Nickel plating aluminium ??

Have any of you had this type of plating done to aluminium before?

How does the plater usualy quote such plating? Is it per part or pound or ?

Any other info reguarding this is very appreciated.


Thank you and merry christmas.

SND, go to www.gleco.com. They have e-nickled a lot of aluminum for me. The problem is you better have your aluminum prepared as it will show every flaw. I had them plate my Bridgeport upper belt housing. It was buffed out by a professional buffing house. It looked great until the e-nickle showed every bad spot. As near as I remember it didn't cost very much at all. If you call ask for Scott Houston and tell them that Butch had you call. Regards Butch

http://www.caswellplating.com/

Caswell has everything you need if you want to do it yourself. I think you'll have to flash plate the aluminum with copper first. There's a few options. The copper first will allow you to repair dings or deep scratches before final plate.

I used to have my plater e-nickle some parts for me that were 6061T-6. 8" x 12" x3/4". I'd send them and he call me with "Are you sure this is want you want". I finally switched to hard coat anodizing because the nickle showed every little imperfection.
For me it was a matter of choosing something to prevent oxidation, so it didn't have to shine.
My plater quotes all his jobs after he see's them.

I wasn't aware that it would require to be all polished before plating. Good thing to know.

The home kit wouldn't be able to handle the quantity and I wouldn't want to get into such thing when its not for myself.


Thanx.

There is two types of Nickel Plating.
regular Nickel plating using electricity, or "Electroless Nickel" (called EN )
you can EN Aluminum parts, but it requires an extra process to kill the "Smut" (black soot) that occurs with Aluminum.
Platers do not care about weight.
They look at 5 things after you determine what you want in EN.
1 Square inches of surface area (inside ! and out)
2.Thickness of plating, expressed in "tenths'(.0001)
(a) "Flash Coat" (.002) to give little general protection but looks good
(b) Wear Coat (.0005 to .001) for wear and corrosion protection.
(c) Build up for whatever you want ??? (.001+)
3. Type of EN
(a) "Low Phos" good looks looks like Chrome almost. no polish required generally...semi soft RC 50~
(b)" Med.Phos" better wear and corrosion protection, but needs alittle polishing to shine. semi-hard RC 58~
(c) "High Phos" Tough coating for high wear and corrosion protection. looks dull grey in color. very hard ..RC 72
4. Do parts need "masking" ? If you have threads or areas not to be plated, they are masked off ( Laquer coated) first by hand before plating
5. Are the parts coated with oil and preservative? If so it requires extra cleaning $$$ platers like spotless clean parts.

In summary
The plater will say " you have 135 sq inches (area) at twenty cents a square inch for a 1/2 mil (.0005) coating of low phos."
means you pay about 27 bucks for the job.
All of the above can affect the price.I know it sounds complicated, but i am trying to point out all the facets of pricing.
Rich