Electroplating - a dummies guide

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#1 Electroplating - a dummies guide

Post by ChrisC » Sun Nov 21, 2010 4:25 pm

A short while ago David asked that I write a few words about home electroplating, so here is the dummies guide... Please let me know if anything is unclear and I will amend the text so to that it makes sense to you.
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You will find numerous videos on YouTube and you will hear lots of different views on how to best do it. I don?t suggest that my way is best by any means, I am certainly not a professional plating specialist, nor am I always successful. But people seem to be interested...

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First off - its fun....

There are loads of variables to consider and much waiting to see what happens.

What I was really after is a satin sheen and not the brightness of modern day bolts (which are actually zinc plated because it is cheaper.

The picture above shows you the kit as delivered. There are several suppliers and I tried the kit from Gateros, Caswell is another well known supplier. The Gateros kit is smaller but cheaper.

The instructions are pretty simple to follow in order to produce the tub of Electrolyte. It should be remembered that you ARE playing with acid, it wont melt the skin off you but its better to be safe than sorry so I wear eye protectors, thick rubber gloves, clothing that is not my Sunday best and work in a ventilated area.

Apart from the basic kit, you really need a couple of other items. Firstly a small heater as the electrolyte must be heated between 20-50 degrees. I discovered after much reading that 32 degrees is pretty common so I simply used an aquarium heater and it has worked a treat.

Next the plating finish is smoother if the electrolyte is constantly moving. I can advise that it is a bit boring, stirring with a spoon for up to an hour. So.... I use an aquarium pump and a long air stone. The bubbles don't stick to the metal and spoil the finish and it keeps the fluid moving nicely. Very easy. Very cheap.

Initially I tried a 12 volt battery charger to provide the power but after a few weeks of plating I upgraded to a proper voltage regulator. You do need a level of adjustment because there is a power formula to plating.... in simple terms for each 1 square inch of metal to be plated you need 150ma. So round figures, 6 square inches of plating needs about 1Amp.

With the kit you receive a seriously basic voltage regulator (essentially a loosely wound coil of resistance wire strung between two bolts). To work out how much power you need, you add up all the surface inches to be plated (remembering that all items have edges and a reverse side!) Add up the milliamps then....... guess where that amount of power would be produced on the resitance wire and attach the crocodile clip. It works but its total guesswork. Yes you could put an Ammeter in series with the circuit but I didn't have one.

The theory continues that you plate the metal for 30 - 60 mins but you cant (shouldn?t) take the metal out of the electrolyte until its finished. This means that its a little bit like guessing when a cake is done without opening the oven door - i.e. it is a game of experience... or you can take my advise and leave the components int he tank for an hour.

Enough of the theory, lets get on with it.

Good plating just like painting is all down to the preparation. Cleanliness is everything. After cleanliness comes the finish - matt / satin / shiny

1.Shot blasting the item before plating gets it clean and smooth and produce a nice matt finish
2.Following on from the shot blasting with a piece of wire wool gives you a satin finish
3.Completing the job with a rotary wire wheel in a drill starts to bring a shine to the bare metal.

The more shiny the bare metal - the more shiny the finish is.

In case you wondered... chrome plating is a three layer process. Nickel plating is done first first, then the item it is plated with copper which is then polished to a very high level, and finally its into the chrome plating tank. Its the polished copper that gives chrome its highly polished look. You can of course do chrome palting yourself as well - you just need the three different plating kits.

Personally i use a home shot blaster to clean (previously degreased) pieces. There is a wide range of blast media - I originally used aluminium oxide, but it produces a lot of dust so its quite hard to see what you are blasting. Now I use Garnett, a low dust, low cost media. I tried B&Q kiln dried sand for paving stones but it was absolutely hopeless - it just bounced off the metal.

Air pressure I set to 150psi. Professional blasters use a LOT more pressure than this but to be honest I don't blast anything over about 6? in size as the professionals are pretty cheap so I let them do it. Really I just plate brackets, bolts, linkages, washers etc oh and anything that I cant afford for the blaster or the plate company to lose!

Image

There is a light inside the blasting unit - but a 250watt halogen lamp adds substantially more light and does not produce much heat.

