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MG TD TF 1500 - DIY Electroplating?

When researching getting some of my parts chrome plated here in Tucson, I fell into the Internet Information Well and soon found myself reading about DIY electroplating kits, blah blah blah.

Putting aside lots of issues such as EPA regulations, toxic chemicals, etc etc; has anyone here ever tried doing your own electroplating? Just curious, was thinking that I might try with a few nuts and bolts...

I know, you get what you pay for :)

Here's one company supplying kits: http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/

Sounds like it might be fun to try!

Geoff Baker

It is fairly easy to nickel plate but chrome plating is harder. Commercial outfits take great effort to prepare the metal as any pitting will show up on the final project. They then copper plate and buff it. Then nickel plate before finally chrome plating. If you want to try it yourself there are some tutorials on youtube. If you want to plate you'll need to smooth the metal and then clean it of all grease with acid. You'll then need to make a Watts solution of nickel sulfate, nickel choride and boric acid, all of which you can get on ebay. You'll need a nickel stainless steel or carban cathode. You hook all this up with a 4 volt AC current through a phone battery charger and it will nickel plate it . You can also make a electric brush and "paint" small areas of nickel onto metal. Caswell is the only supplier of kits that I know of but they are expensive. You can make Watts solution for about $20. Be aware nickel plating is softer and slightly yellow. For more instruction see a web site called PF nickel plating
N. Oakley

I've done a couple of TD gas tanks with Caswell's epoxy tank liner. I don't know it is any better than plain jane vanilla epoxy, but I do know the consequences of it peeling off, so I invested in theirs.

Their catalog is so full of intriguing info on plating, I keep it right by my bed for reading.

My County keeps such a close eye on businesses, I've held off investing in some. Might just do some alchemy with them at home.
jrn Northrup

I can speak well about the kit that eastwood sells for zinc plating. http://www.eastwood.com/ew-electroplating-system-tin-zinc.html Fantastic for small parts, bolts, nuts etc.

As you probably saw on the web, home chrome plating is possible but a lot of work. There are webs that sell all the products and have plans for building the electrical tranformer. No real mistery to doing it, but you have to be very careful with the chemicals, fumes and waste.
BEC Cunha

This thread was discussed between 15/12/2009 and 16/12/2009

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