Electroless nickel for firearms - DFW

[gljjt]

He's applied for an FFL just waiting for his inspection.

Excellent!

[PBratton]

I've gotten my bolts disassembled, and my son wants to include his bolt carrier. I'm picking up the parts from him this evening, and then I'll get them to you.

Keep us informed TAM.

[The Annoyed Man]

I've gotten my bolts disassembled, and my son wants to include his bolt carrier. I'm picking up the parts from him this evening, and then I'll get them to you.

Keep us informed TAM.

Shouldn't be too long. Andy picked up the parts from me this morning, and they're going to do the plating tomorrow. I imagine I'll have them back in a few days.

[PBratton]

I've gotten my bolts disassembled, and my son wants to include his bolt carrier. I'm picking up the parts from him this evening, and then I'll get them to you.

Keep us informed TAM.

Shouldn't be too long. Andy picked up the parts from me this morning, and they're going to do the plating tomorrow. I imagine I'll have them back in a few days.

Excellent! Pictures please!

[The Annoyed Man]

I'll try not to dent them too badly :)

LOL. I'm so upset, I have to go to bed now.

[FuziDave]

hi. i got a question or two.

is there a certain kind of metal or finish that you can or cannot plate? for instance, if i'm tired of my "all black" Walther PPS, i could send him the slide and he'll be able to nickel plate that? and would the plating handle the heat from shooting?

also, what would be the cost of that? i don't recall seeing a price list.
thanks.

[Abraham]

I'm still learning: What's the benefit of plating your BCG? Once plated they're easier to clean or ...?

Thanks

[The Annoyed Man]

hi. i got a question or two.

is there a certain kind of metal or finish that you can or cannot plate? for instance, if i'm tired of my "all black" Walther PPS, i could send him the slide and he'll be able to nickel plate that? and would the plating handle the heat from shooting?

also, what would be the cost of that? i don't recall seeing a price list.
thanks.

FuziDave, we are at this moment plating the bolts, bolt carriers, extractors, and camming pins for an AR15 and an AR10. I'm pretty sure a plated pistol slide will be able to handle the heat. Pricing hasn't yet been worked out. Edited to add: part of the process includes stripping off any existing finish.

I'm still learning: What's the benefit of plating your BCG? Once plated they're easier to clean or ...?

Thanks

Abraham, the benefit of plating is added lubricity (you still have to lubricate the parts, but you do get additional protection), and easier cleaning as carbon build up almost wipes right off.

I have some pictures of the process that Andy texted me just a little bit ago, but I don't want to share them without his permission, so I'll leave that up to him.

[ELB]

hmmm, I want to keep an eye on this. TAM, when you get all the parts done and back, I'd be interested in knowing how it works out, prices, etc.

[The Annoyed Man]

hmmm, I want to keep an eye on this. TAM, when you get all the parts done and back, I'd be interested in knowing how it works out, prices, etc.

I'll let you know how it comes out, and I'll post some pictures when I get the parts back, but I have no pricing information. The guy who owns the business has apparently not decided on any of that yet. AndyC is really the contact, and he is actually down there at the shop right now, plating my parts for me as we type this.

In brief, the process was like this:

1. Mixed up a batch of plating solution.
2. Tested the solution, using ammonium nitrate, to check the percentage of nickel in the solution.
3. Dropped all parts into a batch of HCl to strip off any "stuff" covering the bare steel surface (i.e. previous finish, schmutz, etc.).
4. Dropped all parts into the plating solution.
5. The rate of plating is about .4 thousandths/hour.
6. We're shooting for .6-.8 thousandths, so plating bath lasts ~2 hrs.
7. After plating, parts go into a pure nitric acid bath for 30 seconds to test for corrosion resistance.
8. MY parts failed at this stage. The nitric acid found a pore in the plating, probably due to a tiny spot of corrosion where the plating did not adhere.
9. At this point, the owner is going to strip the new plating, bead blast all the parts, and then re-do them in bulk in his big tanks. (Since it was a small run, they were doing them in glass beakers.) And since they were doing them in beakers, he couldn't run the AR10's bolt carrier in the first batch because it wouldn't fit in the beaker. Now all of the parts are going to be done together......so happy day.

The owner was not happy with the outcome, but he can't rectify things until next Thursday because he has other business. The last two items are NOT how it is supposed to go, but the cool part is that the owner is fixing the problem. This is all part of his calibrating his processes for gun parts, and it is free to me, so I don't mind being the guinea pig. He's been coating high-precision parts for aviation for a long time, so it's not like he doesn't know what he's doing. This time, after bead blasting and re-plating, he is going to impart another finish to the nickel (I am not sure how this is done) and bake it, which will make the surface of the plating glass-like so that it will be that much higher lubricity and be that much more free of baked on grime.

[WildBill]

Plating is both a science and an art.

[Pawpaw]

TAM, Did you remove the gas key from the bolt carrier or is it being plated too?

Edit: Never mind. The pictures answered that question.