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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Nickel Plate Revisited


scott63

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I previously posted a nickel plating project that came out too bright for my liking. I tried lightly sand blasting the finish with fine glass beads, but as soon as it started looking good, the plate was blown off. So I contacted the company that sold me the kit, they said bead blast it prior to plating for a matte finish, which is what I tried the first time.

I then chemically stripped the nickel off to try it again. Soooo, I blasted it first with ground glass blasting media, with produced a very coarse, almost sharp finish. That was followed with lightly blasting with fine glass beads to just take the sharpness off the first finish. I then plated the parts again, and it came out closer to what I wanted and better than the first attempt, but not quite what I wanted. What I was trying to get was a satin nickel finish like the top of a 70 series Colt 1911 with the factory nickel finish.

I was trying this out on this Rem action in anticipation of doing the same thing on a Turk action for a lightweight Rem 700 stainless barrel in 30/06. Not sure I'm still going to do this, I may try one of the bake on finishes, even though I'm sure it won't be near as tough as the nickel plate.

A couple things I learned: 1. The pint sized container of "Mask It" to protect an area from plating (locking lugs..etc) is enough to last a couple lifetimes of plating. 2. I am not impressed with the chemical nickel stripper, fine glass bead blasting is way faster and more thorough. 3. Electroless nickel plating will never be close in color to matte stainless. 4. Electroless nickel plating is easy and does look pretty good. Any thoughts/questions/comments? Thanks guys........................Scott

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I wonder what it would look like if the metal was acid etched first. I've read about "acid striking" before bluing to help prevent purple colors associated with carburized parts. I deal with platers every day but not nickel. I'm guessing your action is or will be carburized. I could etch some carburized parts of ours and send them to you to practice with. I don't know that they would be any duller than the blasted finish you already tried, but it's easy to do on my end if you want to try. However, when something is hardened above say 30 RC and has hydrogen introduced to it (hydrochloric acid), precautions should be taken to prevent or eliminate hydrogen embrittlement. This is a very real cause of catastrophic failure in a stressed item such as a torqued thread. Inhibitors in the acid would help and then baking after neutralizing the etched part. I edited this post afterwards thinking you might try to etch a hardened receiver with hydrochloric. My e-mail is in my file if you're interested.

Ron

 

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I wonder what it would look like if the metal was acid etched first. I've read about "acid striking" before bluing to help prevent purple colors associated with carburized parts. I deal with platers every day but not nickel. I'm guessing your action is or will be carburized. I could etch some carburized parts of ours and send them to you to practice with. I don't know that they would be any duller than the blasted finish you already tried, but it's easy to do on my end if you want to try. However, when something is hardened above say 30 RC and has hydrogen introduced to it (hydrochloric acid), precautions should be taken to prevent or eliminate hydrogen embrittlement. This is a very real cause of catastrophic failure in a stressed item such as a torqued thread. Inhibitors in the acid would help and then baking after neutralizing the etched part. I edited this post afterwards thinking you might try to etch a hardened receiver with hydrochloric. My e-mail is in my file if you're interested.

Ron

I will probably not try etching, but I was actually thinking of muriatic acid. Thank you for the offer, but I think I will try another method. I may wait and see if this tarnishes at all, if so it will be perfect, as it is it is ok. Just not exactly what I had in mind.........Scott

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  • 1 month later...
I previously posted a nickel plating project that came out too bright for my liking. I tried lightly sand blasting the finish with fine glass beads, but as soon as it started looking good, the plate was blown off. So I contacted the company that sold me the kit, they said bead blast it prior to plating for a matte finish, which is what I tried the first time.

I then chemically stripped the nickel off to try it again. Soooo, I blasted it first with ground glass blasting media, with produced a very coarse, almost sharp finish. That was followed with lightly blasting with fine glass beads to just take the sharpness off the first finish. I then plated the parts again, and it came out closer to what I wanted and better than the first attempt, but not quite what I wanted. What I was trying to get was a satin nickel finish like the top of a 70 series Colt 1911 with the factory nickel finish.

I was trying this out on this Rem action in anticipation of doing the same thing on a Turk action for a lightweight Rem 700 stainless barrel in 30/06. Not sure I'm still going to do this, I may try one of the bake on finishes, even though I'm sure it won't be near as tough as the nickel plate.

A couple things I learned: 1. The pint sized container of "Mask It" to protect an area from plating (locking lugs..etc) is enough to last a couple lifetimes of plating. 2. I am not impressed with the chemical nickel stripper, fine glass bead blasting is way faster and more thorough. 3. Electroless nickel plating will never be close in color to matte stainless. 4. Electroless nickel plating is easy and does look pretty good. Any thoughts/questions/comments? Thanks guys........................Scott

 

Well here is the finished product, 300 Win mag with stainless barrel, stock and barrel from ebay. I'm satisfied with the look but it is not exactly what I wanted. Overall I am happy with the end result, I have 485.00 total in the rifle without scope, even a used rifle in this caliber in my area is 100 bucks more. I sent the action and barrel to Mark Skaggs in Oregon, he was more than fair on the price of the work that he did. If I had to send out another rifle for work I wouldn't hesitate to send it to him, however I plan on ordering a lathe in the next month or so. I am anxiously awaiting a chance to shoot it....Scott

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