Sales of expensive x-ray instruments is not going well in this economy
so I am starting a new business, Mobile Marine Plating, Inc. will
specialize in re-plating small marine parts with anti-corrosive and
decorative metal plating while the parts are in place via "brush
plating". This means we will go to a boat and coat corroded parts
with electroplated nickel or bronze or even gold. Larger numbers of
parts can be brought back to the lab for polishing en masse and re-
coating.
My specialty is nickel plating but one of the most interesting ones is
an electroless nickel coating that has hexagonal boron nitride in it
to give ti lubricating properties along with the anti-corrosion
properties. Think about steel or Aluminum parts that are subject to
wear and corrosion where a coating about .00020" thick would be
helpful.
I am getting tired of hanging out with scientists anyway and want to
hang out in marinas. Will probably start off coating local parts but
will branch out into offshore oil stuff.

Frogwatch wrote:
Sales of expensive x-ray instruments is not going well in this economy
so I am starting a new business, Mobile Marine Plating, Inc. will
specialize in re-plating small marine parts with anti-corrosive and
decorative metal plating while the parts are in place via "brush
plating". This means we will go to a boat and coat corroded parts
with electroplated nickel or bronze or even gold. Larger numbers of
parts can be brought back to the lab for polishing en masse and re-
coating.
My specialty is nickel plating but one of the most interesting ones is
an electroless nickel coating that has hexagonal boron nitride in it
to give ti lubricating properties along with the anti-corrosion
properties. Think about steel or Aluminum parts that are subject to
wear and corrosion where a coating about .00020" thick would be
helpful.
I am getting tired of hanging out with scientists anyway and want to
hang out in marinas. Will probably start off coating local parts but
will branch out into offshore oil stuff.


Well...all but one piece of "hardware" I've had on every boat I've owned
for the past 20 years has been stainless steel, and it always cleaned up
nicely.

I presume you wirebrush off existing corrosion on hardware you want to
spiff up...what do you do about pits?

BTW, there are lots of quality gold-toned fishing reels from Shimano and
others where the plating has worn off.

They look like this:

http://fish.shimano.com/publish/cont...itcasting.html


The reels are still perfectly serviceable, but could use dressing up.
There must be a ka-zillion quality reels that could benefit from a
recoating.

Doubt you could do it on site, though.

HK wrote:
Frogwatch wrote:
Sales of expensive x-ray instruments is not going well in this economy
so I am starting a new business, Mobile Marine Plating, Inc. will
specialize in re-plating small marine parts with anti-corrosive and
decorative metal plating while the parts are in place via "brush
plating". This means we will go to a boat and coat corroded parts
with electroplated nickel or bronze or even gold. Larger numbers of
parts can be brought back to the lab for polishing en masse and re-
coating.
My specialty is nickel plating but one of the most interesting ones is
an electroless nickel coating that has hexagonal boron nitride in it
to give ti lubricating properties along with the anti-corrosion
properties. Think about steel or Aluminum parts that are subject to
wear and corrosion where a coating about .00020" thick would be
helpful.
I am getting tired of hanging out with scientists anyway and want to
hang out in marinas. Will probably start off coating local parts but
will branch out into offshore oil stuff.


Well...all but one piece of "hardware" I've had on every boat I've owned
for the past 20 years has been stainless steel, and it always cleaned up
nicely.

I presume you wirebrush off existing corrosion on hardware you want to
spiff up...what do you do about pits?

BTW, there are lots of quality gold-toned fishing reels from Shimano and
others where the plating has worn off.

They look like this:

http://fish.shimano.com/publish/cont...itcasting.html



The reels are still perfectly serviceable, but could use dressing up.
There must be a ka-zillion quality reels that could benefit from a
recoating.

Doubt you could do it on site, though.

What do you mean by "on site", and why would anyone want to?

On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:47:00 -0400, HK wrote:

BTW, there are lots of quality gold-toned fishing reels from Shimano and
others where the plating has worn off.

