Heavy Metal. Rust Removal and plating

I just ordered some pure nickel strips for plating.
used anode.jpg

From your photo there is a lot of debris from that Anode. In that "Quite a nice little 60 -70 page help guide" they mention this. They say agitation of the solution can result in the fine debris particles settling on the horizontal surfaces of the object been plated. This leads to a rough finish. Their answer is to place the anode in a bag to retain the fines like a dust filter does with air. I do not know what material the bag is made from industrially but my guess would be to use any very fine woven synthetic cloth. With the dust retained you would be able to use more severe agitation to help knock those bubbles off.
So, I am wondering if the debris is causing issues, and what Jim or anyone else is doing about it.
I found the following article:
https://www.sat-eng.com/SerfilcoBulletins/TF-131.pdf
which suggests using a 15 micron polypropylene filter.
And I found just such a filter here:
https://www.amazon.com/Filter-Windspeed-MicronFish-Aquarium-Marine/dp/B01M271Z4E
If you are using a single anode and single electrode, you could you could buy two filters and place the anode and electrode in the socks to keep the solution clean. Or, you could buy a single sock and periodically pour your nickel solution through it.
 
I've been filtering it through coffee filters. So far I've had no problems with the debris.
 
I thought of coffee filters too. Good to know it's working. I don't drink coffee, so for $3 I went ahead and ordered a sock filter. Will post results when my nickel arrives and I get something plated.
 
My first attempt at nickel was a bust. I suspect the anode was not pure enough, the electrolyte was a yellow /cooking oil colour. A test plate worked but the deposited material was very dull. It would polish up with a lot of effort. The hunt for pure nickel anode continues.Going to talk to a chrome electroplater after the lockdown ends.
 
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Okay, so here we go with my first try at nickel plating. I needed spacers for M8 bolts. It turns out that XS650 valve guides have the prefect I.D. I also wanted the spacers to have a wide foot. The valve guides are PERFECT!
In this pic I have made 3 of the 4 spacers I need. The valve guide on the right is marked for cutting to be the 4th spacer. Note that these guides are rusty and pitted. The three finished spacers have been de-rusted and polished using a wire wheel.

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Plating. The top of the solution is cloudy from all of the out-gassing. I started with two anodes, but decided they were probably too close to the work, so I switched to just one. I felt that the solution was probably weak since this was its first use, so I plated for a long time -- about an hour, with several turnings and repositionings.

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Each spacer needed a face cut into it. The faces won't show, so I cut them a bit quickly and crudely by eye.
The spacers were meticulously prepped. I did a further polishing using black emory on a sisal wheel. I do not really need a polished finish on the final plated spacers, but I did want to see what was possible for future plating jobs.
After final polishing and de-greasing, I did a final clean and etch in a 50/50 mix of water and 30% hydrochloric acid. I freaked out at how much the metal reacted in the HCl, so I only bathed the spacers for 30 seconds. I have since looked at some videos, and the HCl reacting seems to be normal, so next time the bath will be for 60 seconds.
The pieces emerged from plating with a weird greenish scum which I haven't seen in any of my research. You can see it on the left spacer in the AFTER picture. The other spacers in the pic were cleaned by hand with very mild polish. After taking the last pic, I gently machine cleaned/polished that last spacer using white compound on a soft wheel. Not polishing off the nickel was more important than getting a great polish. It came out much shinier than the hand-polished spacers, but still not nearly as shiny as the pieces were before the plating.
I have to say that it's really hard to tell if the spacers are even plated at all. But if you look at the right-hand spacer in the BEFORE/AFTER pic, you can see that it looks like the nickel smoothed over the pitted area a little bit. Also, the copper wires holding the pieces got plated a little, that's easy to see. And, I tried to polish the nickel plating off of those copper wires -- it's surprisingly durable.
So, I wasn't ecstatic with my results, but it's a start. Only time will tell if I actually achieved my real goal, which was preventing rust.
Speaking of which, I fret about the insides of my spacers. It looks like they received zero plating. I guess I'm going to paint the insides with Rust-O-Leum. But, I do worry about whether the threads of nuts will get plating when I do them.
Going to make several changes before my next plating.
 
One final thing. While obsessively reading every site and watching every YouTube video in the world on plating, I stumbled upon a really excellent blog of a guy restoring a 1972 Yamaha LS3. His DIY nickel plating is just unbelievable, and his blog is well-written with lots of pictures and descriptions. Everyone reading this should really take a look:
http://yamaha-ls3.blogspot.com/2015/02/more-diy-nickel-plating.html
http://yamaha-ls3.blogspot.com/2015/03/preparation-motorcycle-parts-before-diy.html
And, a little less amazing, his first post on plating:
http://yamaha-ls3.blogspot.com/2015/02/diy-nickel-plating-bolts-and-nuts.html

I haven’t read the entire blog, but it’s a pretty incredible restoration. Unfortunately, he stopped blogging before he finished the bike.
 
