Nickel Plating Trials… I’m Ready!

[Jonno65]

This week all the gear I needed to get started with Nickel plating arrived. A DC power power supply, magnetic stirrer, and nickel anode material. I made the Nickel liquid sulphate a couple of days ago and tried a piece brass rod.  Seemed to work. 

Tonight I machined up a couple of dummy watch cases out of brass plus just a flat washer and set about cleaning and preparing them. The first piece I did with the following settings:

First was 5v at 1A for 15 mins. Turned out ok. Plating was dull but polished up fine.

second, slightly thicker and more reminiscent of a watch case I did at 6v at 1A  - no good. Possibly not clean enough. I rebuffed and polished the nickel off and did it again at 5v and 0.8A for 15 mins and it was good -  but still dull out of the solution - polished up nice though.

third piece was done the same to verify settings. All good.

my solution is a bit cloudy, possibly the cheap vinegar or cheap salt!

Well worth the exercise as I have a degree of confidence an actual case will plate.

 
Oh and each piece I turned half way through to avoid shadowing. 

Very happy and will only get better. A few pics attached:

Edited May 5, 2023 by Jonno65

[RichardHarris123]

Brilliant, I need to have a go.  Let me know how your experiments go and I can follow. 

[Jonno65]

7 hours ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Brilliant, I need to have a go.  Let me know how your experiments go and I can follow. 

I certainly will