Nice work John. I have a question for ya. Could you have cut a circle out of some tape, place it in the dish, clear coat it, remove the tape, then plated it?
Well done John amazing work, I've been looking forward to seeing the results all day, and i am well impressed with the results and your brilliant work. Hope this is put into the fettlers master class,
Have masked it off, yes, could have. Better still if I’d have got a deeper dish and more electrolyte to submerge the reflector as I’d intended. There’s nothing to prevent more sessions in the electroplating bath to deposit nickel in the unplated areas and make them less susceptible to being worn off by the buffing and polishing by making them thicker. That’ll require re-locating the anode, or connecting more anodes in electrical parallel (each at 6 volts) to deposit nickel more evenly and to produce thicker plating. I doubt I’ll bother with this reflector but the test has enabled me to anticipate what’s necessary to achieve better results and with larger pieces with contours presenting more of a challenge.
I did decide to in fact, having realised that the best technique is not to keep the anode static, clamped in place, but to hold it in the hand and move it about. Nickel deposition only takes seconds and it’s the best way to get even coverage and plating density. With this ‘keep the anode on the move’ method the deposited nickel didn’t require polishing. Reverse side kept free of plating as required. In place on the lamp.
I'm impressed. I tried to plate a steel fount using the 2 step copper / nickel but the results were not good. I wonder if you would be doing something like that in the future as you seem to be well equipped for it and you have that experimental attitude we all envy.
A steel fount eh? @Blueflame What disapointed you about the result? Any thoughts on what might have happened? I’ve no obvious subject in steel but a test-piece could prove interesting!
I tried plating copper on a steel fount but the coverage was poor. Mind you the copper I used was ordinary plumbing quality which may not be 100% copper. I wonder if solid copper electrical wire would be a purer quality. The steel was very carefully polished and wet sanded many times as this is absolutely required.
@Blueflame Right. Tough to have put so much effort into preparation and it not be satisfactory. Plausible what you say about the copper source, though I’ve no informed knowledge on the composition. Copper plating, another chapter!
@Pennsylvania Mike Thanks Mike, surprised myself! Haven’t re-charged the carbide lamp yet - I left it outside last night after shutting off the water drip and blowing out the flame and it’s iced up and needs to be thawed out - I’m sure the light from it will be as I want though. John
Great result! I must say that to my eye the plated reflector transforms the lamp- it seemed a bit 'wrong' with the brass reflector even if it was original.
@BlackdogI agree, a refinement not adopted by the manufacturers but minutes of my time. Profit margins for them no doubt, but ‘yellow’ as opposed to ‘white’ light presumably doesn’t matter underground so much as the brightness.
I got a bit more ambitious, improving the heat output from my Bialaddin bowlfire by re-plating - or more correctly overlaying with more nickel - a dull (underlying brass showing in parts) reflector. Having cleaned of surface dirt and grease I blanked off the burner and screw mounting holes with gaffer tape applied to the reflector’s back surface. I laid the reflector in a circular plastic bowl to keep it steady and filled it with citric acid solution to clean it even more thoroughly. Emptied, wiped and dried with clean rags. I clipped the negative lead from my battery charger to the rim of the reflector, poured in the electrolyte and set up the nickel anode. As well as suspending it as in the photo I moved the anode around to agitate the electrolyte and to give even coverage. I tipped the reflector slightly when I was ready to dunk remaining un-plated areas in the electrolyte and give them access to the nickel deposition. I’m pleased with the final result and heat output is much improved.
Fantastic work and results John, that has made a great improvement, you should notice more radiated heat from the bowl fire. Your skills and creativity never stop to amaze me well done there
