kuehn on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 08:52 pm:

I found a shop in Houston Texas called Atlas plating.
All you do is send them a pic of the pieces you want plated and they will give you a quote in a day or so.
I had them do a few pieces for my 21 T project and they did a great job and were very reasonable.
They specialize in motocycle and hot rod parts plating.
I had thought about using a Caswell plating kit and I am sure they are good but I did it the easy way and in 2 weeks they were done by Atlas. And not that much more either.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve McClelland on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 08:57 pm:

If it's just a few pieces you need plated if I were you I would send them to Ken Kopsky he's done a few small parts for me and the parts when finished are outstanding!!!
Unless your just wanting to learn the process and do things for yourself.
Ken is a Great person to do business with.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Michael Thomas on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 11:01 pm:

Check out Caswell Plating. I have used the nickel plating and found it quite easy to use, really fun. Not much cheaper than having someone else do it, but I like learning new things. I am going to buy the copper and flash copper kits, which are on sale, to allow me to repair pitted items, before nickel plating. Check it out, I think you will find it worth your time...


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Paul Mikeska, Denver CO on Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - 11:02 pm:

I used the Caswell kit to plate the steering gear on my 26 Coupe a couple of years ago. Plating is like painting in that the prep work is more important than the paint/plating job. I spend a lot of time polishing the case and cover with the tools available to me at the time. It worked and the gear case and cover look great. That being said if I was going to plate another one I would send it to Ken.

On another note I have rewound about 5 or 6 mag coils. It takes me about 2 days of hard labor to get it done. Next time I need a mag field coil I will be calling Wally.

Paul


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By george house on Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - 08:52 am:

Ditto on Ken Kopsky. He has nickel plated for me and the results were excellent. In fact I'm going to send him a rear view mirror assembly for my '26 tudor today


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Terry Horlick in Penn Valley, CA on Friday, August 24, 2012 - 11:30 am:

I used the Casswell electroless kit on my 1885 Rudge bicycle. I had the handle bars done at an auto chrome shop (copper then nickel, no chrome) because they were too large for my kit.

The Caswell nickle came out beautiful, but not as nice as the Auto shop nickel. After about two years the Caswell chrome was almost as nice as when it was fresh and the auto shop nickel was pitting and rusting.

If you have some small parts, you can read and follow directions, and you can do simple math to keep the solution properly refreshed then go for it.

The result will be no better than the prepped metal, but with several hours invested in your buffing you can have some really nice parts. The nice thing is that if there is a problem down line you can re-do the job yourself.

I have a 1965 Triumph T100SC which was stripped for desert racing in the day. Back then one of the cool things to do was to nickel the frame... mine has this nickel. My plan is to take off some of the old painted /rusty parts and nickel them to match the frame... If you are going for a match of the original patina and you don't want to risk having a shop loose or break your parts then there is no choice but to do it yourself (IMHO).

TH


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Nicholas Lingg - Tarboro, NC on Friday, August 24, 2012 - 11:52 am:

I'm learning that there is differance between electroless, electroplating. The electroless is more corrosive resistant


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ken Kopsky, Lytle TX on Friday, August 24, 2012 - 07:11 pm:

That's because it's higher in phosphorus. It's also a harder plate and more uniform. You don't get "shadows" with EN.

If you do choose to do it yourself, I can confirm that Caswell's chemistry is top notch and a proven technology. Follow the directions exactly and you'll get a good plate. What's more important is the base metal preparation. Most plating failures start there.


Posting is currently disabled in this topic. Contact your discussion moderator for more information.
Topics Last Day Last Week Tree View    Getting Started Formatting Troubleshooting Program Credits    New Messages Keyword Search Contact Moderators Edit Profile Administration