DIY Nickel Plating bolts and nuts

The last couple of days I've been experimenting with DIY plating. Most bolts and almost all the nuts are rusty or look like some dull bare metal. Just out of curiosity I started looking for some cheap DIY plating methodes without dangerous chemicals. I found a nice Nickel plating recipe to use, and all you need is vinegar, table salt, pure nickel, a glass jar, an old mobile phone charger and a couple of crocodile clamps.
I choose for Nickel plating because it has a nice chrome/metal like color and has good corrosion and wear resistance.

Plating sources table

As most people I had an old mobile phone charger laying in a drawer. I cut off the end, stripped a cm of both wires and connected them to the alligator clamps. A phone charger is perfect because it is between 5-6 V,  DC and has a  low, constant current with almost no fluctuations.

Home made power supply for Nickel plating

Before you can start nickel plating you have to make your own  nickel acetate solution; The electrolyte!

Fill your glass jar for 3/4 with white vinegar and at a  flat tablespoon of salt for each litre of vinegar. Don't put too much salt in it as you will get bad nickel plating results.
Now you need to find yourself some 100% nickel. I knew that they use nickel rods for cast metal welding, so I went to a welding shop and bought a 100% pure nickel rod. The pure nickel core is covered in a flux coating and you have to scrape this off with a scraper or something similar. Don't go for the ones with only 75% nickel, you won't get nice plating results with them.

100% pure Nickel welding rods with and without flux

DIY Nickel plating stuff

After removing the flux I cut it in two halves, now I had an Anode and a Cathode. Stick them both in the vinegar and connect them to a battery charger (or your modified phone charger). Make sure they don't touch each other! Now switch on the power and wait for 1-2 hours until the solution turns green. If you use your modified phone charger it will take a bit longer.

Creating Nickel electrolyte with a battery charger

Creating Nickel acetate (electrolyte) 

Creating Nickel acetate (electrolyte) 

Green coloured  Nickel acetate (electrolyte) 

When the electrolyte has a nice green colour switch off the power take out the (-) nickel rod. Don't swirl it around in the solution before taking it out because you'll pollute your electrolyte with the black stuff sitting on the rod. Now connect the piece you want to plate to the neg (-) lead of your phone charger dip it in the electrolyte and switch on the power. Wait!!.... Don't forget the most important part of plating... preparation!
The first time I plated something I only cleaned my piece with some wax and grease remover. The results weren't really bad but as plating highlights imperfections it didn't look smooth at all.

Nickel plated bolt, first time result, needed some more sanding

So I sanded my next piece really well. First 240 then 360-400-600. If you want really high gloss shiny parts you can also use 800-1000-1200-1500-2000.
Another thing you need to keep in mind is that it's impossible to plate over chrome, silver paint etc. So you have to take your piec back to bare metal. I used Deox-Ionize, stuff they normally use to prep metal before spray painting. It will, clean and etch your piece. Removing chrome is a bit harder, try an orbital sander or grinder and wear a mask because chrome is very poisonous! Always dip the parts in some kind of etcher/de-ruster like the Deox-Ionize after sanding and don't touch it with your hands after that. This is really very important ( I discovered it the hard way...) Then rinse it with water.

After preparing a nut and a washer I took a piece of metal tie wire and attached it to the 5 V phone charger neg (-) alligator clamp and the nut and washer, switched on the power and dipped them in the electrolyte solution. It started to bubble within a few seconds. I moved the parts a bit to create some flow and kept them as far away from the Nickel Anode as possible. It's also good to turn your part once every minuto or so, because the side that faces the Anode will get more plating than the other side. After 5-10 minutes there was a nice layer of Nickel on the nut and washer so I took 'm out, rinsed them with water and polished them a bit (The plated parts will look a bit dull when you take 'm out the electrolyte). They look good imo. It's almost impossible to make a used nut or bolt completely smooth because you'll simply sand off to much metal to get rid of all the scratches and all of a sudden your 17 mm nut is a 16.5 mm nut.....

DIY Nickel plated nut and washer

DIY Nickel plated nut and washer

Old used Bolt after preparation, before Nickel plating

DIY Nickel plated old bolt

It's very important that the piece you're plating will be plated completely. If the're pinholes, oxygen will attack the  metal underneath and it will  rust even faster than without plating.

For more nickel plating see: http://yamaha-ls3.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/more-diy-nickel-plating.html