In the picture below are the items that i will be plating. Apologies for the rubbish photo, I didn't realise it was out of focus until after the event. These are part of the front shock-absorber installation. Its the sleeve that sits on the bolt that the shock-absorber slides onto. I notice that one of the washers has a very large hole compared to the other one. I will need to replace that.

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Out of the blast cabinet gives you this finish:

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I thought I would do the shock-absorber top bolts at the same time so these were blasted too.

Next we come to the light polishing stage of the drill with a wire wheel attachment:
I run the drill at about half speed which is not painful when your fingers touch the whirling wires... I tried wearing gloves but a lot of the items I plate are quite small and fiddly.

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After a quick clean with the wire wheel the components look like this
This took no more than two minutes an item.

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Now the alchemy.....

Plating works by one piece of metal sacrificing its self when a current is passed through it. So you need pieces of nickel suspended into the electrolyte to be the sacrifice. Mounting them is simply achieved by drilling the nickel and passing some copper wire through it then placing the nickel block into the electrolyte but NOT the wire that it is attached to!

So you now connect the positive part of the circuit to these blocks of nickel. If you connect all the nickel blocks together on a loop of wire this connection is very easy. You must now suspend the items you want to plate into the electrolyte using copper wire 'hooks' and hang them from a piece of copper tube (see photo). The negative connection goes onto this copper tube.

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So the current flows from the nickel blocks through the electrolyte to the components and back to the power supply. The current carries the nickel onto the component. Simple.

All that is left is the power... Egor..... throw the switch...

Although this picture is also blurred (sorry), you will see that about 1.75 amps is flowing.

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Simplistically, the amount of time the item is in the tank for, will dictate how thick the plating is. Personally I leave them for an hour.

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All that is left now is to rinse them off in plain water, dry very thoroughly and there you have the finished items. I usually wipe a coat of ordinary wax over them apparently it helps seal the plating:

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Last edited by ChrisC on Thu Dec 29, 2011 6:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
1964 FHC 4.2
Etype restoration blog http://connor.org.uk

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#2

Post by MarkE » Sun Nov 21, 2010 5:24 pm

That's great information, Chris, and I think that I now need a kit!

I've found the best way to de-rust small components (nuts bolts and brackets) is to leave them in a bath of hydrochloric acid over night. They come out a nice dull metal colour, with absolutely no rust.

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#3

Post by ChrisC » Sun Nov 21, 2010 5:32 pm

Yep I sometimes do that as well....

For the un initiated, hydrochloric acid is stomach acid which is not too easy to find in the local hardware store - Concrete cleaner (but not the bio stuff) is the same acid. This is sometimes known as Muriatic acid...

Its dirt cheap and is great for stripping zinc too.
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#4

Post by Heuer » Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:15 pm

Chris

Great guide - thank you. Hopefully this will inspire the rest of us to give it a go. Incidentally what are the start-up costs, including the regulated PSU and other optional bits?
David Jones
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#5

Post by ChrisC » Sun Nov 21, 2010 7:23 pm

Thank you sir, glad to help.

Startup costs are fairly small around ?75 and I am nowhere near using up the pieces of Nickel yet. In fact because I am also restoring an Edwardian Lodge - I am now also plating all the hinges and window furniture so it really does cost in.

My restoration is all about reusing the original parts as far as I can rather than buying all new nuts and bolts. So for me this is perfect and its fun. All it takes is time..

Jumping onto the Gateros website - The basic Nickel kit now contains everything you need, the chemicals, the tank, heater, the rheostat etc.

The Gateros kit (and more information) is here:
http://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/Bright- ... ng-Kit.php

The Caswell kit is here:
http://www.caswelleurope.co.uk/Shop-Front.html

The regulated power supply was ?30 and I got it from here:
http://www.beststuff.co.uk/voltage_regulators.htm
More Amps = more money

Incidentally too much power when plating creates an utterly horrible lumpy surface.

And plating for too long - i.e. 8 hours, generates a near chrome finish BUT and its a big but... it also makes a very uneven finish and can completely fill in threads. As many people have said "guess how I know". I had to throw away all the components I had in the tank but they were wonderfully shiny.
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#6 Re: Electroplating - a dummies guide

Post by PeterCrespin » Tue Nov 23, 2010 1:35 pm

ChrisC wrote:
Good plating just like painting is all down to the preparation. Cleanliness is everything. After cleanliness comes the finish - matt / satin / shiny

The more shiny the bare metal - the more shiny the finish is.

