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I’ve been thinking about buying one of those Caswell kits to brass plate some parts on my 14. I’m building a speedster but I’m using an Overland body, that’s why it’s not a T part, but it could have been. It’s nickel era but I was just going to paint the column since it was solid rust but I thought I’d at least disassemble it and paint the quadrant and levers black. I then got to thinking about those Caswell videos and others about plating so I thought I’d give it a try.
All you need is one gallon of vinegar, a little salt and about $25 worth of nickel you can get on eBay. I used a 6-12v 10 amp battery charger for a power source. You can make as much of the solution you want for cheap instead of buying it and pour it into any container you want to fit your parts. You just hang a piece of nickel from each side of a container filled with vinegar and a little salt, then hook electricity to each one. The solution is ready when it turns blue-green. Then remove the strip from the ground side and attach the ground to the part you intend to plate by a copper wire used to hang the part in the solution. Leave the positive connected to the nickel strip. It helps to move it around. I pour the solution back into the vinegar bottle for next time.
This is the second part I plated. I plated it once then sanded it smooth and plated it again. I could probably keep doing that until it’s perfect. It was solid rust long ago. Just an idea for anyone wanting to try for 1/3 of the price of the kit. I still need to figure out the brass.
Lookin good Corey! This is my setup from a while back using the same vinegar based solution. I made up copper and nickel with hopes of plating carburetor parts… but turns out my 1A power source only has the oats to plate small coin sized parts. I’ll have to step up my power and try again…
Thanks. I started with an AC adapter from a Nintendo that I modified. It took 24 hrs to make the solution but then I tried the battery charger. It plates pretty fast. Quicker than I had expected.
I have read about “burning” or cloudy finishes as a result of over voltage. Copper is supposed to perform best at 2-3 volts, and nickel at just a bit higher voltage… did you plate at 6 or 12 volts…?
Tractor Supply may have 30% vinegar in gallons. That's pretty hot stuff.
Home Depot carries 30% vinegar.
Just remember that the surface preparation of the item to be plated is 99% of the job and that the plating is only as good as the prepared surface. If the surface is foggy, so then, will be the plated surface. If it is a mirror finish, so then will be the plated surface. Get it to a mirror shine then buff a little more.
Kevin, I used 6. With 12 volts it bubbles a lot and it comes out as you said burnt or brown colored. When you sand the brown it comes out shiny but some comes off flaky, then I replated it. I think the voltage needed depends on the part size and volume of solution. I started it sometimes with 12 then switched to 6 because the switch on my charger is sketchy, sometimes I couldn’t get it to work on 6. I just used the battery charger because I already had it. Moving the anode around helps. The first part I did I just stuck in the solution and it didn’t come out even. I just bought a gallon of vinegar at Family Dollar for $3.50 and probably only used a couple tablespoons of salt, maybe just one, it was all I had. I think I’ll make an L shape tubes from PVC pipe then cut it in half with a band saw to make a container for the spark and gas rods.
Nice work Corey. Bought the little Caswell kit for nickel to do plating on dust covers. Choose covers with some remaining old nickel on them, and used the kit to re-plate back to shiny nickel. Parts were scrubbed clean first with lacquer thinner to get down to only metal surface, having the pieces really clean helps. Found that heating the solution a bit (used a hot air gun) helped the process.
Those look nice, Dan. I think I may need to leave this in a little longer. I’ll mess with it more later this evening and see if I can find the quadrant that’s around somewhere to try.
I am always looking for ways to up my game on certain processes or procedures and have found this fellow who does work which is beyond exemplary. In this video, he shows a very nice plating set-up which is not necessarily out of reach for anyone wishing to do consistent, high quality work. For a one-time shot at plating, Caswell is just fine, but if you are producing product on any kind of repetitive scale, or 100% predictable quality is required on a part which cannot easily survive rework, this is a very nice setup. Even if it is out of range for your project(s), the below video is full of excellent advice...
I suspect that there is a recommended current (amperage) per square inch of plating surface. I am not familiar with Nickle plating, but I am familiar with Chrome plating.
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