On 2009-03-07, Wild_Bill wrote:
Thanks again, Ed. Would you know whether nickel is significantly less
dangerous, easier or cheaper to apply to small parts on a hobby-level scale?

I kinda suspect that both would involve about the same aspects and safety
issues.

The only source of nickel I know of presently, would be rods for electric
welding cast iron, but I'm sure there would be sources of the right alloy to
use for plating.

There is (or at least used to be) an "electroless nickel
plating" solution offered for plating vias through printed circuit
boards. (There was also an "electroless gold" for the same purpose.)

O.K. A quick Google search for "electroless nickel" came up
with a WikiPedia page which includes the following text:

================================================== ====================
It is also used extensively in the manufacture of hard disk drives, as a
magnetically neutral base coating on aluminium platters (disks) prior to
finishing with an magnetic read/write iron oxide coating.
================================================== ====================

which suggests that it is a workable way for plating aluminum. The
WikiPedia article is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroless_nickel_plating

The Google search found a lot of other hits, many of which are
vendors of the solution for the purpose.

I think it's DoN that regularly applies electroplating to some of his small
machined parts, so maybe there will be other comments regarding home shop
plating.

Not I. Perhaps Don Foreman?

Enjoy,
DoN.

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