DIY Nickel plating?

[oldred]

First I already understand the basics (but just the basics) of electroplating but I have never attempted to do such a thing, that may (or may not!) be about to change. I have recently been doing a bit of research on the 'net about plating and found several "how to" articles for home plating but if they are like most DIY articles posted by individuals I have found them to be somewhat over-blown as to success and overly simplistic in presentation. I am also familiar with Caswell's and Brownells plating kits both of which seem to get excellent reviews but I am more interested in a true DIY set-up since it "appears" to be fairly simple and rather inexpensive except for the Nickel source of which I am fortunate enough to already have a good supply of on hand. Anyone ever do this and have any insight on doing it? Tips/pitfalls? Seems to be doable and in fact has been done for way over a century, there are no hazardous chemicals in involved and no dangerous voltages so it seems even safer and no more complicated than hot bluing?



On another note, the reason I have become interested in this is because of the scaled down "Baby-Highwall" rifle I built. Due to waiting on enough jobs to materialize to justify setting up the bluing tanks I just left the receiver/hammer/breech block brightly polished (looks like Nickel plating but not very durable) and have come to like the looks of it. I have had others comment on it and suggest I leave it that way but again doing that is an invitation to a rusted mess without a lot of extra care, if I do leave it bright I want the durability of Nickel. Thoughts about that? Does a rifle with a bright Nickel receiver (barrel is rust blued) look cheap/gaudy? I have been considering plating this one and the full size rifle I am working on now plus if this works out ok I have a bunch of other parts I would like to do but I am sort of on the fence about whether or not to plate or blue those receivers, they are 4140 steel so Color casing is not an option.


:EDIT: That was supposed to be "no OVERLY hazardous chemicals involved" and I realize this stuff is not exactly harmless but for Nickel plating some of the solutions/chemicals mentioned are not very dangerous either, it's not like I am talking about cyanide and chrome plating.

[Blackwater]

I've done the electroless type, but that's pretty spendy if you're only going to do a few small parts. That considered, if you get it, just go EXACTLY by the instructions, leaving out nothing, and you'll get a really nice result. I was very impressed. I did a Savage 99 receiver, and the owner balked at the price we gave him, but when he saw the gun .... well, he's been bragging ever since. Nice re-do of a neglected gun. Smoothed up the action in the process of polishing, and jeweled the bolt, and it was one great lookin' rifle! It can change the whole character of a gun's looks. Wish I could provide more info, but that's all I've ever done.

[oldred]

I have given some serious thought to the electroless setup because from what I have found out so far it simply does an all around better job, it's smoother and even harder than electroplating plus it plates more evenly -much better at getting into the nooks and crannies. From what I read it seems the electroless process leaves a much more scuff resistant plating so it wears better on parts that make contact with each other.

Lol, I think I may have just sat here and talked myself into ordering the Caswell electroless kit!

[bangerjim]

I have studied Ni plating of all kinds and it is totally economically not feasible except in large industrial batches. I have several in-depth manuals on it with all the hook-ups, chemicals and other stuff required to do it. The electrolytes are controlled substances and are very difficult to buy except locally......if you can even find some supply house that will sell you small amounts.

Everything in the olden golden daze was Ni plated. Prevented corrosion of base metal brass or CI that everything was made of. I really wanted to do it for many of the antique scientific items I make but the dangers and costs are just too high for me. Just like gold or silver plating. I really do not want to mess with cyanid solutions!

Good luck if you attempt it at home. I will farm out ALL my Ni plating tasks to the pros when needed.

banger

[oldred]

I have studied Ni plating of all kinds and it is totally economically not feasible except in large industrial batches. I have several in-depth manuals on it with all the hook-ups, chemicals and other stuff required to do it. The electrolytes are controlled substances and are very difficult to buy except locally......if you can even find some supply house that will sell you small amounts.

