Nickel Electroplating Steel In The Home Workshop
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 พ.ค. 2024
- G'day everyone,
In this video I would like to explore a method of creating a rust resistant coating on my steel tools. January in my part of NSW has historically been quite wet, with this year being no exception. The workshop of far from airtight and that moisture in the air is not great for some of my mild steel tools.
I would like to cover bluing of steel one day, but in this video I would like to delve into my experiments with nickel plating in the home workshop. Before this I would have thought that electroplating was outside the scope of what you could do in the home workshop, but as it turns out, very basic nickel plating can be done with a basic set up.
As you will see a layer can be deposited onto mild steel which is able to resist corrosion quite effectively. However bright finish or hard nickel plating is outside the scope of what can be achieved here.
I hope you enjoy the video.
#electroplating
Timestamps
0:00 - Introduction
2:16 - Why not use stainless Steel?
3:42 - Realistic Goals for a home set up
4:15 - Nickel Plating Method
8:41 - Results and issues with a home set up
11:01 - Electro cleaning and Electroplating Methods - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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G;day everyone. No surprise that this is a very detailed subject matter and there are many areas that I could not cover in such a short video. If you want to try out this type of electroplating, I encourage you to read these resources. They are quite long but they contain great deal of further information which I have found to be useful. Cheers
nickelinstitute.org/media/lxxh1zwr/2023-nickelplatinghandbooka5_printablepdf.pdf
www.casf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NickelElectroplating.pdf
advancedplatingtech.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Electroless-Nickel-Plating-A-Guide.pdf
Artisan, you are a great choice for a sleepless night! 😂
Hot night in Melbourne, couldn't sleep, turned on TH-cam only to find a fresh video from you! So fresh that there were only 5 comments! 😮
Happy New Year to you and your family!
Mark from Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺
OK, serious comment now. Could you please comment on where you source your materials from?
Perhaps even consider making a video on the subject as I noticed that have some very interesting shapes of steel on hand!
Thanks in advance.
Mark from Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺
Grass in January!!! You live in Australia or something???
I want to recommend a channel: BaremetalHW. He takes old diecast toy cars and restores them, and has many detailed videos about electro-polishing and plating in both nickel and zinc.
on the subject of the anode bags. sreetips uses pool filter bags for his silver purifying electrolysis set up. might work for your anode too.
I'm a self-taught home machinist that does some nickel plating. After some stuff that started to rust anyhow after a while, I learned that preparation is very very important. The part has to be very clean and degreased. Preparation take much more time than the plating itself
Secondly, don't add too much salt, as the current will be too high, causing uneven plating results. The current required depends on the surface area.
Finally nickelacetate is poisonous, so store it safely
Any storage recommendations?
@@famtovar5385 I'm self taught, so no professional. But I know one or two things. The base is vinegar, so you nickel acetate, but the concentrationisn't very high. I think coke is more acidic (so PET would work). You can store it in any acid proof water tight container: I'm using PP food storage containers. Seal it and keep it at room temperature. You can lookup recommendations for professional products.
Lower your voltage to 3-5v and hang the part so it can spin or can be occasionally rotated between the two anodes. Add a small amount of dissolved boric acid to the solution and saccharin as a brightener. All these dramatically helped me.
You’re my go-to for budget workshop solutions. Too many TH-camrs give in to tool collection and that’s fine but it’s actually useful to see someone make do on a small budget.
I've nickel plated parts for firearms with fairly good results. I used cast iron welding rods which are pure nickel for the good ones.
I didn't know that. 👍
If you want bright and shiny nickel you can add 1g/L of pure Saccharine (artificial sweetener)- this acts as a brightener and should be relatively easy to get. Its a bit old school compared to the newest addtitives on the market but was used for decades with good results. I have used this method in vinegar based DIY baths with good sucess. keep in mind that there is a "window" of current density in which the bath produces the best results- too much current(amps) = bad results and too little current = also bad results. Dont care too much about the voltage, its the current that does the work and that has to be controlled. usually its dependent on the size of the object to be plated and the larger the object the more current you need. A general starting point would be about 25mA per cm² of to be plated surface and bath temp of about 35-40°C-
wow that sounds like such a great tip. Ill have to do that next time I am nickel plating
Very nice job on the electroplating and the explanations.
