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Q&As since 1989
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Can tin be nickel plated? Plating onto silver solder
2004
Q. My problem starts out with, our company fabricates Invar waveguide filters that have Invar pins brazed (soldered) into them using a 95% tin and 5% silver solder, after the brazing process we wash off the water soluble flux residue and send them to a plater where they are to be cleaned and prep for a copper then silver plating and then they are sent back to us for further assembly.
My problem is the solder is being eaten away or crystalized at the fillets causing most or all of the filters not to perform when they are tuned to customers specs. They get what is termed as insertion loss. When we started sending product to this plater several years earlier we did not encounter any of these problems. Only over the last two or three years have we had a major problem with this fallout. The plater claims they have not changed any of their processes, times or chemical baths. I suspect that they changed to a stronger cleaning acid bath.
I would really like to hear your thoughts or anyone else's who might have had this or similar problems. Also, could you please inform me as to what it takes for a plater to go through their plating process for these types of parts?
Thank You for your time and Effort,
Manufacturing Fabshop - San Antonio, Texas, United States of America
A. Hi David. Frankly, when a plating shop is no longer plating your parts satisfactorily while claiming they changed nothing, the best answer is usually to move on to a shop who will. Trying to figure out exactly what they changed, even with help from the plating community, is rarely helpful.
Most plating shops must do at least some 'production' plating where the parts are sent through the plating line without great regard to what may differentiate your parts from the next guy's. Unless your volume, plus what you are paying, justify personal attention to your parts, you may not get it, and your parts may be exposed to alkaline cleaning processes, electrolytic cleaning processes, and acid activations designed for steel, zinc, or copper parts rather than for silver-soldered parts.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April 30, 2013
Q. I'm working on a home-hobby and I have a question about nickel plating. My goal (hope) is to nickel plate a substrate of tin. I currently have a good amount of tin (star shaped) I want to use in building a battery. Nickel-Iron is my goal, requiring alkaline resistant plates. Does anyone know if the nickel will properly plate to the tin for longevity. Any input would be appreciated!
Neal HammillI'm doing it all! - Northeast, Pennsylvania, USA
A. Hi. Neal. I don't think plating nickel on top of tin will present any special difficulty, but I don't think I've ever heard of it. But when you say the substrate is tin, I hope you actually do mean tin (the element Sn), not "sheet metal".
Sorry, I'm not following your description of what you are trying to build though.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
May 1, 2013
Replating Norton Motorcycle foot pegs with silver solder on them?
July 27, 2019Q. I have a similar question. I am trying to re-plate the foot pegs on a Norton motorcycle. I removed the chrome with hydrochloric acid and underneath there is a silver metal filling the pits which I have been told is probably silver solder. I have been down at the hardware store looking for silver solder and all I can find has either lead cadmium or tin in the mix. from online I know not to use lead or cadmium --but nothing one way or the other about tin. What do you think about trying to plate over silver solder with tin in it?
dirk murrayretired truck driver - meeker colorado
A. Hi Dirk. If you can do it safely and responsibly, there is nothing wrong with trying to do this yourself, and silver solder with tin in it should be okay. But your chances of success are low, so you might want to send the foot pegs to a plating shop for restoration unless you are doing this to learn and are not concerned about the possibility of ruining the pegs.
First, I doubt that the foot pegs were just chrome plated, they were probably nickel plated then chrome plated. Please see our Intro to Chrome Plating for further explanation. You did not remove the old nickel plating with your hydrochloric acid, and you will not be able to successfully plate anything onto those pegs until your either strip the old nickel plating or are successful in activating it by mechanical abrasion followed with a Wood's Nickel Strike.
Secondly, real chrome plating (plating with hexavalent chromium, the stuff that made Erin Brockovich famous) is the very last finish an amateur should attempt because of its carcinogenicity & toxicity and the environmental damage it will probably do. After you do the nickel strike, followed by bright nickel plating, there are some chrome-like top coatings available from hobby plating suppliers that might suffice for an amateur though. Search the site with any keywords that interest you. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July 2019
Q. The foot pegs for the Norton are cast steel, and are very poor castings -- hence the repairs from the factory. New stock foot pegs are available, and while expensive are way cheaper then the quotes I have gotten to have them professionally replated. I am not going to "show chrome" them (they were not that nice new). The plan is just to nickel plate them, and polish the nickel; in my opinion that looks nicer then chrome anyway.
From my reading online, it looks like people are nickel plating with just white vinegar [in bulk on eBay or Amazon] first because it is a pretty benign chemical and seeing how it goes. if that doesn't work satisfactorily I can try the nickel sulphate, nickel chloride and boron I saw a recipe for that somewhere. They didn't do it from the factory, but I was thinking maybe to do a copper plate first. I saw where they used a dilute hydrochloric solution and a copper anode, this will supposedly plate copper onto metals like steel that you normally can't plate, and I can use this as a strike before the nickel. As an amateur and retired I got a lot of time to jack around and see what works. If I was getting paid by the hour I would have so much time into this, that these would be high dollar parts. If nothing else works I can sand blast it and do a powder coat.
dirk murray [returning]retired truck driver - Meeker Colorado usa July 28, 2019
A. Hi again. If you have the time and inclination to eperiment on your path toward learning, do with what you wish ... but I personally think copper plating will only complicate things for you. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
August 2019
Hello Ted!