You can find it very difficult to measure the hardness of very thin
coatings, but titanium nitride is estimated at Rockwell C 85. It is
coated on to drill bits, steel knife cutting edges, and the titanium
handles on my Buck folding knife. It is yellow in color, and is used
for decoration as well as wear resistance. You can color anodize
aluminum that color, but I don't believe the coating is as abrasion
resistant as the nitride, notwithstanding the fact the all aluminum
has a coating of sapphire, transparent aluminum oxide.

Casady

Richard Casady wrote:
On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:47:00 -0400, HK wrote:

BTW, there are lots of quality gold-toned fishing reels from Shimano and
others where the plating has worn off.

You can find it very difficult to measure the hardness of very thin
coatings, but titanium nitride is estimated at Rockwell C 85. It is
coated on to drill bits, steel knife cutting edges, and the titanium
handles on my Buck folding knife. It is yellow in color, and is used
for decoration as well as wear resistance. You can color anodize
aluminum that color, but I don't believe the coating is as abrasion
resistant as the nitride, notwithstanding the fact the all aluminum
has a coating of sapphire, transparent aluminum oxide.

Casady


Interestingly, the gold-tone coating on the spools of my Penn spinning
reels does not seem to wear off nearly as easily as the coating on the
Shimanos. It's strictly ornamental, though. Both brands of reels work
well for me...

"HK" wrote in message
...


Interestingly, the gold-tone coating on the spools of my Penn spinning
reels does not seem to wear off nearly as easily as the coating on the
Shimanos. It's strictly ornamental, though. Both brands of reels work well
for me...

If it is TiN and not electroplated, and it was done properly, you will find
it damn near impossible to wear off.

Titanium Nitride can look just like gold electroplating. It can also be
adjusted to different "hues".
Several auto manufacturers with the fancy gold hood ornaments and side
badges use plastic or zinc parts that have a vacuum deposited base coating
and then a reactive titanium nitride finish top coating.

Each manufacturer has a different specification in terms of the gold color,
hue, and other color spectrum requirements, etc. which are controlled by
different process parameters including voltage, pressure and gas ratio
mixtures. The "gold" tipped drill bits aren't designed to be pretty, so
they have a dull, but very hard coating. The hood ornament or badge on a
Caddy may be zinc or plastic, but the TiN coating is bright, shiny gold with
a lot of "depth".

Same with many of the modern sports trophy manufacturers. They are shifting
to vacuum deposited TiN instead of electroplating or electro less nickel
plating. The older plating technologies generate toxic waste that needs to
be disposed of. Vacuum deposited coatings are "green", environmentally.

Same with junk jewelry.

It's an interesting technology.

Eisboch

Eisboch wrote:

"HK" wrote in message
...


Interestingly, the gold-tone coating on the spools of my Penn spinning
reels does not seem to wear off nearly as easily as the coating on the
Shimanos. It's strictly ornamental, though. Both brands of reels work
well for me...

If it is TiN and not electroplated, and it was done properly, you will
find it damn near impossible to wear off.

Titanium Nitride can look just like gold electroplating. It can also be
adjusted to different "hues".
Several auto manufacturers with the fancy gold hood ornaments and side
badges use plastic or zinc parts that have a vacuum deposited base
coating and then a reactive titanium nitride finish top coating.

Each manufacturer has a different specification in terms of the gold
color, hue, and other color spectrum requirements, etc. which are
controlled by different process parameters including voltage, pressure
and gas ratio mixtures. The "gold" tipped drill bits aren't designed
to be pretty, so they have a dull, but very hard coating. The hood
ornament or badge on a Caddy may be zinc or plastic, but the TiN coating
is bright, shiny gold with a lot of "depth".

Same with many of the modern sports trophy manufacturers. They are
shifting to vacuum deposited TiN instead of electroplating or electro
less nickel plating. The older plating technologies generate toxic
waste that needs to be disposed of. Vacuum deposited coatings are
"green", environmentally.

