> From: "Marc Lanthier / Piano Lanco" <info at pianolanco.com> > Date: October 13, 2010 9:29:05 AM EDT > > Hi Joe, > > I have quite a bit of experience with Electroless Nickel. Hi Marc - thanks for responding. I'm not surprised that someone on this list has lots of experience with this, or with practically anything, for that matter; what a diverse and inquisitive bunch of folks! I would guess that if I asked the list if any list members had experience with the diet of a certain rarely-encountered snail (or Worms 1521, or X-ray binary black hole partners), someone would say yes. In this case, Nickel plating is certainly relevant to our industry, and I appreciate your volunteering to share your experience, Marc. I have slightly reordered your reply with comments/questions interspersed below: > The key is to > properly clean and activate your base metal. You might have adhesion > problems if you do these steps incorrectly. I had gathered that, as in most finishing we do, preparation is the most critical step in this process. > It says that you can throw it > down the sewer ??? If I read it properly, it comes with a chemical that you mix with the remaining solution, causing a chemical reaction that renders the remaining solution disposable via drain. > What do you want to plate? I was thinking piano hardware such as pedals, pedal plate, hinges, and the like (as on an older Steinway). > Also, it is a very slow process. Do you want to plate for wear resistance or > corrosion resistance? I guess for wear resistance, given those two choices (for pedals, for example), but I was really thinking for cosmetics. Nickel looks soooo nice when properly done. > Finally, it usually produces a dull gariny finish unless chemical levelers / > brighteners are added. Oh. Sounds less than optimal. So, maybe what I really need to know is: can one, with diligence and care in preparation and only a modest expenditure of money for the solution and any necessary levelers and brighteners, do really beautiful nickel plating with this method, or should the potential closet pseudo-alchemists among us leave the nickel plating to the experts? And, if it can realistically be done by us, is it reasonably safe for our health? Thanks, Joe DeFazio Pittsburgh -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101014/72591e52/attachment.htm>
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