Yep, we got the Don mistaken-identity-error (CRS) squared away DoN. Thanks
again for the additional info.
I could see the practical usefulness of tin and nickel, for a lot of items.
I'm not too impressed by chrome, even if it was simple and easy.

As far as attractiveness of flashy or cool-looking appearances, colors in
anodizing tend to be more impressive to me.

At the other end of the spectrum, I find black oxides, patinas and oxidation
more attractive on lots of items.
I think the rich, dark colors of dull-looking brass (dark brown) and copper
(almost black) more attractive than highly polished and coated with a
protective clear finish.

--
WB
..........
metalworking projects
www.kwagmire.com/metal_proj.html


"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 6 Mar 2009 23:36:15 -0500, "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.

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.

Don, not DoN. I plate with zinc, tin, copper and nickle using
materials from Caswell. There are two nickle processes, electrolytic
and electroless. Once you get your parts absolutely clean, electroless
nickle plating is about as hard as boiling an egg.

Plating onto zinc, "white metal" or aluminum requires special steps.
It can be done but I don't do it. Caswell does offer materials to do
this, as in plating die-cast white-metal auto trim parts with chrome
or nickel.

Caswell also offers chrome, but I don't mess with that either. Chromic
acid is nasty stuff that produces toxic fumes, while the chemicals I
use are quite benign.

www.caswellplating.com