Just make sure not to scratch all the way through the nickel layer. Otherwise you would create a small battery cell (particularly when getting wet) and it will rust even faster
That is partially true, but also wrong. The fantastic properties of such platings include the following:
As you described, a battery would form, which is nothing else than an electrochemical process. This may "re-electro-plate", meaning closing scratches and even out dings on the surface.
Yeah, if those are to big, nothing safes the exposed plated base-material from rusting. But nothing else than submerging the part in f.e. oil does that either.
You can further read about that in articles about zinc-plating for exterior use. That effect is well documented and one of the reasons to use such techniques for protection of surfaces subjected to mechanical stress. There is also the possibility to plate a harder material on top of the corrosion prevention (or vice versa) or mix them like in an alloy.
Its a fascinating topic you can even study and specialize in ... for a life-time. Guys, have fun making!:)
@@dieSpinnt Funny thing is that i did study this stuff (among many others) as i am holding a PhD in chemistry and being an inorganic material scientist
You could use a Dacron cloth filter bag for a shop vac as your anode bag. Ideally, you want the part fully suspended in the solution not sitting on the bottom of the tank to prevent dead zones with no coating.
This vid is one of the best I have seen in covering plating. Many get really far into detailing unimportant points or going on for far too long about one particular aspect. You have a perfect balance here, well done!
Try agitating the solution whilst plating, just a simple stirring motion. In jewelry we move the piece around in the plating solution when plating. Of course we are doing a thinner coating on much smaller pieces.
I think I remember James from Clough42 doing a nickel plating video maybe a year or so ago. If you want to look more into nickel plating, maybe watch his video?
I've not tried electro cleaning prior to plating, but I'll give it a go. Parkerising is still my go to method for finishing tools.
Regards, Mark
I will say CRC SP350 is the best I have ever seen for surface rust prevention Thank you, ABOM79 for introducing me to it
Very nice.
The unevenness on the top of the tool holder comes from the process of electroplating itself. The electric field is stronger at the edges on the outside of the material, likewise it is weaker at inside edges. So when the nickel deposits on the part to coat it, more is deposited at the outisde edges and less is deposited at the inside edges. I beliee this is what makes it look like discoloration but it is just layers of different thickness, fading in and out.
Chemical coating processes alleviate that problem, but are a different topic, especially in handling.
Oh then it isn't simply because there was just a little bit of liquid on top of the bath[1] and that the higher the density of the solution, the higher the nickel content is, which in turn means that the highest ion concentration is at the bottom of the galvanic tank? Well, I am not discussing your nonsense and misunderstanding about "electric field[s]" and how currents flow in fluids, but give you a "magic" one hits them all solution: We in the professional industry use rotating drums that ensure even application of the plating process. Even with your misunderstanding of the chemical and physical basics, that would mitigate "unevenness". So speaking about home use: SHAKE the bath and maybe turn your workpiece around and submerge them EVENLY in the fluid (too less fluid=bad, too much fluid=does only matter for your purse, hehe). Hey, otherwise you are so innovative (like inventing electric fields in fluids ...), I'm sorry for the mocking, but please read about electric fields and the electrochemical process of plating at, f.e. Wikipedia.
You are absolutely right with the plating thickness. Such coats in the nanometer scale and above periodically (sine spectrum) refract light and that results in a preferred lesser absorbed color. You can find tables for different materials which help to estimate the layer thickness based on the reflected light wavelength. But they are not exact in the matter I mentioned above. For example a 420nm blue tint may hint to a 2µm Layer, but also 12, 22, 32µm (those are fantasy numbers, just for explaining the principle behind it).
[1] That means also a higher resistance = lower current = lower layer thickness plating effectivity over time.
Dehumidifier, a bonus of it is also a minor (about 300 watt) heat from it.
My whole basement runs a small "portable" dehumidifier and it's under 40/50% humidity and nothing rusts 😁
Depending on where you live though, it's an expensive way to avoid rust. 300W 24/7 would cost me almost £900 per year here in the UK. Sure, it might not run continuously at certain times of the year, but it's still a factor to consider.
