sploo
Somewhat extinguished member
I previously posted a few photos of nickel plating some old Stanley #71 plane parts in Anyone tried DIY copper electroplating?, but this is the rest of the job...
Two #71 planes; both heavily rusted and in pretty bad shape. Both were dismantled, left in rust remover for a while, then cleaned up on a wire wheel:
I nickel plated several parts (see the earlier referenced thread), but the two knob screws on one plane were too badly rusted, so I made some new ones on the lathe:
Then added slots in the mill:
Old and new screws, with the new screws "raw" and then nickel plated:
In the weeks between originally nickel plating the bodies and doing the rest of the parts the bodies had started to rust, and the plating wasn't great anyway (flaking in places). Smaller/smoother parts plate better, but I don't think my set up is good enough for the larger items. I took both back to the wire wheel to clean up, heated them with a hot air gun and melted a lot of microcrystalline wax into the body in the hope that'll protect them. Here's one before/after:
The knobs were gently cleaned with white spirit and then recoated in shellac. The photos make them look a bit plastic, but they look good in reality. All finished parts:
Blades sharpened, and a quick test:
Hopefully good for another 100+ years.
Two #71 planes; both heavily rusted and in pretty bad shape. Both were dismantled, left in rust remover for a while, then cleaned up on a wire wheel:
![01.jpg 01.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128160-01.jpg)
![02.jpg 02.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128161-02.jpg)
I nickel plated several parts (see the earlier referenced thread), but the two knob screws on one plane were too badly rusted, so I made some new ones on the lathe:
![03.jpg 03.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128162-03.jpg)
Then added slots in the mill:
![04.jpg 04.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128163-04.jpg)
Old and new screws, with the new screws "raw" and then nickel plated:
![05.jpg 05.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128164-05.jpg)
In the weeks between originally nickel plating the bodies and doing the rest of the parts the bodies had started to rust, and the plating wasn't great anyway (flaking in places). Smaller/smoother parts plate better, but I don't think my set up is good enough for the larger items. I took both back to the wire wheel to clean up, heated them with a hot air gun and melted a lot of microcrystalline wax into the body in the hope that'll protect them. Here's one before/after:
![06.jpg 06.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128165-06.jpg)
The knobs were gently cleaned with white spirit and then recoated in shellac. The photos make them look a bit plastic, but they look good in reality. All finished parts:
![07.jpg 07.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128166-07.jpg)
![08.jpg 08.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128167-08.jpg)
Blades sharpened, and a quick test:
![09.jpg 09.jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/ukworkshop/data/attach/128/128168-09.jpg)
Hopefully good for another 100+ years.