About home nickel plating (to recover wear)

Thank you!
I used the vinegar and salt method. I’ll say that the nickel worked better than copper. Copper would transfer to what I wanted plated but I could wipe it right off.
The step about degreasing I think I very important. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s working. I used a cheap Chinese eBay DC power source and was able to keep the volts low.
As a side note. I have done a ton of rust removal with electrolysis. Laptop computer chargers have worked great for me. If you look most are 14 volts and seem to last longer than using a car battery charger. I’ve had parts I’d put in after work and let them run until I got home from work the next day (24 hours) and swapped out clean for rusty. I did that for over a week. Pretty much non stop.
I’ll see if I can find the YouTube link for the plating but it’s probably the one everyone has watched.
 
Rootpass said:
I used the vinegar and salt method. I’ll say that the nickel worked better than copper. Copper would transfer to what I wanted plated but I could wipe it right off.
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I am researching copper right now. You absolutely can get copper to plate, but it seems you need the right precursor strike.
As a side note. I have done a ton of rust removal with electrolysis. Laptop computer chargers have worked great for me. If you look most are 14 volts and seem to last longer than using a car battery charger. I’ve had parts I’d put in after work and let them run until I got home from work the next day (24 hours) and swapped out clean for rusty. I did that for over a week. Pretty much non stop.
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As I understand it, the guys who use rebar around a bucket for the other electrode end up with a big mess, but use carbon (from welding supply shop) instead is a much cleaner process. So far, I only tried it on a tiny scale, on one old nut, in a cup, with a piece of carbon from an old furnace heater element, and washing soda. Uncontrolled mad experiment. Next try, I will attempt some measure on the ingredients.
 
I use sheets of carbon steel. 3/32” thick or so. Lots of surface area and easy to scrape off with a wide putty knife. I have tried carbon arc gouging rods. They worked ok but kind of fragile.
 
Re: the copper plating got me to digging in my memory about motorcycle chrome plating. I wasn't directly involved, just noted the chemistry. I seem to recall that the parts(steel) were first nickle plated, then copper, and only then chromed. It seems the copper doesn't plate well on the steel, requiring some sort of undercoat. Hence the nickle~~~ Same with the chrome, it isn't all that shiney unless over copper.

I honestly don't remember that much about it, it was only 50 years ago. But I do remember the chrome over copper over nickle part. The nickle part sticks because it's expensive. In those days, a nickle(coin) had some value. And today, a penny(copper coin) hasn't been copper since '83 or so. Just plated~~~

In electrical work, I have made emergency repairs using silver coins, Quarters and half dollars, but those days are also long gone. I have a little silver(coinstrade rounds) on hand just in case. But I doubt I will ever need it now. Also have some copper, but that's for "bus bars", not exchange. And a nickle coin is still made of nickle but I don't know the purity.

In any case, perhaps some chemistry type can make more sense of it.

.
 
Bi11Hudson said:
Re: the copper plating got me to digging in my memory about motorcycle chrome plating. I wasn't directly involved, just noted the chemistry. I seem to recall that the parts(steel) were first nickle plated, then copper, and only then chromed. It seems the copper doesn't plate well on the steel, requiring some sort of undercoat. Hence the nickle~~~ Same with the chrome, it isn't all that shiny unless over copper.
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@Bi11Hudson: Hi, and thanks for the input, especially about coins. Not the same now. We all know that when the value of the metals in the coins exceeds the face value of the coin, they disappear from circulation, but the coin was probably an alloy anyway. Maybe there was a time you could use a nickel to plate on a copper coin. I am not so sure it is still true.

As to motorcycles, bumpers, etc. you nearly had it, only the wrong order. Copper is plated first, but twice, then nickel, then chrome. The basic major thickness of corrosion resisting metal is nickel. The shiny surface finish entirely depends on the buffing and cleaning and copper plating that went before it, but a thin copper is the starter.

The final hard chrome over nickel is apparently subject to stresses that would cause it to crack, and peel and even lift the nickel. Not obvious in the shininess, but there are processes and solutions which relieve the stresses by deliberately making surface micro-cracked chrome. The cracks go down to the nickel, and stop there, The nickel also will not corrode. It is the main reason the thick nickel is under the chrome. Chrome direct to steel would have rust starters in the cracks.

Just about every substance available has been experimentally tried as proprietary "brighteners". I was intrigued to discover that various sticky types of candy, and especially licorice works in this role.

