Quote:
Originally Posted by GW4FRX
About a year ago I asked on here whether anyone could suggest an individual or organisation which could matt-nickel-plate a Radford amplifier chassis. Unfortunately I've subsequently got absolutely nowhere. It seems that companies are only interested if you want a large production run and no-one's remotely interested in a one-off. So at the risk of being thought tiresome, I thought I'd ask again.
The "chassis" is a piece of mild steel about 280 x 260mm and about 1mm thick. It's been zinc-plated at some stage but this was damaged by a leaky reservoir capacitor. Happily a colleague managed to strip the plating off it, leaving a steel plate in good visual condition.
If anyone can suggest a route to getting it plated, I'd be enormously appreciative.
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In my honest opinion your question most certainly is not tiresome! This is also a question and idea I'm also thinking about as my chassis is dull and has a thin film of surface rust as the flash plating of cadmium on my Philco 444 has deteriorated. Pretty much all of the plating companies have been shut down in my area and I have seen YouTube videos of people performing nickel and copper plating at home by purchasing Nickel and Copper Sulfates or even creating their own electrolytes by using a simple solution of white vinegar with a dash of salt, using a piece of nickel or copper and applying a small voltage to the nickel or copper in the solution until the solution turns blue or green. Cadmium is becoming undesirable due to environmental regs in my area and due to the red tape and conditions these companies shut down or were shut down by the government. Under my tuning condenser it is bright silver and grey everywhere else with a film of rust in some places. Has anybody attempted to do any nickel plating and if so how did it turn out? I don't need a bright polished finish, just a bright silver finish like it is under the variable capacitor. Presently I'm looking for the proper sized eyelets to reattach the valve sockets and when found I can strip the chassis down completely as there really isn't much under the chassis for goodies, not very busy under there.