Another option is electroless nickle. As a designer I used this for aluminum covers as it's a wear and scratch resistant surface. I don't remember plating steel but it should work. Amazon has electroless plating kits. Interestingly electroless plate can be soldered with electronics solder so the flux will not be corrosive.
Coffee filters should be decent replacement for the anode bags. And more readily avaiable.
Worked in a plating shop for 3 years doing copper, nickel and chrome plating. Brightness issue you are correct that a brightner does improve it well but a little buffing before and after plating will help. The discoloration could be because the edges closest to the anodes can get plating burned. Thin edges tend to have this problem most. Try spacing the cathode/anode farther from the part. Lastly we used aeration in the nickel tank. Try a fish tank bubbler.
Looks great for a first try.
Good video :)
At least for chrome (which I've done in an industrial setting a long time ago) pH, temperature and type of transfer current does a huge difference. For most metal platings you need a controlled 10-50Hz pulsing or even 50Hz 90/10 duty cycle AC pulsing to make the de-ionization deposition form an ideal metal matrix on the receiver. When you need the best wear resistance that you can get, this is very important. Also, look into something that can sit in the bath and stir the solution slowly while plating, this helps with deposition evenness.
I have watched a few hobby electroplating videos. This is the first one to suggest making your own solution. Good for you!
Super cool, I'm always glad to see when you post a new vid, especially new things and shop infrastructure. Cheers!
Great video, liked your aside into electrocleaning. The discoloration on the edges is likely due to the electric field concentrating on the sharp edges and plating too fast. Aside from regulating the plating rate chemically (I think glycerin can help? Can't remember) the easiest thing to do is to move the electrodes further and plate slower. Youd still plate more on the edges but the plating rate would be slow enough not to burn anything. Cheers and great video as usual.
Good idea and nickel plating is a good choice.
My brother has vintage motorcycles and has replated much of the nickel. I'm not surs of the process he used but achieved great resultsxand even matched the vintage finish of original parts. For extra protection he copper plated the steel parts first.
Depending on the age of the vehicle, sometimes they used cadmium
Thanks for sharing. You always have the best ideas and tips.
I did some copper plating recently on some rust-prone steel parts. Not sure of the long term durability but it looks satisfying. I did also buy some nickel and zinc to give those a try.
Do protect the steel from air mate, or you’re gonna form a iron-copper battery which will corrode the iron
Great subject content for this video. Interesting information.
Thanks for sharing.
Hey mate in terms of brightness you can give nickel plated stuff a light polishing with autosol or silvo, and I've found that gives it a more even, deeper, shine. Just obviously dont go mental and rub it right through. It's worked for me so far :) great work!
Im always impressed by how much you managed to get done in your workshop. its really inspiring.
From what I've seen in other videos an anode bag can be as simple as a coffee filter :)
Thank you, Artisan. Interesting topic that you can spend so much time on. I've done pink and yellow gilding and Silver and Rhodium plating. I enjoy your channel. 😀
awesome and inspiring Mr Makes
I'm joining you with the hacksaws since my workshop is my bedroom
Pretty interesting solution, I did some nichel plating in the past as i was restoring an old boat that had some brass parts that were losing the original plating. As yours the color came ok but I used a polishing wheel and the results were pretty good.
@1:24 - Cool story bro time: I used to work in a plating factory. I did reel to reel lead plating with copper and tin/lead and I did small batch barrel plating. Gold was plated twice a week in a barrel and the chemist was a personal friend. I would often throw pocket change and various items in the barrel at load time and retrieve them after the full cycle was done. That lead to me having a vast collection of cobalt doped (shine and hardness) gold plated items like coins, paper clips - whatever you would think looks cool to barrel plate and is small enough to tumble easily in a barrel. This included a 'pipe' that I had turned out of stainless in the metal lathe during an overnight shift. Great job, but left a hole in every piece of work clothing I had.
Yeah, the drops of acid eat holes in your clothing (especially fabrics with cotton) no matter how fast you try to rinse/wash them, even when still standing next to the plating tank and you use a water hose (clean rinse water) to rinse the acid drop away.
"turning" and milling. Cool video.
