Building a lever machine.... from scratch - Page 51

#501: Post by **espressme** » December 4th, 2018, 1:25 pm

From my experience, Older plating was a first thick Nickle plating, which was then polished, and then a very thin chrome to protect it.
Sorta looks like they skipped the nickle plating.
Thank you for the enjoyable, at least at this end, thread and your work!
~Richard

#502: Post by **LObin** » December 4th, 2018, 5:47 pm

bidoowee wrote: And I really wanted to hang them on the tree!

Not sure if you're talking about the chrome plated groups or the suppliers...

December 4th, 2018, 6:36 pm

LObin wrote:Not sure if you're talking about the chrome plated groups or the suppliers...

Now that is not a bad idea...

Hanging Game Birds, 1888 Neville Cayler Senior.

espressme wrote:From my experience, Older plating was a first thick Nickle plating, which was then polished, and then a very thin chrome to protect it.
Sorta looks like they skipped the nickle plating.

I'm not sure what is going on here. It could just be a question a bad white point setting on the camera that was used for the photos. As far as I understand, chrome requires a nickel layer, which requires a copper layer (which is what I specified) in order to stick. The first two are relatively straight forward and the last one is more difficult. What I do know (having found out the hard way) is that there is more than one process for the deposition of the chrome layer. The more chemically friendly way results in a yellow-tinted finish.

I'm not sure, but I think that it would require an unreasonably thick layer of nickel in order to have enough material to be able to polish out the casting texture, machining marks and molding lines.

#504: Post by **OldNuc** » December 4th, 2018, 7:43 pm

Usually the base metal is brought to a high polish then the flash coper followed by nickle and then chrome. If you want the true blue chrome you use the nasty chemistry process. You will only know for sure when it is in your hands.An auto camera sees the blue and will gleefully shift the color balance if it is a high end camera.

December 5th, 2018, 4:39 pm

OldNuc wrote:Usually the base metal is brought to a high polish then the flash coper followed by nickle and then chrome.

Thanks Rich. Voice of reason as usual!

December 7th, 2018, 11:39 am

All you wanted to know about chrome but were afraid to ask.

Complicated? Nah! Laborious? No!! Who the &*$& came up with that as an idea for a commercially viable industrial process?

#507: Post by **JohnB.** » December 7th, 2018, 12:05 pm

bidoowee wrote:
Complicated? Nah! Laborious? No!! Who the &*$& came up with that as an idea for a commercially viable industrial process?

https://www.finishing.com/460/30.shtml

#508: Post by **OldNuc** » December 7th, 2018, 2:24 pm

Depending on the function/purpose of what is being plated the total process can be simpler. Automotive restoration chrome is about the most labor intensive and complex.

January 14th, 2019, 10:22 am

Happy new year!

The current prototype group is back from polishing. Now we are getting somewhere - albeit rather slowly ...

I'm told that the chrome plating, which is being done by the photosynthesis process, will take at least another two weeks.

In other news and although there isn't anything to actually see as a result, production on the first batch of machines has officially started

#510: Post by **Paolo** » January 14th, 2019, 4:41 pm

Great news, Thomas!

As Gollum would have said "Bless us and splash us, my precious!"

Photoses...we must have photoses!