Electroplating Brass and Steel

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Alright, so, electroplating. A old spur trigger revolver.

If mods find this thread to be misplaced, please feel free to move it to Gunsmithing.

Questions:

1) Do I need to remove the original nickel, which is patchy but smooth? Is removing done chemically?
--- edit: I assume this is done electrically by reversing the current

2) If not, should I use steel wool on it now (please no) or can I wait until after it gets a layer of electroplating?
-- edit: I assume this is irrelevant and no steel wool is required.

3) Do I need to separate the steel from the brass? I assume yes. Tips on doing this gently? (barrel from frame, mainly, but also pins, trigger)
-- Edit: What would happen if I didn't remove them? Would one of the metals attract the plating better than the other and result in an uneven coating? Would they fuse?
-- Can I even plate two different types of metals at the same time (if they weren't connected to eachother physically)?

4) What will happen to cracked areas? Assuming they can be sufficiently cleaned, will the metals being electroplated simply cover the crack or will they actually enter the cracks? If so, will they fuse the metal?
-- Please note, I plan to keep this gun. It will not be in the classifieds anywhere, once electroplated. If it is, it will come with a notice stating the condition.

5) Hardness. I want a bright hard finish, but with maximum hardness. So I'm thinking a nickel layer and then a chrome layer. I would love to go all nickel, but I think I will add chrome for hardness.
-- Edit: Can we put nickel on top of chrome? Hard nickel > Hard Chrome > Bright nickel, etc?

6) Internal stress. I assume this is bad. How do you determine what finish to use, when considering the hardness vs internal stress ratios?

6) Inner barrel - Can I electroplate this or does it have to be chemical? 2 inch .353 barrel + cylinder. Can it "throw" that far?. Nickel then chrome? Just chrome? Will just nickel suffice for soft lead?

7) Things I don't want electroplated... what do I put on them that won't affect the electroplating of other parts?

8) removed

9) Tips on raw chemicals? Which degrease, what to use for PH adjustment, which whitener, which source of chromium, which source of nickel, how much of each, etc
sodium lauryl sulphate for dealing with hydrogen bubbles, etc


Here is an example solution, for hard nickel
http://www.substech.com/dokuwiki/do...fdd76803b722a40c2d4e4c9#hard_nickel_solutions
Nickel sulphate, NiSO46H2O: 24 oz/gal (180 g/l)
Ammonium chloride, NH4Cl3: 3.3 oz/gal (25 g/l)
Boric acid, H3BO3: 4 oz/gal (30 g/l)
Tensile strength: 60000-88500 psi (415-610 MPa)
Elongation: 5-30%
Hardness: 170-230 HV
Internal stress: 0-8000 psi (0-55 MPa)

Thanks.
 
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I bought an 80A DC power supply, some brass wire, an aquarium heater, and I'm currently looking at anodes/chemicals.

I'm not sure I want to go with chrome on top of nickel, due to the fact that it would be horribly historically inaccurate.

Anyway, tips on chemicals, wetting agents, cleaning? I have not decided which chemicals to use to clean the brass with. Please advise. Also, some sort of coating that would prevent plating? (say, for the inside of the barrel, if I decide not to plate it)

edit: I have cleaned up the original post.
 
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First off you won't be plating the inside of the bore. That's a no-no unless you're doing a hard chrome job similar to that used on barrels that are chromed "for real" at the factory. A proper hard chrome of that sort starts with a slightly oversize bore and rifling knowing that they will build up enough chrome for the bore to be honed so it comes out even end to end. Same treatment is used on rams for big hydraulic cylinders. Build up then diamond hone down for accuracy and finish. You simply do not have what you need to do this at home.

For the external plating every part needs to be separated from every other part. It's not that one plates faster than another. It's the simple issues of not being able to plate and rinse out correctly in the joints between two parts.

Yes you need to remove the old nickel first. Then any pits need to be filled in with something like hard solder and the surfaces filed, sanded and polished until they gleam. THEN the plating starts. Plating will not fill any pits or voids. The metal must be perfectly smooth and polished before you start. The build up is so thin that it shows every small detail.

Commonly copper is flash plated onto steel first then nickel and finally a flash of chrome for a show chrome finish. But the common solvents used on guns such as Hoppes #9 have copper solvents. So it's nickel directly onto steel. Which is why it flakes after some years and less than perfect treatment. Nickel doesn't stick that well directly to steel.

That's as much as I know about it. For the rest you'll need to go and check out some books on plating from the library. And a BOOK is literally what you are asking for. There's no capsule one page "Cole's Notes" for these processes. Your one post is seeking the knowledge you'll only get from a whole course and some years of work history.

Some years back a couple of buddies needed to hard chrome some model engine cylinders. It was a LONG and drawn out process with a half dozen misadventures just to get things right for one specific size of part out of a specific brass alloy and so that the chrome went on and bonded like they required. Based on this if you think you're going to dive in and get it all right the first time around and plate your gun I'd have to suggest that you're dreaming in Technicolor. There's simply way too much going on to get it all right the very first time. Oh, and they DID get the big book from the library as well as talking with someone that does it for a living. The hints from that guy fixed the "book learning". In the end it was a small change that did the trick.
 
Let us know what you find out, I have no answers but am also interested, I have an lever action built of parts that I'd like nickel'd.
 
I will be continuing the research and then posting subsequently better informed questions... however, some things to start:

- What can I use to prevent electroplating of areas I don't want electroplated? I read about vague references to epoxy, but I don't know of any epoxies that would fit and be easy to remove afterwards.

- As for plating the bore... what If I used a conforming anode (a rod held in the center of the barrel) to plate it? That would give me a very even plate.

- I would like to avoid sanding the brass on the gun, more than minimally necessary. Rather than sanding it to remove scratches/dents, could I put a layer of nickel (or copper, if not nickel), sand that, and then put on my final nickel layer? http://www.hobbygunsmith.com/Archives/Nov03/Feature.htm On this page, they coat with copper, sand it off (leaving it in the scratches/dents) and then nickel plate.

-

Will try to acquire some library books.

I will not be starting with the gun... I will plate some household items and my brass before I touch the gun.
 
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