Nickel plating at home, looks straight forward.......

[frostype400]

Yes I have done that done a heap of spokes etc etc some stuff came up great others not perfect.

[Lewis]

sugar soap from Bunnings works well for the final clean.Cheap as.Check out Caswell Platings web site,they've got just about everything you'd ever need for home plating.

[Swiss]

Ok Guys,

Looking at a bigger project.  Want to try to zinc plate my frame.  Read an article on a Husaberg Light bike where he zinc plated the frame and saved 1.5lbs. of paint weight..  How tough to plate a frame that would require a 12x24x40" pan to submerge the entire frame?  Understand that you can do a "Bright Zinc" plating that should look pretty good.  I do have a glass bead cabinet to clean it off with.

Thanks,
Swiss

[yamaico]

Ok Guys,

Looking at a bigger project.  Want to try to zinc plate my frame.  Read an article on a Husaberg Light bike where he zinc plated the frame and saved 1.5lbs. of paint weight..  How tough to plate a frame that would require a 12x24x40" pan to submerge the entire frame?  Understand that you can do a "Bright Zinc" plating that should look pretty good.  I do have a glass bead cabinet to clean it off with.

Thanks,
Swiss

Couple of things to think about with your idea:
1) Zinc has weight too, so probably not a significant weight saving by not painting.
2) Zinc oxidises very quickly, so over time your shiny bright frame will be a dull grey frame in the same way that your spokes and nuts and bolts go dull.
On the plus side, your frame wouldn't rust.

[kdx Geoff]

l went around to Lewis's place today to look at the way he plates, lucky for me he only lives 15 mins away.



He plated this for me, shared his methods of plating and what l would need to buy to start plating.

Thanks for your time today Lewis, lm going to give this a go myself.

Cheers

Geoff

[Tim754]

Looks the bees knees Geoff! Fine job Lewis Would one of you boys be able to pop the starters list of gear up?  Cheers Tim754

[kdx Geoff]

This plating stuff is pretty straight forward and lm happy with the results I've gotten trying things out.

l plated some bolts that were in good reasonable condition so l took on something a bit used.



Washed the greasy stuff off, glass bead blasted and filed some of the rough edges.


In a weak bath of pool acid to remove the old plating, note the rusty bolt. Nasty fumes at this point !


After the acid and a soapy wash, things look really good but rust very quickly, like the bolt in the bath. The acid wont move rust.


This doesn't look much different to the above pic after plating but its shiny now, very smooth to touch and wont rust


This would look better with more filing preparation but the plating has gone well.

l had a few of hours of instruction (thanks) and watched a bit of utube, cost around $400 to set up with equipment and chemicals, happy to chat to anyone that wants to have a go 

Freshly plated bits on your bike look awesome but plate one part you're committed to the whole bike, this way l can plate bits as l go.

kdx Geoff

[Paul552]

Is that zinc or nickel ?

[kdx Geoff]

That's nickel Paul

[FAT-TOY]

     Geoff does your kit use electrolises to transfer the nickel?
  The jane kit I have uses a liquid which has the nickel suspended in it and uses no electricity at all.  It is then mixed with distilled water and I heat it to just under boiling point and have the parts hanging in the liquid until the nickel attaches to the part.
  Sounds like magic but works fine I use it for fasteners, spokes and small parts like foot pegs etc.   The liquid can be used several times until it starts to become less effective, them I just ad some more of the magic liquid and away we go again. 
                                    Zane

[kdx Geoff]

Hi Zane,

l didn't buy a pre packaged kit, l saw how another forum member plated, copied there technique and bought accordingly.

The nickel crystals and anode come from Caswell in Melbourne.

http://www.caswellplating.com.au/store/store.php/products/nickel-crystals-with-brightener

I heat the nickel liquid (crystals, brightener and distilled water) to around 55* with the nickel anode and the item to be plated in the liquid, apply a current to the anode and the item and with no bubbles to indicate that anything's happening, the anode begins to slowly corrode and the item gets plated.

As lm just getting started, lm plating in a plastic cup big enough to hold the part so if l muck it all up, l haven't ruined all my chemicals, so that would be less than a litre and the anode might be 1cm by 8cm.

I don't know the life of the liquid yet but its easy to see how the nickel anode is diminishing as l plate.

Cheers

Geoff

[kdx Geoff]

This is my first wheel refurbishment, nickel plated the spokes and cleaned the nipples as I'd like to color them simular to original but haven't yet worked out how or if l can do that with nickel. I've not laced up a wheel before either, l put another wheel next to this one and copied the spoke positions, after a while l could see the pattern in the spokes layout but may still be in the shed if l didn't have a wheel to copy  . The sheen of the paint on the drum is a bit higher than original too so I'm still trying different brands of satin.

kdx Geoff 

[yamaico]

Nice job Geoff.
Galmet Satin Black is good paint, which gives a nice finish and is quite tough. I'm sure that there's a lot of other products on the market as well.

[Scootern29]

I may try the nickel later on. I have been watching this thread and one on Café Husky. I've been doing zinc plating a bunch of stuff for my Husky project. These spokes are zinc plated and polished out. They came out almost looking like nickel.

[crash n bern]

Thanks for the link to the Caswel site. The anodising and powder coat kits look good. You can even get an additive to mix with powdercoat so you can spray it through a normal spraygun.