Beginner Plating

[GolfNut]

I want to plate a few putter heads (soft carbon steel) and I have a few questions.

1. What's the best way to remove old plating or paint.
2. I've read on this site that you need a strike layer of nickel BEFORE you plate copper. Elsewhere, i've heard of people plating putters with copper (soft) and plating nickel over it for durablility and finish. What should I do?
3. What kit should I use? I want to try the Plug-n-Plate first, but I'm wondering if I can dip the putter head into the solution?

THANKS!

[mcaswell]

1. You can sand-blast, grind etc. or strip chemically using an acid pickle...formula in the manual from easy to get chemicals.

2. To plate copper directly onto steel, commonly a cyanide based copper is used. We try to avoid selling cyanide based products, for obvious reasons, so have a very effective acid copper system instead. This means if you want to plate copper over steel, you need a nickel plate first.

I would get a nickel/copper combo kit. http://www.caswellplating.com/combo.htm It's much more versatile than Plug N' Plate.

[GolfNut]

THANKS!
Ok.. I looked at the nickel/copper combo. I'm thinking of getting it. Can I use this combo to nickel->copper->nickel plate a small piece? THEN, what do I do with the system? Can I reuse it weeks/months/years later? $155 seems a little steep if I'm only going to do 1 small piece... How much can I reuse this system?

Also, I already purchased the plating manual (but haven't received it yet). Can I get a credit for the price of the manual?

Does anyone know how to treat raw carbon steel to get that OILCAN look?

THANKS AGAIN!!

-GolfNut
GolfNut947@Yahoo.com

caswell wrote:
1. You can sand-blast, grind etc. or strip chemically using an acid pickle...formula in the manual from easy to get chemicals.

2. To plate copper directly onto steel, commonly a cyanide based copper is used. We try to avoid selling cyanide based products, for obvious reasons, so have a very effective acid copper system instead. This means if you want to plate copper over steel, you need a nickel plate first.

I would get a nickel/copper combo kit. http://www.caswellplating.com/combo.htm It's much more versatile than Plug N' Plate.