In case you wondered... chrome plating is a three layer process. Nickel plating is done first first, then the item it is plated with copper which is then polished to a very high level, and finally its into the chrome plating tank. Its the polished copper that gives chrome its highly polished look.
Nice write-up and pics Chris. Couldn't agree more about the finish prep. I always think of chrome as being like a lacquer finish - if it doesn't basically look as polished as good chrome before plating, it won't look like shiny chrome after plating. The chrome is just a bright finish for a polished part, it isn't a way of making it look shiny.

Triple chrome is copper then nickel then chrome, but I'm not quibbling.

Never tried chrome - too many nasties and I prefer to stay away from cyanide. You don't see too many elderly platers. Have done a bit oc nickel and zinc and copper. Galvanising isn't possible in case anyone was thinking of that for suspension parts - that is a hot dip molten vat of metal jobbie - it's not even an electroplating operation.

For copper you don't need an electric current if your copper sulphate is strong enough and your substrate is a ferrous metal lower down the periodic table. Came in handy on a bike one time when I had a fractionally loose valve guide. Blocking the inner diameter and immersing the totally degreased part eventually left just a copper layer on the outside that restored the fit in an alloy air-cooled head. Might have used a battery to speed it up a bit - don't recall.

Nice article anyway and it makes a change to recognise the bits instead of pics of some furniture fittings or whatever they have in plating books!
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#7

Post by Erikantwerp » Tue Nov 23, 2010 4:47 pm

Chris
Really very useful. Many thx. I might take a stab myself so..be prepared for some more follow up questions of a dubious nature : )
Well done ..
Cheers
Erik
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#8

Post by kingzetts » Sat May 25, 2013 1:15 pm

Chris,
I had read this post a while back and it inspired me to have a go myself and eventually I recently acquired a setup via Gateros and am now playing around.

Anyway I wondered if you have had occasion to partially plate any parts, and if so what techniques you may have found effective for masking off areas you did not want to plate? I am intending to plate some brake calipers off my Porsche 924 Turbo project car, and obviously need to avoid plating the cylinder bores etc.

Cheers
John
John '62 S1 OTS (now sold)

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#9

Post by PeterCrespin » Sat May 25, 2013 1:46 pm

Lacquer, masking tape etc. It's not really a hot process and whilst some are mere contact-related, others work largely by 'line of sight' so if you have an area in the shade side away from a the plating metal electrode it hardly plates anything on that side. That's why you often see 'shadows' of thin or missing chrome where parts were suspended by wires, whereas the nickel underneath is usually OK.

It's an art (and expensive) to arrange multiple electrodes around the bath to 'throw' the plating in straight lines into the nooks and crannies of a part, so if you actually want to avoid plating it start by pointing it away. Plasticine in threaded holes works. A caliper bore is quite a big area so I'm thinking a good coat of paint or something insulating after degrease? Dunno, Chris will know.

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#10

Post by ChrisC » Sat May 25, 2013 4:39 pm

Hmm I dont have a great depth of knowledge on this... I used ordinary masking tape to good effect on threads and any smooth area that I didnt want to plate but I didnt plate anything that had an internal bore like a calliper.

Plasticine does work to plug small holes. A thick layer of grease may well work but I dont know if that would corrupt the liquid or not.

Try coating an unwanted but properly prepared bolt with some grease and see what happens :)
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#11

Post by Dave K » Sat May 25, 2013 5:20 pm

This looks like a bit of fun but I have to ask if it's really cost effective?

The reason I ask is on our local trading estate I can take a few bits up from time to time and get them done for a fiver in either normal zinc plate or cad finish.
When I was doing my car a few years back I took almost everything to be plated and the cost was only ?75.

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#12

Post by kingzetts » Sat May 25, 2013 5:27 pm

Almost certainly not cost effective, Dave, but interesting and satisfying when you can look at a piece and remind yourself you plated it. Plus I've challenged myself to see how much of a project I can actually do myself rather than farm out to anyone. Also I quite like the flexibility to do a part when its ready, rather than accumulate pieces to take to a professional.
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#13

Post by steve3.8 » Sat May 25, 2013 7:38 pm

Anyway I wondered if you have had occasion to partially plate any parts, and if so what techniques you may have found effective for masking off areas you did not want to plate? I am intending to plate some brake calipers off my Porsche 924 Turbo project car, and obviously need to avoid plating the cylinder bores etc.

