How to Nickel Electroplate at Home | bit-tech Modding

Want to spruce up some copper or brass components? Or perhaps you want to re-finish a worn out block? This is the tutorial for you.

For quick reference:

To make the electrolyte - I used 32V at 3A, will work at lower but will take longer
For acid pickle - I used 5mol HCl which I diluted to roughly 0.2-0.5mol with water for 5 minutes
For Plating - I used 4.5V for this part with a distance between it and the anode of about 10cm
For Plating - Connect POSITIVE to ANODE and connect NEGATIVE/GROUND to PART

Timestamps:
00:33 - Intro
02:30 - Materials
06:30 - Making the Electrolyte
12:50 - Cleaning
14:56 - Acid Pickle
16:54 - Plating Intro
18:33 - Plating Method
23:30 - Final Thoughts
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Materials used in this guide:

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[roybailey]

Thank you for sharing your video , I really enjoyed it, I restore vintage carpenters plane's and vintage tools , so I wanted to try out some nickel plating, I will try it out a few times on less important things first just to get the hang of it, best wishes from a vintage Carpenter.

[bittech]

Timestamps since this is a long boi:
00:33 - Intro
02:30 - Materials
06:30 - Making the Electrolyte
12:50 - Cleaning
14:56 - Acid Pickle
16:54 - Plating Intro
18:33 - Plating Method
23:30 - Final Thoughts

[scottdahlberg]

This is the best plating tutorial on the net.

[Skorpio]

Pro Tipp: Constant Current works better then Constant Voltage and low Current takes longer, yes but it will be more even and precise. I do Nickelplating for a living. And no i can´t plate your parts because I am not allowed to take any random stuff, we dont do that. We plate grinding tools for CNC-Precisiongrinding. As pointed out in the Video for best Results Clean Parts are the most difficult part of the plating.

[SocalCanyonRacer]

Thank you!
I recycle household plastic containers for plating/anodizing. Glass breaks too easily. Anything HDPE, which has the #2 recycling arrow. An under bed storage tub fits very large items😎

[RealCanadanMan]

i could not stop staring at this mans mustache, it is BEAUTIFUL.

[ezequieladrianminniti]

Two suggestions: 1) Plating isn't about voltage, it's about current. 2) Always use magnetic stirring, or put multiple sacrificial electrodes at different locations, otherwise the plating WILL be uneven.

[AHollowVoiceSaysFool]

Great video, very thorough instructions and good pacing. You may want to add that nickel compounds are carcinogenic so gloves might be good idea even before you get to the acid.

[guidoramacciotti]

I really liked your video!! Im into restoring an old motorcycle and one thing i want to do is to nikel plate some of it's screws, so this comes really handy to see.
Thanks!

[AFvet]

Definitely the best YouTube video on this subject that I've seen...and I've seen a lot of them!

[networkingdude]

Was staring and the bit-tech logo when I realize the 0's and 1's in the logo are 16 binary bits that gives you a HEX code of 554B which in turn converted to ASCII characters "UK"

[jdwilliams]

Thanks for taking the time to explain how to plate.

[justinwilliams]

by far the best video on the subject - thank you

[MechaNick]

You know this guy knows what he’s talking about with a moustache like that

[rsnn]

Yaaas I can finally nickel electroplate at home! I’ve always wanted to do this.

[johnnylightning]

I just found this. Yes old video but kudos, I love the attention to detail and I subscribed because of this vid.

[eighthof]

The best plating instructional vid on youtube. Thank you for all the great detail!!

[johnlajer]

Around 7.25 you almost played Mary had a lillle lamb 😊

Cannot be unheard 😅

[achannelhasnoname]

Electroplating sure is easy, but getting an uniform surface finish can be pretty hard. I'm exited to see your results!

[sharkwithmanners]

This video just gave me deja vu, I felt like I was back in 3rd year chemistry lol, love the content.