I'd say your results look pretty promising. A few observations from another rookie (means take it with a grain of salt :rolleyes: ).
The pieces emerged from plating with a weird greenish scum which I haven't seen in any of my research.
I haven't encountered that. I'd guess the parts still had some oil residue embedded in the pores. Maybe try the HCI soak first and for about 3-5 min. Polish after and then soak in lacquer thinner for the final clean. The thinner soak worked good for me after polishing. Also, the excess gas-off could be from too high a current draw. That would account for the darker finish. Maybe try a fresh solution with less salt?
I think I'm borderline too high on my current draw. Before my next plating job, I'm gonna make a new solution with the ammeter tied in. I'll add salt slowly until the current draw reaches what I want... I'm thinkin' maybe 200-250 Ma.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to change my prep a little, although I think mine was pretty good. You are probably right about my current. My pieces looked sort of like Alka-Seltzers, but with very fine bubbles and not quite so many. I thought that was a good sign, meaning that it's working, but maybe that was too much. Yeah, I went back to the video you posted in reply #2, and he definitely seems to have less bubbling.
I'm going to move to a larger container so that the anode isn't so close to the work. What I'm waiting on now is an eBay aquarium heater. The blogger guy heats his solution, and all of the commercial platers heat theirs, as do a lot of the other DIYers.
 
I found too much current causes zinc deposition to be dark and even not adhere probably as Jim said probably the same with nickel.
You could try reducing the surface area of the anode immersed in the electrolyte to reduce current if you don't have a variable power supply.
Electrolytes have an inverse resistance temperature coefficient that is the warmer they are the less resistance they have. Warming the solution will allow more current to flow.
There will be an optimum current per unit area ratio on the net somewhere for nickel but I havn't found it yet.
 
Since the thread title has "rust removal" in it, thought I would post my experience with de-rusting an XS-11 gas tank using electrolysis. I'm sure its nothing new to any of you, but it was the first time I've ever done it, and I'm sold on the process. I first tried to use a gallon of Evaporust, turning the tank every 12 hours. Three days later it hardly looked like it touched it. This tank was nasty. Did some research and decided to go for the electrolysis process. First step was to cook some sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) down to sodium carbonate. If you do this, make sure you don't use an aluminum pan. I used a copper bottom steel pan, heated on the stove until it formed a dense powder and quit bubbling. Stirred it regularly for about 30 minutes. My wife sat there shaking her head in disappointment. Oh well. After I let my newly formulated sodium carbonate cool down, I then mixed one teaspoon per gallon for a 4.5 gallon solution and poured it in the gas tank. Suggestions are to use distilled water, but I wasn't heading to the store just for that so used tap water through a water softener. Figured I could eventually re-do the process if need-be. So first pic is a "before" of what the tank looked like, but it was after trying to use evapo rust. Trust me, this tank was much worse prior to Evaporust effort. Second pic is of the sacrificial anode. Third pic is what that anode looked like after only 2 hours. Fourth pic is what the junk looked like at the top of the tank after four hours. Wrapped up with a few other pics to show how I hooked it all up to my 30 year old 6 amp battery charger. I wound up having to clean the anode off about every couple of hours. The amp meter would start off at about 1.5 amps and drop to around 1 amp. Left it cooking overnight for 10 hours. Last pic is the results. Now just need to degrease the black crap left over, and prep it for Por15 tank sealer. I highly suggest this process to anyone with a severely rusted tank.thumbnail_20200330_172739.jpg thumbnail_20200330_172840.jpg thumbnail_20200331_091338.jpg thumbnail_20200331_104626.jpg thumbnail_20200330_173954.jpg thumbnail_20200330_173959.jpg thumbnail_20200330_174009.jpg thumbnail_20200331_104759.jpg
 
Andersj I looked and looked then realised what the problem was. Yes be careful you will have a bathtub sized tank before you know it. Sort of like bikes not many on here only have one.
 
Today I am Nickel plating the metal insert that fits into the rubber seal on the master cylinder for an XS Special. The insert was quite rusted so I just want to get a protective layer over it:
Nickel.jpg


I am using the vinegar method and working at 2.1 Volts. I find I get a better finish with voltages in the 2 - 4 Volt range. I control the voltage with a bank of resistors. The current flow is low at approximately 0.1A so wilI let this run for 24 hours with regular rotation of the item. I really need a power supply with a variable Voltage and Amperage output.

Question: Does anyone have an additive for quick bubble release from the item being plated?
 
In Entry 44 I left a link to the Nickel Institute guide for electroplating. On Page 9 are the calculations on how long it takes to achieve a particular average Nickel plate thickness at different current densities. I have taken their information and produced a table with approximate times in minutes for electroplating small objects with an average plate thickness of 10 micrometres which is then easily scaled up to your desired thickness:
Thickness.jpg


For Example: My system works at approximately 0.1 Amps. If I want to plate an object with an area of 20cm squared to a thickness of 10 micrometres it will take 98 minutes (say 1.5 hours). If I wanted a 50 micrometre plate thickness I will need to increase the time by a factor of five to approximately 500 minutes (say 8.5 hours). But if I can increase the current to 0.3A then the time for a 50 micrometre plate thickness will drop to 165 minutes (33min x 5) which is about 2.5 hours.
 
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Regarding the release of bubbles: I have twice tried adding a small drop of dish washing liquid to the plating solution and both times it has resulted in a significant decrease in bubbles adhering to the metal.
Detergent.jpg

Compare the bubbles in this photo with detergent to that in my earlier posting Entry 98 without detergent.

Note: About 1 hour after starting my current plating project a couple of black spots appeared. I removed the spots with steel wool and then proceeded with the plating and the spots did not return.
 
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Here is the item after 9 hours at 0.1Amp (Surface area is approximately 22cm squared):
Plated.jpg
Using the above table I should have an average thickness of just over 50 micrometers. Hopefully that should protect it from further significant corrosion. The reason it is not shiny is because the raw steel item was not polished prior to plating.
 
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