Cheers
John
John , for masking bores i used tapered rubber/silicone bungs , loaned to me by our friends who own an anodising company [ thats what they use ] . I will ask where they are sourced from . Steve
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#14

Post by Dave K » Sat May 25, 2013 8:57 pm

kingzetts wrote:Almost certainly not cost effective, Dave, but interesting and satisfying when you can look at a piece and remind yourself you plated it. Plus I've challenged myself to see how much of a project I can actually do myself rather than farm out to anyone. Also I quite like the flexibility to do a part when its ready, rather than accumulate pieces to take to a professional.
I suppose it depends on your relationship with the plater, your only down the road from the Pershore trading estate same entrance to the train station. Drop a bit in get it back the next day and if it's not worth charging for then he'll charge when he thinks you have accumulated enough credit. I struggle for time doing the things I do, adding another section into the process would be to time consuming.

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#15

Post by kingzetts » Sun May 26, 2013 9:38 am

Thanks for the various suggestions. I tried a few ideas yesterday on test pieces.

Lacquering with some old cellulose car paint I had on the shelf worked the best, giving a nice clean edge to the plated/unplated junction and dissolved away easily in thinners when done.

Electrical tape worked reasonably with a slight bleed where some solution got under the edge of the tape, as did parcel tape.

Think I'll try blu-tak (don't have any plasticene to hand) for blocking up holes today.
John '62 S1 OTS (now sold)

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#16

Post by kingzetts » Sun May 26, 2013 9:47 am

Dave,
I know what you mean about time, and we each have to set our own priorities. When I was doing my e-type I had a firm deadline and as a result I rushed some jobs and also farmed out things I might have done myself. No regrets as it was the right thing at the time, and I've had the pleasure of driving it for a few years which I'd not have done if I'd taken longer.

With the 924 turbo I'm doing at the moment I've not set any deadline and am in no rush, I do jobs as and when I feel like it and have some time, and exploring new techniques and skills (on a car much less valuable than the e-type and therefore no worries if I screw it up!) is a large part of the reason I'm doing it slow.
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#17

Post by ChrisC » Sun May 26, 2013 11:04 am

:D

Ah but the thing about restoring a car for me is actually 'doing' it. Granted no-one really is skilled in all areas but its real nice to say at car shows - "i did everything - welding, panel work, mechanicals wiring, trim...even the nickel plating". That seems to get a 'wow well done'...

Its a nice feeling.

Besides - wheres the fun in paying someone else 8)
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#18

Post by Dave K » Sun May 26, 2013 4:49 pm

Chris,

I can honestly hold my hands up and say the same I did everything on my car except the chrome and zinc plating that is.
I did all the bodywork and even sprayed the car in my garage and despite everyone saying it was good rubbed it down and took it to the BMW bodyshop not far from the zinc platers and let them do it again.

Dave

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#19

Post by wol916 » Sun May 26, 2013 8:10 pm

I'm another of the "must do it myself" people. I usually find if I get someone else to do it I'm not happy with the quality so end up doing again anyway. The only job I have not done is the diff rebuild as I could not justify buying the tools required. Since starting the e-type I now have a well stocked tool cupboard as I work on the principal that if you need a tool buy it because you know after many lost hours of trying to manage without you will end up buying the tool anyway, and a well filled tool box always impresses. :lol:
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#20 Re: Electroplating - a dummies guide

Post by Thim » Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:24 am

I know I'm 11 years late, but I just tried electroplating myself without success. I made the electrolyte with white vinegar 7%, and dessolved 2 99,8% nickelplates in that solution. It turned blue, not green. They were extremly clean, and only the nickel toucthed the solution. No copper wire in there...
But when i had my solution done, and started with the plating, I had the steel nut dangling in the solution with the copper wire, and also, the nickel was dangling and the copper was touhting the solution...
Almost no nickel plated to the nut, even after 2 hours and 0,5amps. Could the copperwire from the nickel plate be the cause of this? if so, do I have to make a new solution :?:
Jaguar E-type s1, 1967 2+2. Under restoration by myself, slowly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel 👍

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