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topic 0865 on the H-O-T-L-I-N-E

"Brass electroplating for amateurs and

students"

An ongoing discussion beginning back in 1998 ...

1998

Q. I am a chemistry teacher and I have a student who is interested in electroplating brass. This
student makes miniature furniture and is trying to make miniature firearms and then finish them
with brass. We have tried a solution of Muriatic Acid
[affil. link to info/product on Amazon]
but the finish
wipes off. Can anyone help us out? Thank you for your help and consideration.

Linda Young

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Linda Young

1998

A. Dear Linda:
Commercial brass plating processes are based on cyanide and as such should not be
performed in a hobby or school environment both from a personal safety point of view and
potential environmental impact.

There are reports of a commercial non-cyanide process being available, however I have no
information regarding source.

To achieve a "brass like" appearance it would be more advisable to contact one of the
lacquer suppliers listed in the supplier section of finishing.com. I believe some of them have
products which can produce a simulated brass appearance.


Ken Lemke

Burlington, Ontario, Canada

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Ken Lemke

A. Hi Linda. If possible, see if you can talk the student into a different type of plating like
maybe nickel, or zinc, or copper, or tin. Brass is a special problem because it's an alloy of two
metals, copper and zinc. You may have done 'lemon batteries' in class where you put
pennies (copper) and galvanized nails (zinc) into a lemon and see that it generates a full volt
of electricity; the copper wants to plate out and the zinc wants to remain dissolved and it
doesn't plate out, more copper plates out instead.

The way to get any zinc to deposit is to "tie up" the copper with poisonous cyanide. Although
proprietary non-cyanide complexers exist, I'm not sure if the vendors will offer it to students
and amateurs.

As Ken says, if the aim is decorative, your student can apply a brass-toned lacquer; if the aim
is education and practice in electroplating, there's plenty to be learned from plating metals
which don't require cyanide instead.

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha

finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Ted Mooney

1998

Q. Yes, this is just what I was looking for, but I need more details. I race motorcycles and in
this corrosive environment, nuts and bolts need some form of protection. I was thinking of brass
plating all the exposed parts. I need to know what chemicals, concentration and current
requirements are needed to accomplish this task. I realize that brass does tarnish, but that is
preferable to rust and corrosion.

Anyone out there that can provide more detailed information, it would be appreciated. Please
reply. Thanks a lot.

Craig Harms

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Craig Harms

1997

A. Hello Craig.
The best plan of course would be to get preplated parts. If the parts do not need to be highly
decorative, and are not special high-strength steel, zinc plated nuts and bolts are available at
the hardware store. If they need to be decorative, I have seen nickel-chrome plated nuts at
motorcycle stores, and brass ones may be available as well.

If you want special parts plated, jobshops offer that service, and they are equipped and
operated by trained employees--so that would be the second choice.

Yes, it is possible to electroplate yourself, but it can be complicated, and it has safety and
environmental implications -- especially in the case of brass plating (the solution is almost
always cyanide based), or chrome plating (which involves carcinogenic and tightly regulated
hexavalent chromium. Further if those bolts are high strength steel, electroplating will cause
hydrogen embrittlement, which means they can fail like brittle glass unless you also employ
the proper baking procedures to relieve the embrittlement.

The plating process usually includes:

Stripping off the old nickel plating with cyanide-based strippers or Metalx [a finishing.com
supporting advertiser] proprietary nickel strippers (although sometimes it can be sandblasted off).
Then, mechanical polishing and buffing (if the surface is not smooth and free of fine
scratches, electroplating will not make it so!). It takes a lot of experience to get good at
buffing, but is certainly something you can learn. Next the parts are electrolytically cleaned to
a waterbreak-free degree with proprietary mixtures of strong lye and detergent. Then the
surface oxides are removed with hydrochloric acid. Now the parts are electroplated:
sometimes with copper and buffed again, but always with nickel--sometimes two or three
different proprietary layers. Then you apply the final plating, be it brass, chrome, or gold.
Brass, gold, and chrome will not

I would suggest either buying the parts plated, finding a plating job shop to do them, or
perhaps painting them. If you want to learn electroplating for yourself, it is doable, I certainly
don't want to discourage you -- it's just not easy, there are safety issues (especially for
cyanide-based platings like brass) and there might be environmental issues. If you're
determined to practice, do nickel plating first. Good luck!


Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha

finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Ted Mooney

1999

Q. What is your opinion of brush plating? I am interested in plating an old trumpet I found. The
thing is I find it difficult to believe that I would not be able to plate things myself, since
electroplating is a process that has been around for thousands of years, e.g. The Baghdad
Battery (http://sophia.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/battery2.html). What did the
ancients do to electroplate, and why can't I do the same? Is it possible to manually scrape off
the old layers of silver to prepare the surface for plating?