What a crazy coincidence. I cleaned up some spanners of mine that had some rust on them this week and did nearly the exact same thing to re protect them.
Microcrystaline wax is good on bare steel/iron.
The issue I've had with waxes is they break down when using cutting fluids and especially any degreasers. I use so many of these in succession in the shop that waxes just don't last. Long term storage of tools is another story. Just my experience.
A. Great video! You present a nice spread of different techniques rather than just machining. Bang on!
B. Are you ever going to build a powered hacksaw?
C. Repeat of previous query: What is your first name, matey?
Enjoyed the video. Does nickel plating not benefit from a light copper plating first, or is that just for chrome? Excellent demonstration and explanation for the home shop here. Thanks and cheers!
Good info thanks I'd like to try plating some day..
It's really detail specific and precise science to electroplate. As you displayed here a protective coating can quickly be applied. There are heavy metal forms which can contaminate the body to various degrees and are particularly nasty. The nickel must be of the purest quality and 100% pure for anodes or diodes. Contamination with (Fe) iron and Carbon must be avoided and copper in the nickel acetate is said to be dangerous also . A fume hood over the bath or a great amount of ventilation will help protect the worker, I have read. So we know then the gaseous forms pose the danger since you wont be drinking or contaminating food with any of (God willing) Also it's common sense to keep the hands dry and clean inside nitrile or latex gloves? The power source is the easiest thing to make a strong influence on the plating. Temperature also. So I know enough that your video helps me to understand better since all these points you covered including do research plenty.
9:29 it also says saccharin (sugar). You could give it a try and see if it does something
I might join us with this nickel plating but i need to check some other some other stuff
I need to do this to my 1-2-3 blocks.
Great idea!
Cool video. I've worked in eleptro polishing for about 15 ish years. For cleaning acetone as well as lacquer thinner work well but we also use sodium hydroxide ( caustic) and that works very well. It helps for us to suspend the piece as well as moving the contact points depending on what you want to achieve. This may not help with what you're doing but I thought I'd mention it. It is more or less the same thing just the opposite and I know that seemingly doesn't make sense but hard to say. I'm going to give your method a try on my next project
They sell a Bright Nickel Plating solution, I saw some on Amazon for like 30 dollars US but it's only an 8oz bottle.
A tip for plating like is if you want a bright finish you're going to need to mirror polish the surface before plating, otherwise it will appear very dull. Also make sure the parts are super clean. 👍👍
Vinegar, salt, Rubbermaid tub, distilled water, some old stainless forks, and a battery charger. Yeah, it doesn't get more basic than that. Best part, it produces results. At the end of the day, that's what matters most. Fun fact, old computer components and cell phones and print cartridges all have gold contacts in them. You can use a aqua regia process to extract the gold into a solution that you can plate with.
I expect to see everything in your shop gold-plated within the next year.😂
I'd recommend getting a compressor based dehumidifier for your shop. Makes a huge difference.
From the docs you showed, it looks like saccharine was one of the hard plating additives one could use. That should be easy to acquire. Nice vid.
Parkerizing is extremely easy to do. If you can heat water you can parkerize. It was used on virtually all small arms used in word war II. The parkerizing itself is very abrasion resistant. It comes in either grey or black color. I never use any other process any more. Try it. You’ll like it.
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Suneel Kanda
That was good fun, thanks. You didn't mention what it cost you all up, and sometimes all the little things add up. Adidas Superstars ftw!
In total maybe $25 or so. Most of that being the nickel plate of what I only used about $5 worth here
Fantastic results!
Try a copper/copper alloy coating next? From memory the electroplating guy I used to talk to said that was the easiest thing to coat with.
