Bottlehead Forum: brush plating: It works! by tbbenton

I was going to use bluing on my steel; but I had trouble finding a good solution, so I ordered an electroplating brush and nickel plating compound ($15 total). I really like how it turned out. It's a really subtle visual change -- it really just adds a little warmth. I think I'm safe from corrosion too, which was the main issue.

I attempted to capture the before and after by only applying the plating to one side and snapping a picture, but it's really hard to see much difference. The nickel plate is on the right side and the untreated steel on the left in the picture below:

The application process was really easy:
I used low voltage supply and tried various voltages (4 volts worked best for me.) The negative lead goes to the chassis ground and the positive lead connects to the brush. Then load up the brush with the compound and work it over the piece. I'd guess the little bottle would be enough for to coat about ten transformer covers. While I would have preferred to plate unassembled parts, this was done in place with masking tape so I didn't get goop where I couldn't clean it. The edges around the screws are a bit darkened since I couldn't clean it as well. The bolts, however took on a very nice luster.

After applying the nickel pate, I lightly polished it with aluminum polish (I just read you shouldn't use abrasives) and then finally applied a coat of carnauba. I like the finish, even though I went to no pains to smooth the bells to begin with - I just cleaned up the existing rust with fine steel wool.

BTW, I also tried the copper plating solution and it worked really well, but I prefered the look nickel.