Everything in the olden golden daze was Ni plated. Prevented corrosion of base metal brass or CI that everything was made of. I really wanted to do it for many of the antique scientific items I make but the dangers and costs are just too high for me. Just like gold or silver plating. I really do not want to mess with cyanid solutions!

Good luck if you attempt it at home. I will farm out ALL my Ni plating tasks to the pros when needed.

banger

Actually it's done at home all the time and it's really not all that costly nor does it have to involve dangerous chemicals, Caswell's plating kits range from a small setup for a couple of hundred dollars to large systems suitable for commercial use, even Brownells sells plating kits. I have personally seen the results from one of the Caswell kits (this is where I got the idea to do this) and it does an EXCELLENT job! The guy at that show (antique tractors not guns) had been doing his small parts for years using a solution made from distilled Vinegar and small Nickel plates before switching to using Caswell's kits, it's easy to make and there's a bunch of "how to's" online describing this process, I have yet to try it myself but as I said I have seen the results and it does work quite well for small parts the size of a pistol or rifle receiver but I wouldn't want to attempt a car bumper with it!


This is no fly-by-night outfit, they have been around for years and are quite popular with antique auto restorers and people wanting to plate guns. They even have chrome plating systems but the chrome is necessarily more involved and more expensive but Nickel plating is quite economical and they even have a section dedicated entirely to firearms,

http://www.caswellplating.com/everything-for-firearms/electroplating-kits.html


These kits do a great job but the parts I saw that had been done with the homebrew solution method appeared to be just as good and I already have a good supply of a Nickel source, the only expensive part, so that's what I was asking about -no point in buying a kit if I can put together the same thing for almost nothing. Unfortunately the guy at the tractor show was somewhat of a pompous butt head and although he did beautiful and meticulous restoration work his "capital I, small U" attitude made it impossible to get much information from, he made sure everyone knew that HE did all the work but he acted as if talking about his methods was giving away some kind of trade secrets.

[bangerjim]

Thanks for the info! I will have to check it out. NiSo4 and the other chemicals normally used are very hard to find and are classified as controlled substances!

banger

[Blackwater]

Red, just for extra info, we used the Brownell's kit, and it was really much easier than I'd imagined. Very simple, really, but you HAVE to go by the directions exactly to get the kind of results you'll want. Things like polishing or bead blasting to the exact finish you want and keeping it sterilely clean before immersing in the kits, and getting the electrical charges just right and at just the right amperage can make a difference. And you're right about e-less being a much hardier finish. There's no copper plating necessary as for "bumper chrome" type nickel finishes. It's really resistant to rusting, also, if you get the right amount of coating on it. A buddy did a ruger SA blued gun, polished it to a literal mirror finish with knife-making grit, and then e-plated it, and it came out just plain magnificent. The customer got some buffalo horn grips for it, and he was a VERY happy man, and always gets comments on his gun. He's a good shot, but not one of the very best, so it helps him keep his chest poked out a bit at his shoots. After all, "braggin' rights" is no small thing at these events! HAR! Beauty is, and always will be, its own excuse for being, and I bet that lil' single shot will draw a LOT of interest when you're done with it.

[oldred]

The more I have researched this (spent hours on it yesterday) the more I am leaning toward the Electroless system from Caswell, scuffing the sides of the breechblock on these highwalls is a problem and if I do decide to plate this thing that may solve that problem.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I would probably try the Brownells nickelless kit if the cost of getting it overseas wasn't so high. I've done electroplating with a kit bought long ago from an ad in a British classic motorcycling magazine. It worked fine, but a point to watch out for is that any stoppage of the electric current produces lamination in the layers, which can later peel. I think a falling-block rifle would be particularly likely to find this out. If you use a battery charger you should make sure its capacity is much more than you would think you need, since they cut out (quite harmlessly in their intended application) when they heat up.

There may be controlled substances which are still mailable. You can find both nickel sulphate and "nickel plating kit" on eBay. While the chemicals involved are fairly poisonous, they are nowhere near as much so as the cyanides most other plating processes require.