Before & After - Nickel plating

[HarrySmith]

Just a before & after shot of some misc parts for a project I am working on. Plating done by our own Dennis Halworth! Another great job!
Will post more on this project once it is completed.

[Dan/Panther]

Is Dennis doing this for a side business ?
D/P

[McHeath]

Impressive!

[DavePEI]

Impressive!

Certainly is!

[HarrySmith]

Dan, yes, Dennis offers this invaluable service to us phellow phone nuts

[Doug Rose]

check out this link to see what Dennis did to a really damaged C1 that I had

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=6062.15

[Dan/Panther]

Doug;
Absloutely amazing, how was Dennis able to smooth out the pits. Maybe with brazing ?
D/P

[Doug Rose]

Doug;
Absloutely amazing, how was Dennis able to smooth out the pits. Maybe with brazing ?
D/P

Dan....only Dennis can answer that. He had a lot of trial and error. I was ready to chuck it. Just an amazing job!!...Doug

[twocvbloke]

It'd be fun having one of my Kirby vacs nickel plated, polishing aluminium really gets tedious after a while... 

Nice results though, turning what were rather rough looking parts into something shiny and aesthetically pleasing...

[dencins]

Doug;
Absloutely amazing, how was Dennis able to smooth out the pits. Maybe with brazing ?
D/P

D/P

On the deeper pits 60/40 solder was used then a layer of alkaline copper electroplate was applied (acid copper does not adhere well to steel and nickel electroplate does not adhere to lead) followed by a layer of nickel electroplate over the aklaine copper to provide a base for acid copper build up.  The stamped lettering was masked off and the exposed surface was built up with acid copper electroplate followed by sanding the copper back to the nickel layer letting the copper fill the remaining pits.  This was done several times since the copper plating covers the surface at an even thickness so the copper layer needed to be thicker than the remaining pits.  Once the surface looked reasonable a final layer of acid copper was applied then polished before applying the last layer of nickel.

Dennis Hallworth

[Dan/Panther]

Dennis;
I'm sure you've done your homework, but I was just curious, will the nickel plate adhere to a brass substrate, as in Brazing ?
Amazing work.
How do you quote estimates.
D/P

[dencins]

D/P

Nickel electroplate should adhere to brass brazing as long as it is very clean and does not have oxide from the brazing heat.  The difficulty I found with brazing to fill pits is the edge where the two materials meet.  Copper electroplate has the advantage of being soft and tends to smear when sanded or polished which helps fill any space or ridge between surfaces.  The nickel layer will exaggerate the slighest mark in the surface so any blemish will stand out.

When I was looking for a process I spoke with several antique restorers (auto, clocks, lamps, etc.) about how they restore pitted surfaces.  The first choice if possible was to use copper plating to fill the pits.  Second was solder covered with cyanide copper plating but I think this is because much of the auto work is on pot metal and a low melting point is needed.  Pot metal also develops "veins" that have to be drilled out so the solder is used to fill those.

I did talk to one person who restores old lamps and he used brazing when structural strength was needed but he ground the braze then had it copper plated before nickel plating.

Dennis Hallworth