Power for plating.

[Neverenoughwatches]

Might be my second long winded post for today ( apologies if i bore anyone ( tough ).  So one of the many problems that crops up when buying cheap watches on ebay is wear to case plating. Often a good movement and dial on a watch can be sidestepped  because we dont have a fully workable item. And then its only use is as a donor, thats another vintage watch that bites the dust ( thanks for the quote G ). It is one of the issues that puts us off buying an otherwise good watch. Should that be the case ? ( excuse the pun ) How difficult can it be ? As far as i know, no its not especially hard to do, yet its not that often discussed as a topic. There is some info in the forum archives, but i thought it might be an idea to bring it up again for refreshment, something for beginners to think about and food for thought for others. Maybe its just me i dont know but i think every watch deserves a chance to be brought back to life. Some of these early vintage watches were not cheap in their day, if you owned  a nice watch in our grandparents day you had money or you worked bloody hard to get it. So my educated assumptions lead me to believe a lot of these watches were cherished gifts. Sad to see them sold off for peanuts . My empathy side has got the better of me with this one, so I'm wanting to fully restore every watch i pick up and give them back the love that they once received and were used to express.  ( Yes i am a fanny,  what of it ) . So the tool geek that i am and wanting to do things proper like, i have treat myself to this little number. An electric current outputter ?  My next step is to decide on the type of plating to apply. Something hard-wearing,  easy to work with , not expensive to buy but provides a reasonable finish and polishes well. Hopefully this little blog encourages others to give it a whirl and save a few old timers in the process.  Here is the unit i bought, it was pretty cheap. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Might be my second long winded post for today ( apologies if i bore anyone ( tough ).  So one of the many problems that crops up when buying cheap watches on ebay is wear to case plating. Often a good movement and dial on a watch can be sidestepped  because we dont have a fully workable item. And then its only use is as a donor, thats another vintage watch that bites the dust ( thanks for the quote G ). It is one of the issues that puts us off buying an otherwise good watch. Should that be the case ? ( excuse the pun ) How difficult can it be ? As far as i know, no its not especially hard to do, yet its not that often discussed as a topic. There is some info in the forum archives, but i thought it might be an idea to bring it up again for refreshment, something for beginners to think about and food for thought for others. Maybe its just me i dont know but i think every watch deserves a chance to be brought back to life. Some of these early vintage watches were not cheap in their day, if you owned  a nice watch in our grandparents day you had money or you worked bloody hard to get it. So my educated assumptions lead me to believe a lot of these watches were cherished gifts. Sad to see them sold off for peanuts . My empathy side has got the better of me with this one, so I'm wanting to fully restore every watch i pick up and give them back the love that they once received and were used to express.  ( Yes i am a fanny,  what of it ) . So the tool geek that i am and wanting to do things proper like, i have treat myself to this little number. An electric current outputter ?  My next step is to decide on the type of plating to apply. Something hard-wearing,  easy to work with , not expensive to buy but provides a reasonable finish and polishes well. Hopefully this little blog encourages others to give it a whirl and save a few old timers in the process.  Here is the unit i bought, it was pretty cheap. 

To add to this I've been trying  come up with ideas on what to use for plating anodes. Nickle is about the most popular material to use. As a yorkshire man ( yep you know whats coming ) and being tighter than the lid of a jar of pickled walnuts in grandma's hands . I am looking for alternative cheaper ( preferably nil ) supplies. My first thoughts were coins, new British coins are nickle plated steel, not sure how this would work. But experimentation will give me a good answer providing i dont blow myself up with my new gadget and a beaker full of electrolised  water. Somehow i cant get my head around using electricity and water at the same time in conjunction with each other. Next i was thinking zinc plating, tin cans ? . Copper plating ? Probably not, too quickly oxidises verdigris. The universe as always will provide me with an answer when i do good things.  

[HectorLooi]

Most of the nice plating finishes like chrome, gold and rhodium, involve really toxic substances. Things that I wouldn't want in the house.

I tried nickel plating with a homemade electrolyte of nickel dissolved in vinegar. It doesn't give a very nice finish though.

I'm not sure if the problem is with the current density or with the electrode purity. The electrode was cut from a supposed pure nickel plate bought from AliExpress. 

[gbyleveldt]

Getting the right voltage is key to get a good finish and is determined by the size of the piece to be plated and the concentration of the electrolyte. This will take a little experimentation. What you don’t want is bubbles forming, that will leave pit marks in the finish. But without bubbles, the reaction is painfully slow. So what worked for me was to manually stir the electrolyte just as bubbles started forming, it then gave a thick’ish, albeit dull finish, which brightened up nicely with a very fine polish.

This video helped:

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

7 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

Most of the nice plating finishes like chrome, gold and rhodium, involve really toxic substances. Things that I wouldn't want in the house.

I tried nickel plating with a homemade electrolyte of nickel dissolved in vinegar. It doesn't give a very nice finish though.

I'm not sure if the problem is with the current density or with the electrode purity. The electrode was cut from a supposed pure nickel plate bought from AliExpress. 

Thank Hectori, appreciate your input . I will bere that in mind about the toxic stuff. If i suddenly disappear from the forum never to return you know whats happened

2 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Getting the right voltage is key to get a good finish and is determined by the size of the piece to be plated and the concentration of the electrolyte. This will take a little experimentation. What you don’t want is bubbles forming, that will leave pit marks in the finish. But without bubbles, the reaction is painfully slow. So what worked for me was to manually stir the electrolyte just as bubbles started forming, it then gave a thick’ish, albeit dull finish, which brightened up nicely with a very fine polish.