The whole process with pictures is HERE

I do know we should never use stainless steel containers, or stainless steel anywhere in the process. Hexavalent Chromuim VI is the reason. Chrome bath is inefficient. Chrome shops have to precipitate the chrome before they dispose the waste. Nothing can be put back into the environment without being brought back to it's non-toxic form. Chrome metal, once rinsed, is safe. The rinse is not! Think Erin Brokovich. Messing with chemicals is toxic anyway. That is not a reason not to do it, any more than we use energy to cut steel, or make it red hot, but we do it with some sensible safety precautions, and some knowledge.

The high tech complexity and cost of the process is why I am intrigued that a simple vinegar + salt method, that seems to work so well, does not also seem have some significant downsides.
 
I too have been really reading up on Nickel plating for rust protection. I just want to try a coating on my parallels and fine precision workshop tools.

Bill is right. From what I’ve read, to Plate steel with copper, one must do a nickel strike and then copper. And there’s lots a other tricks. Scratches are soldered I think. Then polished. Then nickel coated.
Here’s an exceptional paper on nickel plating I recently found.
Nickel Plating.
 
The vinegar-salt method works because during electrolysis the salt is broken down into monatomic chlorine, which is incredibly reactive. This occurs at the anode side of the electrolytic cell. The chlorine then goes on to eat the anode material, which goes into solution and becomes the source for the metal ions you want to plate on the cathode. The gas liberated from the cathode is hydrogen so if you're running a lot bubbles coming off the cathode you probably want to do this outside, or someplace that has a good exhaust vent to the outside.

If you're doing chrome plating using this method you will end up with a mix of chromium in various oxidation states, including the hexavalent (+7) form. So even if you start with something innocuous like vinegar and salt, once you use it for plating it can become a hazardous material....depending on what you're plating.

Electrolysis can do things it's impossible to do any other way. Example: manufacturing fluorine gas. Fluorine is the most powerful oxidizer known, so there is NO purely-chemical reaction that can reduce fluorides to fluorine. Electrolysis is the only method that works. Before this was discovered, most chemists who tried making fluorine gas ended up with fluoride poisoning...and no fluorine gas.
 
Here’s a very dated free internet book on electroplating probably from early 1900’s since they talk about line shaft shops. But it is extremely detailed. And worth a read if you’re seriously thinking about plating. I know there are many YouTube videos which show plating but in all honesty when I first tried many of those 5 minute plating videos, I couldn’t really duplicate worthwhile results. Most of the time I had a semi pitted finish or something that just rubbed off.
Electroplating.

also, I know many have tried Caswell kit and have had good results. Also Caswell’s book is supposed to be pretty good and I almost purchased it but was put off with the 10.00 shipping on a book. They only ship with UPS or FedEx. Yeah... it’s one of those little things that just puts me off. If you’re promoting your book...then for God sakes use USPS first class mail for the books. Oh well....I’m done with my rant.
 
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Tim9 said:
Bill is right. From what I’ve read, to Plate steel with copper, one must do a nickel strike and then copper. And there’s lots a other tricks. Scratches are soldered I think. Then polished. Then nickel coated.
Here’s an exceptional paper on nickel plating I recently found.
Nickel Plating.
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@Tim9 : Thanks very much for the paper. It is really comprehensive!
It describes what I expected, in that nickel salts are used, sulfate, and chloride with borax buffer (Watt's process).
In our vinegar case, I suppose the salt is nickel acetate.

One small detail. It is about the first strike, where you mention first nickel strike, then copper.
In the paper, (I skimmed through) I did not yet find that.
In the link HERE, where a 14-step process from copper, and nickel, all the way to chrome is described, the copper is adhered first (step 9).
Basically, after a cold cyanide electro-clean and rinse, they use a 10% sulfuric acid etch to key the surface, and then the copper goes on direct to the steel in a cyanide alkali copper bath, with pure anodes. The nickel follows in a subsequent process.

When we make (very nice) easy cheap nickel coatings with vinegar + salt, I guess it really is the nickel first (and only) strike.
 
The conventional way to do that repair is to scrape the bottom of the tail stock base to fit the ways and leave the top of the base level with the lathe bed, and then add shims or a spacer(s) between the upper and lower portions of the tail stock to get the tail stock quill center height back to the lathe center height (center of spindle) and parallel with the lathe axis. The process is well understood, but requires proper execution to get all the geometry correct. After electroplating, you will still need to get the tail stock to the proper height and geometry. It is a well understood process that can be done with simple tools.
 
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