I have successfully completed my first attempt at electro-plating. I have a few watch cases that were prepped by stripping the old plating and fully polishing the raw brass (which took ages doing by hand). About 2 weeks ago I bought a book on the subject of electro-plating. I read the book cover to cover a few times (it was a very small book), and I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the process of electro-cleaning, surface activation, and the application of bright nickel plating. I also received some help from a member of a watchmaker forum who provided me with some info and tips that they've learned throughout their time in plating. I'm happy to say that my first try at this wasn't a total failure!
Here are the results just after the final rinse.
I wanted to plate about 20 microns on the case. My thought was that it would give me a little cushion to smooth out some of the defects. Thankfully the defects were actually quite minor. There was a small section where the plating looked to have a slightly rough surface. I believe this occurred when I was adjusting the position of the case in the tank. I bumped the anode and it came into contact with the case for several seconds. Everything else turned out quite nicely, with the exception of that rough patch. About 1 minute on a soft cotton buff with some white Dialux smoothed it out beautifully.
I'm really pleased with the results.
Here are the results just after the final rinse.
I wanted to plate about 20 microns on the case. My thought was that it would give me a little cushion to smooth out some of the defects. Thankfully the defects were actually quite minor. There was a small section where the plating looked to have a slightly rough surface. I believe this occurred when I was adjusting the position of the case in the tank. I bumped the anode and it came into contact with the case for several seconds. Everything else turned out quite nicely, with the exception of that rough patch. About 1 minute on a soft cotton buff with some white Dialux smoothed it out beautifully.
I'm really pleased with the results.