This video helped:

 

Thanks Gert, i had an idea that the voltage and current was particularly important thats why I opted for a something with a good range and good adjustment. And i so love a good experiment, a bit like baking. My madeleines are to die for . I will want to make some kind of auto stirrer then, i wonder if something to just slowly spin the case would work. Thanks for the video link Gert much appreciated.  I'll send you some of my baking as soon as i invent a space transporter. Or else a parcel of crumbs (  the Royal Mail is not what it used to be ). 

[gbyleveldt]

2 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Thanks Gert, i had an idea that the voltage and current was particularly important thats why I opted for a something with a good range and good adjustment. And i so love a good experiment, a bit like baking. My madeleines are to die for . I will want to make some kind of auto stirrer then, i wonder if something to just slowly spin the case would work. Thanks for the video link Gert much appreciated.  I'll send you some of my baking as soon as i invent a space transporter. Or else a parcel of crumbs (  the Royal Mail is not what it used to be ). 

Yeah, you'd be surprised how little voltage you need. I think on average it's between 1.5V and 2.0V, size depending. For the hands I did I just stirred it manually as it took less than a minute to plate nicely. I haven't done a whole case before but I'd imagine the voltage should be in a similar range based on other videos I've seen.

The fancy stirrers have a little oblong piece chucked into the electrolyte, then you put the whole lot on a "stirrer" that spins the piece through electromagnetism. Pretty neat; I believe these are pretty common from laboratory suppliers.

Hah, I'm not allowed anywhere near the kitchen because "I always make a mess". Put me behind a Grill and I'll cook up a storm though hehe. Pity about Royal mail (and South African mail to be honest), I'd love to critique your baking prowess!

[Neverenoughwatches]

4 hours ago, gbyleveldt said:

Yeah, you'd be surprised how little voltage you need. I think on average it's between 1.5V and 2.0V, size depending. For the hands I did I just stirred it manually as it took less than a minute to plate nicely. I haven't done a whole case before but I'd imagine the voltage should be in a similar range based on other videos I've seen.

The fancy stirrers have a little oblong piece chucked into the electrolyte, then you put the whole lot on a "stirrer" that spins the piece through electromagnetism. Pretty neat; I believe these are pretty common from laboratory suppliers.

Hah, I'm not allowed anywhere near the kitchen because "I always make a mess". Put me behind a Grill and I'll cook up a storm though hehe. Pity about Royal mail (and South African mail to be honest), I'd love to critique your baking prowess!

Thank you for that Gert. Any thoughts as to a zinc plate ? And just wondering how important the electrolyte concentration is and how to test it. I'm tempted to have a go tonight with nickel plated coins to see if it pulls the nickel from them. 

[gbyleveldt]

2 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Thank you for that Gert. Any thoughts as to a zinc plate ? And just wondering how important the electrolyte concentration is and how to test it. I'm tempted to have a go tonight with nickel plated coins to see if it pulls the nickel from them. 

Hmmmm, that I'm not too sure about to be honest. In order to make electrolyte you'll have to have a pretty pure source of Nickel. I followed the instructions in the video above to make electrolyte. Apart from actual Nickel, you should have all the stuff at home. To make the electrolyte I did push about 15V into the solution for an hour or so, it actually got nice and warm. Once the electrolyte is made then you can re-use many times, but making it properly is pretty important

[HectorLooi]

You can get nickel and zinc electrodes from AliExpress. 

SG$ 6.33  90%OFF | Pure Nickel 99.99% Plate Electrode 0.8mm X 25mm X 150mm Sacrificial Anode Plating Sheet
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqEn9Si

SG$ 4.53  40%OFF | 1mm 2mm 3mm thick width 10mm length 100mm 5pcs/lot Zinc Sheet Plate Pure Metal Zinc Plate Foil for Science Lab Accessories
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrJB0kw

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, HectorLooi said:

You can get nickel and zinc electrodes from AliExpress. 

SG$ 6.33  90%OFF | Pure Nickel 99.99% Plate Electrode 0.8mm X 25mm X 150mm Sacrificial Anode Plating Sheet
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqEn9Si

SG$ 4.53  40%OFF | 1mm 2mm 3mm thick width 10mm length 100mm 5pcs/lot Zinc Sheet Plate Pure Metal Zinc Plate Foil for Science Lab Accessories
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrJB0kw

Thank you Hector. 

[Waggy]

I have fairly good results with a home made nickel plate solution, but I think you need to be concentrating on maintaining constant amperage not voltage. When creating the plating solution I keep my amperage at 3.0A, but when plating I keep it at 0.1A - low and slow for plating a watch case seems to do the trick. You may also want to invest in a magnetic stirrer, they are relatively cheap and the agitation they create prevents bubbles forming on the watch case, and where there are bubbles there is no plating solution and then you get patchy plating. Here is the one I use:

 

Also, remember to turn the watch case every so often so that each side faces the electrode and you get an even plate.

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 4/18/2023 at 10:07 AM, Waggy said:

I have fairly good results with a home made nickel plate solution, but I think you need to be concentrating on maintaining constant amperage not voltage. When creating the plating solution I keep my amperage at 3.0A, but when plating I keep it at 0.1A - low and slow for plating a watch case seems to do the trick. You may also want to invest in a magnetic stirrer, they are relatively cheap and the agitation they create prevents bubbles forming on the watch case, and where there are bubbles there is no plating solution and then you get patchy plating. Here is the one I use:

 

Also, remember to turn the watch case every so often so that each side faces the electrode and you get an even plate.

Thanks for the information waggy. Instead of a stirrer i turn the case I'm plating via a small overhead adjustabe speed motor.