Nickel Plating Antique Wood Stove Parts is Unsuccessful

A. Hi Vern,

Nickel Plating Solutions

on Amazon or eBay
(affil link)

Sorry but we haven't received any pictures yet -- please attach them to e-mail to [email protected]

We don't want to discourage you from your hobby and your efforts at nickel plating yourself -- by all means enjoy it! -- but we also don't want to mislead other readers into thinking that this is the usual way to get parts plated, so here are some preambles ...

Firstly, plating job shops can be found quite nearby in most areas, and nearly every plating shop offers nickel plating, so having parts professionally nickel plated is the usual approach.

Secondly, although this site has been teaching elementary school children how to electroplate with kitchen ingredients for relatively safe science projects since 1995, that has been for the purpose of allowing them to see electroplating take place to inspire a thirst for understanding which we can help them take further with such subjects as Faraday's Law.

Functional electroplating is not done with vinegar and salt or by dissolving metal into them, etc. Rather, nickel plating is done by purchasing a "Watts nickel plating solution" from a vendor, or formulating it. The plating solution will have proper amounts of nickel sulfate, nickel chloride, boric acid, wetters, carriers, and brighteners to deposit a robust, reasonably thick, relatively low stress, bright, corrosion-resistant deposit based upon many decades of research and development.

ASM Metal Handbook
9th Edition, Vol. 5
"Surface Cleaning, Finishing & Coating"

on Amazon or eBay
or AbeBooks
(affil link)

Hobbyists who are interested specifically in nickel plating are encouraged to get access to ASM's Metals Handbook Vol. 5, "Surface Cleaning, Finishing, and Coating" ⇨
because it has a fairly comprehensive chapter explaining nickel plating and its addition agents. It is a great help for readers who want to achieve the best plating that is possible without proprietary ingredients.

The first thing a hobbyist should be told is that you don't practice on precious parts and risk ruining them. You practice on scrap, and you only go on to actual parts after you have demonstrated to yourself that things are sufficiently under control. If you want to grow from playing around to working seriously, you get a Hull Cell ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] , some test panels for it, and a proper power supply ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] ... sounds like you already have the power supply (how many Amps is it?)

Readers will probably be happy to help you step by step, Wheatley, but the idea that your first exercise will result in successful nickel plating of an old 12" x 4" part using a home-brew of household ingredients simply isn't realistic. If nothing else please start with a test panel ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] because it will be properly prepared and small enough that you will be able to see the capability or lack of capability of your solution. I can't imagine 10 oz. of 1% sulfuric acid doing anything at all in 3 gallons of solution unless you're a strong proponent of homeopathic dilution. Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.

A. Hi again.

That's a good power supply for rather small parts. You don't need to electroplate to industrial parameters, but just to give you a sense of things, bright nickel plating plating is done at 40 Amps per square foot. So you will only be able to do actual bright nickel plating on 5 X 144/40 = about 18 square inches (and that's both sides). You can plate at quite a bit lower current density, but will have to buff the parts to get brightness. If you can put plater's tape (or at least black electrical tape) on the backs of the parts you'll reduce the surface area you are plating and increase the plating speed on what you do want to plate.

You should be able to find a handful of brass test panels on eBay or somewhere, and you can cut them in half to stretch your money, and that's really the first step towards getting your solution working. But I think you will have to add some nickel sulfate ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] or nickel chloride before you'll get much going; real nickel plating solution is rich emerald green, having far more nickel in it than you've probably achieved by anode dissolution. Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.

Our pleasure, Vern. But I'd still love to see you continue your experiments until you get to the point where you get at least some nickel plating on a test panel. You should be able to get at least a little, thin, nickel on a small item and begin the learning process. Then step 2 is probably to see if you can get a lot more nickel into your solution, probably by an addition of nickel sulfate powder/crystal. Although you don't have equipment to measure the nickel concentration, commercial solutions sometimes have almost enough to crystallize out, and I think you can easily increase your nickel by a factor of 10 without approaching the usual concentrations. Photos of plating solutions for sale will give you a visual guideline; when your solution begins to look at least a little like them then you have a substantial amount of nickel in the solution.

Your power supply, heater, tub, and pump are probably useful rather than wasted, as are any remaining chemicals you haven't yet mixed in.

If your interest is in learning electroplating rather than in getting your parts plated, you can search the site for any topic of interest, or download a free copy of the Metal Finishing Guidebook ⇨

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.

A. Hi again.

Professional nickel plating is done from a proprietary Watts Nickel solution operating at 140°F and 40 Amps/square foot. Although you can search our site or the Metal Finishing Guidebook to find the formulation for Watts Nickel (the concentrations of nickel sulfate, nickel chloride, and boric acid) and make it up yourself, the better starting point is purchasing a proprietary plating solution because addition agents (brightener, carrier, wetter) are advisable, and making proper additions of non-proprietary addition agents instead requires quite a bit of study and experiment. Still, it is not impossible to produce marginally acceptable nickel electroplating with less capable plating solutions and operating conditions.

But another big issue is that restoring old parts can be quite difficult because their surfaces may not lend themselves to good plating without some significant pretreatment: they may be pitted, their old passive nickel plating may inhibit good adhesion, etc. Some may be aluminum, stainless steel, diecastings, or brass -- all of which require another plating layer before the Watts Nickel.

Readers should have fun experimenting with plating, but should not expect anything approaching commercial quality without months of learning and experimentation under their belt.


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.