[HN Gopher] Nickel Plating Handbook [pdf]
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       Nickel Plating Handbook [pdf]
        
       Author : nativeit
       Score  : 52 points
       Date   : 2024-11-20 02:08 UTC (20 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nickelinstitute.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nickelinstitute.org)
        
       | superkuh wrote:
       | I like the idea of adding extra anode wires to within cavities to
       | get better coverage that this document suggests.
       | 
       | My favorite type of nickel plating for home scale is nickel
       | acetate. It can be as simple as a 6v lantern battery, a nickel
       | guitar string, and some vinegar (though guitar wires make
       | _terrible_ electroplating electrodes since they break and fall
       | (something this document says can be mitigating by using a
       | titanium basket)).
        
         | RF_Savage wrote:
         | Now that's something to try. Kitchen scale electroplating. But
         | nickel acetate sounds bioavailable.
        
           | 01100011 wrote:
           | We thought copper salts were benign until we recently started
           | linking them to dopamine neuron death. Too much of anything
           | absorbed into the body is rarely a good thing.
           | 
           | I think it's tempting to get into kitchen chemistry but you
           | can very quickly find yourself playing with things that
           | should not be in your home. Having a baby has made me
           | question a lot of my home experiments and made me realize how
           | sloppy I was.
        
           | adrian_b wrote:
           | Very small amounts of nickel are beneficial for the bacteria
           | inhabiting the gut.
           | 
           | Great amounts that are absorbed into the blood would do no
           | good. For many people, mainly for women, nickel may be an
           | allergen, which is why nickel is not recommended for jewels
           | or piercings or anything else that stays in contact with the
           | skin.
        
           | lazide wrote:
           | most nickel electroplating stuff is _bad_ news - even by
           | electroplating standards.
        
           | superkuh wrote:
           | Maybe not a project for the kids but any adult wearing gloves
           | should be just fine. I've been having fun painting graphite
           | lubricant in urethane onto PLA 3D prints and nickel acetate
           | electroplating them.
        
       | slicktux wrote:
       | Would using Nickel plated copper wire help prevent galvanic
       | corrosion of carbon steel when grounding a fence using copper
       | wire? Or would the copper coated with Nickel still act as a
       | cathode making the fence anode??
        
         | HPsquared wrote:
         | What happens when there are small areas where the coating has
         | worn through?
        
         | adrian_b wrote:
         | Nickel is almost as noble as copper, so it would not change
         | anything.
         | 
         | For the galvanic protection of steel, like in marine ships,
         | electrodes of zinc, or better of magnesium, are suitable.
        
       | Prcmaker wrote:
       | I do this a bunch at home, my setup has also migrated to work.
       | Simple solution made with vinegar, salt and sodium laurel
       | sulphate, then a couple of cheap nickel electrodes. Run current
       | through both to make the nickel acetate, then you're good to go.
        
       | Freak_NL wrote:
       | This handbook is thorough, but not of much use to any novice just
       | looking to do some nickel plating. It's not hard to do though,
       | and certainly something you can do at home. I've done this for a
       | set of custom steel brackets I needed for some project1.
       | 
       | This Youtube video is useful if you want to start from scratch:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-PtnwtOR24
       | 
       | 1: I could have used stainless steel instead, but bending,
       | drilling, and tapping stainless steel is a lot harder than doing
       | this with regular steel.
        
       | pwnOrbitals wrote:
       | Is there any equivalent for electroless nickel plating ?
        
       | tomcam wrote:
       | I have a number of brass instruments that are nickel plated.
       | Nickel plating is great because it doesn't tarnish and it doesn't
       | tend to corrode, so it always looks shiny. It was super popular
       | until about 50 years ago. A few players are allergic to it, which
       | is probably why it's been replaced by silver plating over the
       | years.
        
         | horsawlarway wrote:
         | I was decently surprised when I received a breaker bar ordered
         | online that had a prop 65 (cancer/reproductive harm) warning on
         | it. Not something I'd seen on most general tool steels.
         | 
         | I had to look up the cause, and it was because it used a high
         | Nickel alloy for the tool steel.
         | 
         | I had not associated Nickel as particularly harmful, but...
         | it's relatively nasty in regards to human health (particularly
         | when inhaled in even small amounts).
         | 
         | So I was curious and scrolled down to page 81 in the linked
         | document on this post - they do a fairly thorough walk through
         | of the potential harms, and it's worth reading for the folks
         | who do this at home.
         | 
         | I've copied the relevant regulatory warnings from the document
         | here:
         | 
         | -----
         | 
         | 1Nickel salts (e.g., Ni sulphate, Ni sulphamate) carry the
         | following human health hazard classifications under GHS:
         | (Global Harmonized System): Acute Tox. 4 (H302: Harmful if
         | swallowed and H332: Harmful if inhaled), Skin Irrit. 2 (H315:
         | Causes skin irritation), Resp. Sens. 1 (H334: May cause allergy
         | or asthma symptoms or breathing difficulties if inhaled), Skin
         | Sens. 1 (H317: May cause an allergic skin reaction), Repr. 1B
         | (H360: May damage fertility or the unborn child, developmental
         | effects), Muta. 2 (H341: Suspected of causing genetic defects),
         | Carc. 1A (H350: May cause cancer by inhalation route only), and
         | STOT Rep. Exp. 1 (H372: Causes damage to respiratory tract
         | through prolonged or repeated inhalation exposure). Nickel
         | metal carries the following human health hazard classifications
         | under GHS: Skin Sens. 1 (H317: May cause an allergic skin
         | reaction), Carc. 2 (H350: May cause cancer by inhalation route
         | only), and STOT Rep. Exp. 1 (H372: Causes damage to respiratory
         | tract through prolonged or repeated inhalation exposure).
        
           | adrian_b wrote:
           | Most of those dangers are true for most kinds of metal
           | powders or soluble metal salts.
           | 
           | What is specific to nickel is that much more people,
           | especially women, are allergic to it, in comparison with
           | other common metals. Therefore surfaces covered with nickel
           | or nickel alloys with high nickel content are not recommended
           | for contact with skin.
        
           | downrightmike wrote:
           | Homer Simpson went blind from eating nickels, maybe you
           | missed that one
        
       | Isamu wrote:
       | Is it true that nickel plating is less expensive than chrome
       | plating, but chrome is more durable? Is that the trade off?
        
         | bluGill wrote:
         | The trade offs are more complex than that. Depending on your
         | application chrome might be more or less durable. Chrome is
         | more toxic from what I can tell. I used to work at a factory
         | that did chrome platting (technically the next building over -
         | I never went into that building but it was the same company),
         | and so I had to get special safety training before I was
         | allowed to work. Mostly my training amounted to we have our own
         | sewer system for just the chrome plating work, it can handle
         | chrome salts but regular sewage will clog it and cause a toxic
         | release - use the regular city sewer for everything else.
        
         | marcosdumay wrote:
         | Chrome is shinier. (Possibly shinier than silver, but I don't
         | thing I've seen a comparison.)
         | 
         | It's a good thing that we replaced most of the people-facing
         | platings with plastics, because those are some nasty metals.
         | The one metal that we still use everywhere is zinc, that isn't
         | a big issue.
         | 
         | But nickel in particular allows for a lot of possibilities on
         | the plating color, including some very-high absorption blacks.
         | (And I think all the high-absorption for solar radiation, low
         | absorption for thermal radiation coatings are nickel based.)
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-20 23:02 UTC)