I agree that on my smaller handtools that they get rusty fast. the cheaper ones have a very poor rough finish... me being me I polished the parts not in handles. They come out like bright chrome...easier to wipe clean. So pretty my buddy took a tiny pair of sidecutters to cut his nails! My favorite projects are my black powder Colt revolvers (clones) They look pretty flashy and are much easier to clean. My thinking is tho that I have never seen an old Nickel plated gun that had the dreaded 'ring around the cylinder' caused by the bolt dragging on the blue steel and wearing through in short order Sooo the cylinder is machined to have 'bolt stop notches' that keep the cylinder from turning during firing. The other thing is they cylinder star that the hand moves the cyl with (rotates the right amount) nickel is really hard. it also has some 'lubricity' on a highly polished part. Black powder residue will wipe off for the most part. Also the fouling build up till after 4 cyl or so the cylinder will not turn. You have to take it apart and clean it. With my guns.... I noticed that they rarely if ever jam up now. Also the nickel is preventing wear on the now plated star. I even plate the insides of the chambers... for an experiment I nickel plated the bore of the least powerful one in 31 caliber. A real quicky job without much prep but it is still hanging in there.
One other thing that is important for guns at least is a barrier between the steel and the nickel. It is best to nickel plate over copper as the bond is much greater.
You’re probably already aware but you’ve been linked to from across the Tasman Sea by Geoffrey Croker of Croker vs Rover fame. Two great antipodean TH-camrs. Keep up the great work. (Edit: note to self, watch all of the video before commenting, there’s a FNQ Clickspring reference too!) (Further edit: I’m liking the This Old Tony talking hands vibes lately too)
Hot tip. All those moisture packs in shoe boxes and packages, keep them and chuck them in your tool drawers.
I LIKE IT!!!!!
Here's a tip... Buy some nickel wire, use this to connect electrodes to the parts. If you get your power supply clamps into the solution, you will kill it. Also the sodium chloride is important because it creates another nickel salt. When I was looking at commercial kits, they had both salts in the mixture. Also note that most of the acetate salts are poisonous.
I found that the level of shine was more up to layer thickness and current density. Too much current density produced dull finishes. I've done brass and steel so far with very good results. Buy a real DC power supply, results will improve.
Yikes - I'd better get some nickel wire. I've got some steel end bells off of a couple of electrical transformers that I want to plate - they're roughly tray-shaped and need to be totally submerged. From what you're saying, ordinary alligator clips in the solution might mess everything up.
@@hubbsllc anything other than nickel on the donor side will cause problems. And even on the receiving side it just made sense to me because the nickel wire doesn't cost very much money. This is a long process, turn your back for 10 minutes and come back to find the wires in solution and everything needs to be made again. The nickel wire gives you a little safety margin.
Get/make a stirring bar (plastidip a magnet bar and glue a small button magnet to a fan) or just use an SLA printing stir-cleaner (which is what I do). As you plate, it will keep the solution moving and stop the bubbles of H+ from adhering to the workpiece and cause the darkening your seeing.
Yay, First! 😎
Greetings from the other part of the globe, Berlin!
Excellent video as always. I like plating as much as anyone, but I am curious why you wouldn't just go with VCI paper or bags.
That's a neat idea. I guess it beats spraying t9 or whatever on everything all the time?
In Canada, our 10 cent coins minted between 1968 - 1999 are pure nickel which makes for a common source of nickel.
It was fun to see the process of making the nickel solution, you always see people using premade stuff on electroplating videos so it didn't even occur to me you could make your own! Just out of curiosity, did you decide to make it from scratch just for the fun of it, or were there some other reason like availability or price?
I dissolved the connection strips from old lithium batteries. The solution went nicely green as expected but my plating is nearly black. I was disappointed but put the part to work.
It is an adapter from Gernie high pressure water jet cleaner to an unknown brand drain snake. The part is slate gray after 2 years but not showing any rust.
EDTA as a chleating agent.
It will help with your coverage and splotchyness
Protip - For some electroplating if you can not get a hold of good enough vinegar acid or if your vinegar solution produces lots of residue and eats through some metals (like solder joints) you can try citric acid, which will work perfectly, but will introduce impurities that will get thrown out of the solution during plating and will quickly degrade the it. Still, better a short-lived plating solution than completely unplated half-eaten solder joints
👍
Can you put the used cathode onto the anode clip and a new strip on the cathode ?
Great demonstration!! I was wondering if you would be able to tell me where I can find a copy of the nickel plating handbook you referenced @ 7:47 talking about the anode bags. Thanks
EDIT: I found the links you pinned in your pinned comment
Nice work, I have a industry grade nickel plating machine at work. This thing is nasty, so be careful when doing something with nickel
Make sure you properly neutralise the nickel solution before disposal. Raise the pH with sodium hydroxide and add aluminum metal. Let it sit until crystal clear, then rebalance the pH with vinegar, decant into soil and bin the sediment.
