Home electroplating

G

Geezerbiker

New member
Anybody here plating gun parts at home? I did copper plating in a high-school science class back in the dark ages. As I recall we were told soft metals like copper, nickel, silver and gold were easy so long as you had the correct solution.

I was given a power source for home electroplating some years ago and now I'm finally getting around to thinking about it. I've watched some U-tube videos about it and they make it look as easy as I remember.

I was thinking of plating the bolt shroud and safety on my Mauser first and if that looked good, maybe some other bits and pieces.

Gold plating is too damn expensive wears to quickly so I have no plans to go there. I'm thinking copper with nickel over the top would look good and protect the parts from rusting.

Tony
 
It's according to how big of a piece you want to plate or anodize. As far as plating, I've done pen plating with gold, but the shelf life of the solution isn't very long, and for the cost, you need a lot of things to use it up on. I bought it for Browning triggers, etc. They use it for plating animals on game scenes of engravings now, instead of using solid gold inlays, to save on cost.

All pen plating is, is a felt tip pen hooked to a power supply. You hook the part to the other lead, and soak the tip in the solution, then apply it to the part. The problem is, gold in solution is not cheap. At that, you have to pre-plate with copper, etc. for use on steel.

Anodizing is not that hard, but you need a larger power supply, preferably one with variable regulated voltage and current. You can use aluminum or lead for the cathode, as you're really building up a surface of aluminum oxide on the part, that will hold the dye. The acid is sulfuric acid, or battery acid.

As far as nickel, I've used electroless nickel. It was cheaper than setting up a plating tank.

On Caswell's website, they have several PDF's on different forms of plating.

http://www.caswellplating.com/

http://www.caswellplating.com/plug-n-plate-brush-plating-kits/plug-n-plate-gold-kit.html
 
I've done nickel plating on steel prior to hard plating chromium on it (not recommended without proper facilities; very toxic and dangerous solutions are involved). The nuisance was it required a nickel anode to keep the metal in the solution. I don't know if depletable solutions using non-contaminating electrodes are available for nickel now or not. D. G. is correct that the electroless nickel solutions have gotten so good and easy to apply, that they are the way I would go today. They plate by reduction reaction. The solution is consumed, for that reason, but at least you don't have to mix more than you need at one time. Your main problem will be getting the steel clean.

As to protection, there are hard chrome and black chrome and other finishes you can have done that are more effective than nickel. You may want to research modern gun finishes. Some of the plated finishes that incorporate Teflon or other dry lubricant's are pretty impressive and lubricate well for functional reliability.
 
Pass

I bet if you look in the phone book there is a plating business in your town or nearby that knows what their doing, can get good results the first time and you don't have a bunch of really bad chemicals in or around your home as part of the process.
 
I use to do most of the gold plating when I worked in a hun shop . Simple process but did as I remember contain cyinide .
 
Brownells sells a nickel plating system that eliminates the really dangerous chemicals, such as cyanide, from the process. It is still requires a fair amount of labor and a suitable work space and equipment to set it up. If you are going to do the equivalent of a couple of over and under shotgun actions it would cost less than sending them to a good gun plating facility.
 
If you're looking for info and equipment for plating you might want to check out Rio Grande Jewelry Supply. Just search for plating.
 
I do plating. My suggestion to you is the Texas Plater's Supply plating kits. They are easy to use and give good results. I have (and do) use the Caswell brush plating kits. The TPS works much better. Setting up electroless nickel plating is fairly expensive. It works well, if you have properly prepped your parts. RioGrande sells plating supplies, but you need to know how to use them.
No plating job is easy, but the Texas Platers Supply kits are easier than anything else.
 
Copper plating uses coppersulfate and it's used it gardening to kill tree roots so I'm not worried about it. In the videos on U-tube, none of them were using cyanide in the plating bath for nickel.

Anyway I've ordered a book on the subject from Amazon and I'll decide more after reading up on it.

Copper plating was so simple a class full of highschool students did it all at the same time. As I recall, we plated any small metal objects we could get in a 1 cup sized jar...

Tony
 
Geezerbiker,

Some solutions use copper sulphate. Once you get the book, if it's comprehensive, it will have more than one formula. For example, copper acetate and ammonium acetate were the electrolytes used in the Outer's Foul Out copper electrolytic gun cleaning solution. This allowed a low voltage to plate the copper from the barrel onto a stainless rod suspended by O-rings in the middle of the bore, and to do it without hurting the barrel steel underneath. The adhesion of the plate to the stainless rod was very poor, and large deposits build up as weak crystals of copper that wipe off with a paper towel like a powder. That makes the rod easy to clean, but would make the solution lousy for a permanent plate.

Cyanides help keep solutions working by helping attack the anode to bring its metal into solution to replace what has plated out on the cathode. It's something a commercial plating operation cares about because it affects their speed of production. If you are in no hurry, you don't need them.

As Bill says, commercial solutions are often best because they often contain additives to help the solutions throwing power (ability to plate down into surface irregularities) or get better adhesion. The high school process is simple, but it does not involve subsequently subjecting the plated piece to a salt spray test or long term verdigris blooming or other corrosion propensity evaluation. Simple plating demonstrates the principle (the object of the high school exercise) but the resulting plate may have corrosion encouraging pinholes or other problems.
 
I have seen a bunch of posts on plating guns with all kinds of metals, and also on other finishes, mainly paint of one kind or another, but I seldom see anyone mention dimensions.

All plating and painting involve adding material to the surface of the gun. (Duh!) If the gun is closely fitted, it might not even go back together because of that extra few thousandth of an inch.

Jim
 
Jim,
I have never had a problem with clearance dimensions on guns. In theory, it's a problem. In application, not so much. At least-with properly done plating.
 
copper plating bullets

Hi
I am experimenting with copper plating my car lead bullets. Does anyone know how far the copper sulphate goes. How many grams to coat 100 bullets.
 
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