Matthew T. Marchione

Belmont Technical College, Building Preservation Dept. - St. Clairsville, Ohio

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T. Marchione

A. Hi Matthew. Please remember that the Baghdad Battery is a blue-sky theory, is is not a
device! According to the Discovery Channel, a cork stopper and a few shards of a pot were
found (as in all digs); but in reasonable proximity some copper and iron fragments were also
found. They truly don't look like much :-)

But in wild speculation for TV, scientists used those tiny shards of pottery and blobs of metal
to arrive at a battery theory ... then they made computer images of what they guessed it
could have looked like IF it existed.

Many archeologists feel that these fragments were just miscellaneous ceremonial knick-
knacks that happened to found near each other, and that it's a disservice to present crazy
computer graphics in such a fashion as to imply that anything even remotely resembling
those computerized conjecture images was actually ever found! It's total nonsense!

This is not to say there absolutely was not a Baghdad Battery! It's only to say that the
evidence for a battery seems very thin to date, and the pictures you've seen are only the
wildest speculation -- using those computer graphics speculations to jump to the conclusion
that the ancients must have known electroplating is not well founded at all.

You can surely do plating yourself; we have an FAQ showing young students how to do it.
The question is whether you can do truly useful plating yourself. And the answer to that is
that silver probably can't be safely and robustly electroplated by an individual without
significant experience. However, there are simple "wipe-on" silvering solutions that may
suffice. Please see our FAQ: "Silver Plating at Home". Good luck!


Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha

finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Ted Mooney

1999

Q. Another idea on the topic ... Do you think it would be possible to sandblast the silver off the
piece, buff it smooth, clean it with a strong solvent, such as
Acetone
[affil. link to info/product on
Amazon] and detergents, and then plate it?

Matthew T. Marchione [returning]

Belmont Technical College, Building Preservation Dept. - St. Clairsville, Ohio

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T. Marchione

1999

A. A fascinating page at Smith College, thank you for that link. But "A recipe no more
makes a cook than sermons make a saint". And you only have a recipe for making a battery,
we need a lot more information to see if the ancients really plated gold onto silver with any
success. I don't doubt it, I just don't know how they did it.

Brush plating kits are a proven technology. How you apply it depends upon your skill and
training. Most people (including me) would say that brush plating of a car emblem or touching
up a small (1 square centimeter) of a car molding is a more realistic task than brush plating a
trumpet.

Good Luck!

Regards,

tom & pooky  

toms signature

Tom Pullizzi

Falls Township, Pennsylvania

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Tom Pullizzi

A. I would add that gold plating a car emblem usually involves just stripping off a very thin
layer of chromium, and electroplating gold onto the beautiful OEM-prepared high quality
multi-layer nickel plated emblem. The trumpet is not only much bigger, but is a mix of
oxidized brass and worn silver; further, silver electroplating requires cyanide based solutions
whereas gold doesn't. It's a much bigger job. Please try the "wipe-on" silvering first, and only
move on if it doesn't work to your sattisfaction. Good luck.

R d
Regards,

Ted Mooney, finishing.com

Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha

finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Ted Mooney

2005

A. Years have passed since the last post but I found this page in searching for a way to
electroplate brass on my own. New developments in the sciences have come to the rescue
for those who are hobbyists and wish to do their own electroplating, anodizing and metal
finishing. I have no affiliation with companies producing the kits for these purposes, however,
I have tried some of their products and they work. The skill required is no more than that
required of a decent handy person. If you have skill in welding, fixing wiring or any number of
routine skilled jobs, you can do your own electroplating. If you have two left thumbs and can't
start a balky lawnmower, don't waste your time.

Complete kits are available for the hobbyist that do not involve cyanide or other deadly
chemicals. Are they as good as the results of a professional plating shop? Maybe, maybe
not. You judge. I'm happy with my results.

Ken Kreager

- Platteville, Colorado, USA

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Ken Kreager

2005

thumbs up sign Thanks Ken. Many of the world's bench jewelers fancy themselves platers
but would scoff at platers fancying themselves jewelers -- and so it goes. If the substrate is a
very easy one, as jewelry usually is, and there is no mass production, then plating can be
quite easy. Gold plating of car emblems is similar -- the OEM did 99% of the work, and all the
hobbyist needs to do is strip off a few millionths of chrome, and put gold in its place on top of
a perfectly prepared corrosion resistant bright nickel plated item.

