More DIY Nickel plating

After my first Nickel plating experiments I've changed a couple of things. First of all I bought a bigger glass baking dish so I could plate bigger stuff. I also swapped the iron tie wire for pure copper tie wire, it won't rust like the iron tie wire did after a while (contamination of the electrolyte). And I bought 2 meters of copper wire, stripped the insulation and all of a sudden I had 12 meter pure copper tie wire :)
Remember this is quality nickel plating Without buying an expensive kit, just some cheap household products and a nickel welding rod.

Making copper tie wire

Now I had to cook some more electrolyte. I still make it in the smaller jar because that seams to work well. The 100% pure nickel rods are now showing their abuse; pitted and getting thinner.

Wear out nickel rods

After 5 batches or so I had enough to fill my bigger electroyte bath. I used another pure nickel welding rod as the new Anode. I bent it a bit so it would be over the whole height of the bath and to make it easier to connect it to the pos (+) wire of the phone charger..

Bigger electrolyte bath for nickel plating

After a plating test with an old useless bolt I took the front brake lever of the bike and started the preparation. I think this is the most important step! Clean and smooth objects will give the best most shiny plating results. Always start with a general cleaning, scrubbing and wiping your piece with wax and grease remover. Next I dipped the lever for ca. 5 minutes in Hydrochloric acid (HCL), this will remove all the left over old zinc plating. It will also remove surface rust etc.

Hydrochloric acid for cleaning metal and removing zinc plating

Best to do this outside because it bubbles like crazy and I think the fumes aren't too healthy...

Dipping zinc plated rear foot peg in Hydrochloric acid

Then I rinsed the to be plated part with water, dipped it for 3-5 minute in Deox-ionize, to prep it for the plating, now rinse again with water and put it in the electrolyte solution straight away before you get flash rust. Connect the copper tie wire withe the metal rod hanging above your bath. The first couple of times I connected the Neg (-) wire  with the rod through a thin copper wire. It worked but later on I connected the Alligator clip directly to the metal rod and this improved the plating results. After 25 minute or so I took the lever out, rinsed it with water and polished it for a couple of minutes. Looking good!

Front brake lever Yamaha LS3 being nickel plated

Nickel plated front brake lever Yamaha LS3

Nickel plated front brake lever and polish alu hub Yamaha LS3

The next day I started polishing some stuff after the cleaning/preparation cycle but before plating. After polishing I repeated the whole cleaning and dipping preparation cycle. It made a big difference. It looks better and I've read that the nickel will bond better if the to be plated surface is smooth. It's pretty hard to catch the plating results but believe me it's looking good!

rear foot peg Yamaha LS3 before plating

Nickel plated rear foot peg Yamaha LS3

Nickel plated rear foot peg Yamaha LS3 1972

Nickel plated rear foot peg Yamaha LS3

Springs and other parts middle - and side stand

Nickel plated springs and bolts middle - and side stand

Polished and unpolished nickel plated bolts tension bar Yamaha LS3

Tension bar Yamaha LS3 before plating

Tension bar Yamaha LS3 before plating

Polished  nickel plated bolts and tension bar Yamaha LS3

Polished  nickel plated bolts and tension bar Yamaha LS3

Polished  nickel plated bolts and tension bar Yamaha LS3

The tension bar I nickel plated didn't fit in my electrolyte bath so I did it in two steps. You absolutely cannot see the overlap. It looks like it has been plated in one go.

Nickel plating in two steps

I also nickel plated the wire adjuster of the autolube pump. It was rrrrrrrusty, if you take a closer look you can still see some light pitting.

Rusty Autolube pump wire adjuster

Nickel plated Autolube pump wire adjuster

Adjusting bolt an nut

Nickel plated adjusting bolt and nut

After a couple of days the metal rod above the electrolyte bath started to discolour, the vinegar acid must have bitten it ;) So I replaced it with a piece of copper pipe which is also better for the current flow.
And because I read that the optimum working temp for a nickel bath is around 55 C I went to a charity bargain market last Saturday morning and bought an old but working stainless steel BBQ plate for 2 dollar.

Heating-the Nickel plating electrolyte

Another thing I did was filtering the electrolyte. I used an old plastic coffee filter with a paper filter inside.

Filtered Nickel plating electrolyte

Before plating I now wet sand the parts with 600/800-1200-1500 grit. I know it's a bit fiddly but if you want good results it's worth the extra couple of minutes work.

The plating results are even better than before. After a light buff it's a mirror finish.

Pan head screw - engine cover - before DIY Nickel plating

Nickel plated pan head screws engine cover Yamaha LS3

Nickel plated pan head screws engine cover Yamaha LS3

Nickel plated bolt engine 

Mirror finish DIY Nickel plated bolt

Rear wheel shaft, sprocket shaft, collars

Nickel plated Rear wheel shaft, sprocket shaft, collars Yamaha LS3

DIY Nickel plated sprocket shaft Yamaha LS3 1972

Another thing that I plated were a couple of new Yamaha bolts I ordered for the brake and clutch levers. The original chrome bolts were quite rusty and pitted. But when I received the "original" bolts they looked totally different, only the size was right. First of all they weren't chrome plated but zinc plated, secondly there was a number (6 or 9) on top. They call it "superseded" what means that the original part has been replaced by a useable newer/better part, I learned this the hard way... Yuk, they really looked like simple construction bolts from your local hardware store.

So I took one of those superseded bolts, dipped it for a minute in hydrochloric acid and carefully grinded the top smooth. Then I sanded the head with 600-1200-1500 grit sandpaper and nickel plated the bolt.
Looks way better, very close to the original chrome plated bolt.

Superseded, modified and original bolt Yamaha

Superseded, modified and original bolt Yamaha

Same thing with the cable adjuster bolts and nuts. The superseded ones have the same shape as the original ones but were painted black (poor paint job) instead of being zinc or chrome plated.

Superseded cable adjuster nut and bolt Yamaha

So I dipped them in hydrochloric acid for 10-20 seconds (that was enough to remove all the paint).

Removing the black paint with Hydrochloric acid

20 minutes in a Nickel bath did gave them the finishing original touch.

Plated cable adjuster nut and bolt Yamaha

Nickel plated cable adjuster nut and bolt Yamaha

For more info about preparation see: http://yamaha-ls3.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/preparation-motorcycle-parts-before-diy.html

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