Same with junk jewelry.

It's an interesting technology.

Eisboch


I don't have any idea what is being used to plate the reels in gold
tone. As I said, the plating is just decoration. The reels don't rust
when it wears off. The frames are aluminum. I wash and dry the reels
after every use, so I haven't had any problems with corrosion, either.
I'd pay $25 to have a reel "redone," but it's not a vital refurb.

On Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:33:56 -0400, HK wrote:

You can find it very difficult to measure the hardness of very thin
coatings, but titanium nitride is estimated at Rockwell C 85. It is
coated on to drill bits, steel knife cutting edges, and the titanium
handles on my Buck folding knife. It is yellow in color, and is used
for decoration as well as wear resistance. You can color anodize
aluminum that color, but I don't believe the coating is as abrasion
resistant as the nitride, notwithstanding the fact the all aluminum
has a coating of sapphire, transparent aluminum oxide.

Casady


Interestingly, the gold-tone coating on the spools of my Penn spinning
reels does not seem to wear off nearly as easily as the coating on the
Shimanos. It's strictly ornamental, though. Both brands of reels work
well for me...

The simple explanation is that one is anodized and one is nitrided.

Casady

On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 13:37:13 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

Sales of expensive x-ray instruments is not going well in this economy
so I am starting a new business, Mobile Marine Plating, Inc. will
specialize in re-plating small marine parts with anti-corrosive and
decorative metal plating while the parts are in place via "brush
plating". This means we will go to a boat and coat corroded parts
with electroplated nickel or bronze or even gold. Larger numbers of
parts can be brought back to the lab for polishing en masse and re-
coating.
My specialty is nickel plating but one of the most interesting ones is
an electroless nickel coating that has hexagonal boron nitride in it
to give ti lubricating properties along with the anti-corrosion
properties. Think about steel or Aluminum parts that are subject to
wear and corrosion where a coating about .00020" thick would be
helpful.
I am getting tired of hanging out with scientists anyway and want to
hang out in marinas. Will probably start off coating local parts but
will branch out into offshore oil stuff.

That's cool. Best of luck to you in your new venture.

On Jun 4, 5:08*pm, jps wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 13:37:13 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch



wrote:
Sales of expensive x-ray instruments is not going well in this economy
so I am starting a new business, Mobile Marine Plating, Inc. *will
specialize in re-plating small marine parts with anti-corrosive and
decorative metal plating while the parts are in place via "brush
plating". *This means we will go to a boat and coat corroded parts
with electroplated nickel or bronze or even gold. *Larger numbers of
parts can be brought back to the lab for polishing en masse and re-
coating.
My specialty is nickel plating but one of the most interesting ones is
an electroless nickel coating that has hexagonal boron nitride *in *it
to give ti lubricating properties along with the anti-corrosion
properties. *Think about steel or Aluminum parts that are subject to
wear and corrosion where a coating about .00020" thick would be
helpful.
I am getting tired of hanging out with scientists anyway and want to
hang out in marinas. *Will probably start off coating local parts but
will branch out into offshore oil stuff.

That's cool. *Best of luck to you in your new venture.

I try not to use a wire brush because that introduces metal from the
brush into the part. Pitting can be "fixed" by brush plating into the
pit and then finely lapping it to the surface contour.
I would expect to see many fixtures from older boats that need re-
coating. I would expect to see places where SS fasteners contact
aluminum because no matter how much of the stuff you put on the
fastener to prevent it, the junction always corrodes.
Fishing reels would be good to do here at the lab.
On-site means the part may not have to be removed from an engine or
other location to be plated. Brush plating is literally plating with
a tiny paint brush like thing so you can plate tiny areas. You dip
the brush into the plating solution and then rub it against the metal
part where you want the plating done.
Larger areas can be done by forming a dam around the area with silicon
putty.