Nickel Plating Anode Baskets

[awemawson]

I'm setting my self up to do a bit of nickel plating, and at the moment deciding just how to suspend the nickel anodes, which can be odd shaped lumps.

Most sources suggest using perforated titanium baskets inside a woven fabric bag, but one or two suggest stainless steel is satisfactory.

Now obviously there is a huge price difference 

Has anyone on the forum real life experience of using one or the other (or both !) - or alternatively has anyone an economic source of suitable titanium mesh as everywhere I've looked want a king's ransom 

[vintageandclassicrepairs]

Hi Andrew,
The kits and setups I have seen use flat nickel anodes, these are bolted to brass strips to make the connection but the anodes are not fully submerged in the plating solution, so the brass doesn't get consumed
The anodes I have are all flat strip

I have a "JMC" plating power supply and heating unit which dates from about 1960
Its another of the "round tuit" thiings that need space and time to set up and use

HTH
John

[Eugene]

Has anyone on the forum real life experience of using one or the other (or both !) -

Yes.

Titanium has been the industry standard for years and for good reasons, it's absolutely trouble free. Stainless should never be allowed to contact the plating solution, it will break down and cause problems.

It's important to distinguish between the various forms in which nickel metal can be used as anode material. Nickel shot and chips, the commonest form, must be used in titanium baskets. Solid nickel used in plate or rod form needs neither titanium or stainless baskets to be employed effectively; all you need do is ensure a good electrical contact well above the solution level.

Baskets are only appropriate in heavy production areas; they hold a great weight of metal in a small area. You can therefore plate a huge number of components and use a lot of metal before having to stop production and top them up. Plate or rod anodes are perfectly OK in low and medium volume production baths, and will be a much less costly option. They are usually attached via a titanium hook to the anode rail, but there are other less expensive materials which, if kept out of the solution will be fine.

The other critical issue is making sure that as the anode corrodes sacrificially, it doesn't allow bits of nickel metal to break off and enter the bath; these bits will as sure as God made little apples attach themselves to your workpiece bringing about a condition known as "rough as a bear's *rse."

Within industry, all anodes wether they be in baskets or the solid form, are enclosed in "anodes bags" usually made of terylene or polypropylene. These allow the plating solution to remain in electrical contact with the anodes, but prevent the effects of anode breakdown causing roughness.

In a very small set up, your best bet would be to use solid nickel anodes connected to the circuit by copper wire well above the line where the plating solution will be in contact. You can also buy one of the standard sized anode bags from a supplier and chop it up to the sizes you require, either stitching it together with nylon or "welding" the seams with a hot metal rod. I did just that for years when producing electroplated diamond tooling.

Eug

 

[one_rod]

The plating plant I currently work at used to do a lot of Nickel plating. We took that line out years ago, but back then the process chemists would have been aghast at the idea of anything other than titanium being used.

However we are talking about a big, commercial operation and the cost of Ti baskets was a minor matter compared to the potential cost of dealing with unwanted  metal contamination in the tanks.

The only other material they would allow into long-term contact with the solutions was PVC.
Perforated PVC sheet can be had from most plastics suppliers, and can be bent, shaped and welded into any shape you like using nothing more than a decorators heat gun.

Of course you will have to make some other arrangement for making electrical contact to the Ni anode itself, but sorting out that might be bit less painful than buying a load of Ti mesh.