re plating loco wheels

[Railway42]

Look at the Electroless plating kit. Just like boiling an egg. but at £131 it is cheaper to replace wheels from LGB.

Railway42

 

[Nodrog1826]

Re plating wheels, not the sort of thing i would have ever thought of doing,
but it has potential and not just for wheels, rusty hand rails for example...

 

[tramcar trev]

Yes I have done a bit of electroplating by the "applicator" rather than immersion. Works very well with gold plate on PCB's....

 

[beavercreek]

One of my Annie loco's driver set of wheels are showing their copper. It still works fine but I wonder if it would conduct better with the nickel plating restored? How thick would the 'Electo 'Plug 'n' Play' stuff be....how long would it last before wearing through again? Mmmmmmm

 

[Tony]

you can electroplate something like a set of wheels in nickle for about 20p using nothing more than you can buy off the shelf (it can be a lot of fiddly mucking about cleaning and polishing depending on the finish you want ) but very easy and great fun... go on youtube and search for Electro nickle plate ....you don't need fancy kit or spend more than £5 to get started.... i used to plate my own car parts when i was into hotrods and that's pre internet
Heres one i found
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Xo43sfLgY

 

[beavercreek]

Looks good Tony
Just still wondering how thick the plating will come out and therefore how long it will last especially on loco drive wheels.

 

[tramcar trev]

Plating thickness is going to be microns rather than thous. The trick as the guy explains in the video into use a pure DC supply and as low a voltage you can get away with. Nickel ammonium sulphate is a bit more expensive than copper but copper will deposit Much thicker and is less temperamental. Copper electrodes a're easier to find too. I'd use copper myself.....
I bought a Jaynes kit years ago and an cheapo power supply via eBay. Now someone is going to ask why I didn't nickel plate the steam tram headlight reflectors, can we put it down to stml????

 

[Tony]

Looks good Tony
Just still wondering how thick the plating will come out and therefore how long it will last especially on loco drive wheels.

As you know i'm not an alchemist so not best placed to give tech advice...8| we used to use a 12v car battery charger and Nickle welding rods (we were poor) to plate engine detailing parts the thickness depends on the length of time you leave it going but best off doing it two or three times times for short periods (no more than 5 minutes) to build it up but i will say prep and cleanliness is everything and if you want a shine on something you will end up polishing your life away...all i know is the being able to do it is not as hard as you would think and you dont need fancy equipment ...............one thought tho the original plating cant be that good cos it doesn't last so you must be able to do better