Brass plating

[fredjohlin]

I purchase a plug and plate kit for a brass plated door plate and after two hours of work the plate looks significantly worse than when I started. I am very disappointed with the product. The plating process seems to remove the residual older surface and all that is left is pitted surface. What can I do to correct this process.

[dadkar2]

I've experimented quite a bit with Caswell's brass formulation. I no longer tank plate with it. I may return to this eventually, but I presently don't have room on the bench with copper, nickel, zinc, and gold tanks. So I wand plate brass exclusively.

Here's my summary: Brass plate works best when applied over nickel flash. It also wand plates wonderfully over nickel. Did you try getting to nickel before using the brass plug n plate?

After the brass plate, neutralize well with water. Gently polish with a cloth diaper and Flitz polish. Do not buff with a wheel. Then, clean off with a good degreaser and apply a coat of lacquer.

I've tried it over numerous substrates. It works well on most. But it works best over nickel.

A major advantage of Plug n Plate brass is you can continuously draw from a fresh batch of brass solution. A tank of it requires attention to keep the pH right. But the sealed bottles still work after 1 year, for me.

Kind regards,
Ken