Shopsmith Forums

In my Mark V restoration I'm considering nickel plating the dials knobs etc.

Any tips, comments pros, cons, do's, dont's... should I just forget it?

I prefer cheap easy instead of expensive kits.

I would prefer buying nickel sulfate and a Nickel anode over expensive kits.

But good results is my priority.

Is it better to copper plate first?

Yes I will experiment on scrap aluminum castings first.

Any photos here of others results?

Let me add my other thought... polish the #@%$ out of them and clear coat them

I'd be curious what nickel plating would cost, but just out of curiosity.

You can get some great results from just polishing. Check out this thread: http://shopsmith.net/forums/showthread.htm?t=3078. The first post has an index, organized by topic, linking to other posts in the thread. Check out the links regarding polishing.

I've found these on youtube it's what got me thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&featu ... VkFMJeotcg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&featu ... cz8Py7bjzQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fv ... dsl-JHb9Tg

The expensive kit stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMZNVApY ... re=related

I have found different places that use other chemicals .... I don't know much about chemistry..

I polished my aluminum handles with tripoli and white diamond. I think they turned out good enough for me.

Yea, why I'm thinking plating or clear coating is to stop oxidation in the future.
So whatever I end up doing, it will start with the best polish job I can do.
And thanks because I have never polished aluminum before and am not sure
exactly what is the best way.

lightnin wrote:Yea, why I'm thinking plating or clear coating is to stop oxidation in the future.
So whatever I end up doing, it will start with the best polish job I can do.
And thanks because I have never polished aluminum before and am not sure
exactly what is the best way.

Do some reading here for polishing aluminum.

http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... h+aluminum