A little metal crank

When I was five, my mom died and my older sisters were in charge 'till dad got home from work. If I was "Acting-up" the sisters would call dad at the shop and he would have to come home and get me. On the way back to work, he would stop at the hobby shop and buy a plastic model for me to build to keep me busy at the shop while he got some work done. (Gee, anytime I wanted a new model AND go play at the shop...sisters never got that) When I was done with the model, I would wander the shop and all the employees would keep an eye on me. The best part was Mary Sitzenstock would let me push the start button on the 385 brush machine. OHMYGOD...What a thrill to see this massive, noisy monstrosity jump to life and create something! I was HOOKED! Mary retired last year after over sixty years with us...she started when she was fourteen working for my grandfather. I scrapped the 385 machine two years ago and replaced it with a new machine, built in 1968. The machine company still makes that model so parts are easy to get. The old one had to have everything hand carved and there were some seriously intricate bastard parts to make.

I'm going to re-label ALL my start buttons with "$$$".

Thanks for making me remember that!!!

Electroless nickel is neat because plating occurs everywhere, even down in the roots of internal threads. There are no "shadows".

I have had intermittent results with it on brass. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. It may depend on how much zinc the brass contains.

It has to be heated to 195F to work, which can take a while.

It must eventually be replenished or replaced as the nickle gets used up. Regular nickle doesn't need replenishment because it uses a nickel anode.

And this on highly conductive metals like silver and gold. Man, that's what I call heat control! I'll bet 40 years of experience doesn't hurt a bit.

Awesome work Don. You are the Master! I saved that whole post so if I need to do something similar, I'll have some idea where to start! Thanks, David Someone got a nice lathe.

Gary Wooding wrote: ... The process of melting

Having just read Tubal Cain's "Soldering and Brazing", I can relate something that I learned there. When brazing is done (soldering, too), the filler metal mixes with the base metal to create an alloy. This alloy can (generally does?) have a higher melting point than the filler. This is commonly experienced when unsoldering copper pipe joints: it takes more heat than soldering them.

BTW - I bought the Tubal Cain book based upon a recommendation posted here. I'd like to second that - it is very good and I learned a lot.

Bob

Plating setup? Well, not hardly! It's just a few gallon jugs of various chemicals from Caswell, a few metal anodes, and a plastic bucket sitting on the garage--uh, shop -- floor. I bent up some

1/4" square copper stock I found surplus to use as a "bus bar" to hang the workpiece(s) from using bits of welding rod, stove pipe wire, #12 copper ground wire or whatever's handy. I made a current regulator to control plating current. I think I have a Word document describing that. I could post or email that if you'd like. I don't plate anything that won't fit in the bucket so I don't need much current. I even plate little stuff in a 2-liter or 4- liter pyrex beaker. 0 to 3 amps is plenty, though the current regulator is easily extensible to 20 amps and more. I run it off a 12 volt DC supply. The regulator uses a 10-turn pot so I can set the current quite precisely. A current regulator is nice because then I don't blow meter fuses when (not if) a short happen in the bucket. I use a cheap DVM from HF as a current meter.

Chrome needs a LOT of current. I don't mess with chrome. Chromic acid is very nasty stuff, requiring very good positive ventilation. If I were to do chrome I'd want a dedicated space with a good vent hood. I don't have either the space or the need for that.

Check out Caswell's website.

I think there might be some photos of other folks' plating setups that are a lot neater than my rather hodgepodge collection of jugs etc.