Still, the EPA chose electroplating to be the very first categorically regulated industry in
America. With slight simplification, this means if any liquid was used in electroplating, it is a
regulated waste. "New developments in science" make no difference there. Every bucket of
water, every drop of hose water that splashes on the floor is regulated. It's not a matter of
whether I want you to electroplate, it's a matter of what the US government wants, so look up
40 CFR 433 (it's on the net).

If you do electroplating well, you may eventually charge people for the parts or the service. If
you do, you become part of an industry that is subject to complex permitting rules. Odds are
strong that small outfits won't be caught, and if caught won't be prosecuted, but I personally
know a man who served penitentiary time after plating in his attached garage, and getting
sucked in by degrees until he got caught illegally disposing of wastes when he found that
legal disposal would have meant telling his wife and family that they were losing their house.

If hobbyists want to electroplate, they need to realize its hazards, environmental impact, and
their own usual lack of training; but most importantly they must realize that the day it goes
from hobby to small business they become subject to aggressively enforced regulations that
have ensnared others. Good luck.

T dM fi i hi
 Ted Mooney, finishing.com

Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha

finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Ted Mooney

October 30, 2011

Q. Before reading the great posts on this site, I had no idea that electroplating was so
complicated and skill-intensive. I just want to get a key back plate for my door to look bright and
brassy shiny. Evidently hooking it up to a battery in a solution like I saw in high school applied
science isn't going to cut it, eh?!

So one of the posts hints that there are more "convenient" ways of getting a metallic-like finish
on dulled metal, but with no link. Can anyone suggest a really environmentally safe (and human
safe) spray or application of some sort that will give a bright metallic-like finish without bringing
down the weight of the entire federal government on me?

Thanks. If anyone cares, please post personal experiences with something like this.
Or...recommend a good metal shop that would do simple one piece work. My experience here is
the guy who wants to cook a souffle but hasn't a clue how to boil water.

Frank Noel

- Brooklyn New York USA

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Frank Noel

November 1, 2011

A. Hi, Frank. Plating is drop-dead easy, but useful &robust plating can be harder :-)
But it depends on what you want to do. Brass plating without cyanide, or chrome plating
without hexavalent chrome is tough; but zinc plating, copper plating, nickel plating, gold
plating, rhodium plating, tin plating, etc., are all safer and have less environmental impact.

What I would probably do is polish the existing backplate with rubbing compound, metal
polish, or a more powerful buffing compound and a buffing pad on some sort of power tool
(Dremel or electric drill). My bet is that it is either solid brass, which will polish, or that there is
bright nickel plating underneath that brass and that, with care, there is a good chance of
polishing down to the bright nickel plating. Then I would apply a brass-toned lacquer. It will
cost very little, you'll learn something hands-on, and if it doesn't satisfy you can send it to a
plating shop.

Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, finishing.com

Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha

finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Ted Mooney

February 12, 2015

 A. For small parts you could try using an old blacksmith technique - mechanical peening
with supplied heat energy to help the process along.

See this video …

0865-youtube2

Jon Light

- Saltum Denmark

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Jon Light

Brass plating of motorcycle parts

June 26, 2015

Q. I am working on a project where I would like to get an antique type of brass finish plated
onto my parts. The parts consist of various aluminum castings, steel hardware (spokes and
nipples, nuts and bolts). Some of the parts are already chrome plated, some are natural
aluminum castings, which have a clearcoat on them. Ultimately I would like to finishes to
generally look the same (to a point) when finished.

So here's my questions:

1) am I crazy to think that I can have a supplier Brass plate over chrome plating that already
exists on an aluminum casting?

2) same thing for the steel parts?

3) next question has to do with the clearcoat that exists on the parts: will the etch process that
occurs in the plating process remove the old clearcoat?

4) the spokes are steel with what looks like a chrome finish, can I brass plate over that?

I appreciate the help

Pete Daly

Motorcycle project - Yorktown Hgts, New York, USA

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Pete Daly

A. Hi Pete.
1. Decorative chrome plating is actually a very heavy layer of bright nickel plating followed by
a very thin layer of chrome plating (see our Introduction to Chrome Plating), so it's relatively
easy to strip the chrome but not the nickel, and then brass plate it. But what might be better
is to just apply a brass-tone lacquer.

2. Brass plating over steel will be quite matte. The usual technique is to plate the steel with
bright nickel first.

3. Stripping the clearcoat will depend on what it is. Brass lacquer is easily removed with
acetone or lacquer thinner, but tougher clearcoats may require toxic methylene chloride or
boiling hot caustic.

4. Answer 4 is the same as answer 1.

Luck & Regards,

T dM fi i hi
 Ted Mooney, finishing.com

Ted Mooney, P.E.

Striving to live Aloha

finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Ted Mooney

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