Bronze plating of a submariner, my first plating experience

[digger2 0]

I started experimenting with bronze plating on stainless steel this weekend and after some tries I finally felt it was time to try a real project yesterday.

The process for stainless steel includes activation with dry acid salts and the Woods nickel strike process before the actual bronze plating. (at least I did like that)

Here is the result for a submariner case:

 

 

 

 

 

[onionbag 1]

Looks good, what thickness is the plating, any idea?

[HWG 11]

Very interesting work, not sure its for me, but my hat's off to you for the creative effort. Enjoy it!

[RichyRichRolex 0]

[digger2 0]

Looks good, what thickness is the plating, any idea?

 

No idea but on polished and well cleaned parts it is pretty thick I think, and on some parts very thin, I guess I will have a better idea about it in a couple of days, it is very important to clean/polish extremly well to get a good result.

[houndoggie 58]

that looks great.

[sconehead 5]

...I did some digging a while ago and found this process for bronzing SS,

 

Using Phosphoric acid ( http://en.wikipedia....Phosphoric_acid ) 5 to 50 grams per litre of water.

 

Different colours, depends on how long we immerse objects in boiling solution, 20

minutes golden bronze,60 minutes indigo blue,120 minutes turquoise,180 minutes green.

 

...and most importantly, read the safe working practices using this acid here,

 

http://www.ccohs.ca/...orking_pho.html

 

From what I've gathered, any boiling of the mixture should be done outside, or in a very well ventilated area due to the chance of hydrogen gas (extremely flammable!) being produced as an unfortunate by-product of the whole process.

[onionbag 1]

You've made a decent fist of that as stainless steel is naturally passive, degreasing and cleaning are very important and obviously you've made a good job of that also.

 

Well done.

[Kaiser 4]

Cool! Maybe you could start a small side business plating the PAM Bronzo rep? I'm sure there'd be some interest in that

[dalboy 2]

I like it....interested to see just how long the plating lasts..

 

Good job

 

Dal..

[Sparkal 4]

Cool,

[UmpaHimself 222]

Sweet project man. I think it looks cool. Great work on that, I am very impressed.

 

Cool! Maybe you could start a small side business plating the PAM Bronzo rep? I'm sure there'd be some interest in that

+1

[Indigo38 0]

Very interesting work, not sure its for me, but my hat's off to you for the creative effort. Enjoy it!

 

+1

[HeavyKrush 16]

Wow... Not a fan on a sub but holy shit that looks great.

[digger2 0]

Thank you all for the comments and the links! I have been thinking about plating a bronzo rep but don't think I'm ready for trying that out yet. Interesting new hobby, my wife asked me for permission to use the washing machine today as I have occupied the washing/laundry room ;-)

[DeLaForce 2]

Everyone's going plating crazy as of recent I approve!

Sub looks great, almost gold.

Nice job mate

[James. 4]

Still waiting for your tut for that Ferrari bronzo dela

[trailboss99 994]

Oh now that is purdy!

[Silverspeed 10]

Looks great!!

[wat44 0]

I think it looks fantastic, polished!

[Amit 72]

Looks great Digger!

[andepad 0]

..... looks good!

 

Look fwd to see plating work done on Bronzo ;-)

[markeym3 2]

Looks really good nice work , i love these projects ,, would be good to see a panerai done but left in the pre-polished state and left to wear/polish naturally in places ,, nice work

[solkryssare 109]

It looks awesome mate! Well done

[digger2 0]

Thank you all!

 

I will probably go for a PAM270 as next try