Did the plating have any noticeable effect on the threads or is it too thin for that?
Electroless Nickel Plating next, please 😌 😎
would it help to agitate the plating solution? (to clarify i'm not an expert and ive never even plated something, but i could imagine, that it could be beneficial to have some sort of agitation, so the part always has fresh solution to catch the metal ions from)
Maybe it needed a distilled water bath between cleaning and plating?
Gold plating is usually done over nickel.
Hey also play with the angles, due to the hydrogen production on the work piece. It will help to even out any thin spots
what store did you get the C20 collet holders from? (I know its AliExpress but want to know which store)
Have you thought about using a piece of stainless to plate your tools? It would work the same way as nickel.
Can you link the document you were researching with?
aren't those hand scenes morally owned by Tony? :)
Artisan, Maybe consider a dehumidifier for the workshop...
I also have that little black book. I was disappointed to find that it doesn't have thread dimensions and specs in it.
Just be aware that many people are allergic to nickel or can become so, there's a wiki page on the subject as well as many others..
Wrap the electrodes in cheese cloth to keep the black boogers out of the solution. Use CANNING SALT which has no Iodine (an impurity added to table salt) in it.
Shame we're so far apart. Got some wonderful steel suppliers but shipping would nullify any benefit for you :(
Wonderful vid thank you
You could gold plate for less than you probably think but initially it would cost a good amount
What mm does your new lathe uses?? 12 mm?? Also where do you buy most of ur cutting tools?
I use 12mm, for the standard tool post it used 16mm, I had to shim the tools up to centre height. As for the holders I buy them off eBay, kinda cheap and nasty but they’ve lasted 5 years. The inserts I buy off aliexpress. $5-10 for 10 inserts
@@artisanmakes i love ur channel is one of my top 3 i just got a lathe and i have a lot of questions thats why i asked
my cheap Chinese power chisel head (maybe 5 kg.) in a wet room, rust spots appear, i was admiring the color of finish: 'hey, that has to be nickel plate on this cheap pos', it's like 15 years old.
Not a heated work area?
Why did you not consider zinc plating instead of nickel plating? Should have been pretty much the same difficulty.
9:50 Excuse me sir, did you just say that there are certain steps to form hard nipple?
Yes, the more you step on them, the harder they get🤣
Yep, you have to be skilled with your electrodes, but it's apparently best left to the professionals.
In making my own solution, it just turns cloudy and all the green matter eventually sinks to the bottom of the container. Does anyone have an idea what I’m doing wrong?
Check to make sure if you need to bake your parts to remove hydrogen embrittlement. It would be awful if all of your tools crumbled after a while
would have to add 0.05% Copper, 1.5% Nickle, 60% Tungsten, 0.3% Vanadium, 1.25% Chrome, and 36.9% iron to the electroplating solution, for it to be mildly hardened. near 280'000psi to 480'000psi cylinder lining for things like pneumatic tools engines compressors and roller bearings... that go over cast iron, and slowly raise the quality of iron every time something is recycled.
can get away with using depleted uranium in electroplating industrial equipment in some places...
use a disposable carbon electrode on the sacrificial end.
How about cold bluing?
Ill be doing bluing in a later video, its a nice coating but it is not nearly as corrosion resistant as the nickel plating. Cheers
th-cam.com/video/NsCS8_EKOpU/w-d-xo.html
Mark also has some other videos on various coatings as I believe he is also in Australia and suffers from his tools rusting from the weather as well
good ol prezzo. big fan of his
are nickel plated itens food safe ?
According to Google, yes.
No
Yes, it won't harm food but acidic food may keep it from lasting years.
@@Davesobscurevideoshuh? Source?
@@836dmar so I had actually read about this just the other day and what I was reading was that it wasn’t. I just did a bit more research and apparently it is food safe 🤷🏻♂️ that’s good news cause I have a homemade kitchen knife I can nickel plate.
If we fund raise enough, would you gold plate everything in the shop? 😂