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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Electrolysis Nickel On The Cheap


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anybody know where to get this done on the cheap? or does it always cost so much? I am looking to get a trigger, sear, bolt, and firing pin for a savage done, but can't justify spending the $100 on a $400 gun. Thanks!

 

 

I bought a kit off ebay, it worked really well on a few projects haven't used it in a while. It was easy to use...Scott

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can the electroless nickle plating kits be used to plate a mauser reciever?? or is this a bad idea? brian.

That might be considered heresy in some circles.....I wanted a Rem 700 action to match the matte stainless barrel I was having installed. To get a matte finish I used crushed glass in a sandblaster, followed by lightly sandblasting with glass beads. I was really happy with how it turned out.

 

You have to protect areas not to be plated, they sell a brush on liquid that is similar to rubber cement, buy the SMALLEST quantity they sell. I bought a quart (way too much) and it will last many lifetimes. It is easy to do if you read the instructions several times before plating...........Scott

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  • 3 weeks later...

keep us inforemed. i havent been able to do this ywt, but would like to do it to my mauser action that i am working on right now. its a vz-24 action, and it looks really nice.

 

what areas should be kept free of the plating? from what i remmember reading, a long time ago, was that it was a super thin plating. would this really mess anything up if you just plated the entire action? maybe not the threads, but i could see a benifit in plating the bolt and the bolt reaceways. i would think that this would help make for a nice bolt through, or do you think thats the plating would start to chip, or wear???

 

thanks, brian.

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I've seen a lot of threads messed up by plating, usually chrome. If it was me, I would protect the barrel threads and locking lug area.

 

Doc. You've got me curious with this statement.

Now I know that chrome has the tendency to peel. Otherwise I would assume that any plating would only make the fit tighter with regard

to the threads. It's not obvious to me that 'that' would be a bad thing unless of course it got to the point that you couldn't turn

the barrel in to the receiver. Short of too tight to thread back together, please expound on how plating messes up threads.

 

Tinker

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I bought the caswell kit.

 

I soaked the parts in evaporust to remove the blue.

 

I got too busy and let the parts soak for a week. it is non-acidic, and can be applied as a rust preventative.

 

I blasted the parts with 80 grit glass beads, scrubbed in detergent, rinsed in distilled water, washed in genuine TSP, rinsed in distilled water, pickled in HCL, rinsed in distilled water, and plated in kit for 1 hour. followed all instructions, wore nitrile dish gloves, blah blah blah.

 

all parts but the trigger, alignment sleeve, and safety came out beautiful.

 

I redid the 3 parts, with an extra careful glass beading and an extra-long acid pickle and an extra-thorough rinse. they came out OK at best.

 

glass beading was not matte enough for my likes. I decided I did not like it.

 

so I blasted a part to see how durable the finish was, maybe I could knock the shine down a bit. the nickel flake off easily.

 

what a waste of $125.

 

the nicked displayed very poor adhesion except for one small area on the bolt body.

 

I have no idea what I did wrong. two screws that never saw evaporust fared no better - the nickel came right off.

 

It's all blasted back down. I will now sandblast and cerakote it.

 

oh well. I always wanted to try it.

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My experiences with nickel plating have been observational. In re-working shafts for pumps and motors, chrome was the way to go for anything that required pressure or a "load". Non-critical areas that were worn down or eroded were nickleled.

 

Bearing race areas as well as coupling surfaces were prime candidates for chrome. Looser-fitting shaft spacer sleeve areas and seal areas could be nickelled. I wouldn't use nickel on threaded areas or any area that would be subject to any load.

 

All chrome work was outsourced to a gentleman who made a good deal of money doing his "magic". The nickel work was done in-house.

 

Nickel work areas were pickled or chemical-washed, copper-plated, then nickel plated. My understanding is that the copper plating was the key to the operation; getting nickel to stick electrically was damn near impossible without it.

 

One issue I remember with the DIY nickel plating on guns was the gloss... More like a parade piece than a field piece.

 

Brownell's sold a bake-on finish that came in a multitude of colors, including silver and gray. Have you looked at those? It was the rage on this board a while ago, and was reasonably durable and cheap.

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