Annode Stainless or nickel ? Bright nickel

[ASHENASH]

I see that the solution for plug and plate is the same as what you mix for dip plating. But p/p uses a stainless steel anode and dip uses a nickel annode. My question is could I use a stainless annode for dip or viceversa.

Why do I want to know ? Naturally curious.

[dadkar2]

You could use a 316 Stainless anode, but I would highly discourage it.

If you deplete the nickel solution of nickel ions by using stainless steel, you'll have problems with your nickel solution from there forward. The reason it doesn't matter with P/P is you just dip it in the solution again. Plus you're not dealing with a tankful.

I have no idea on how to advise you to recharge your nickel tank after depleting it.

By the way with the flash copper, this actually works fine. In fact, it's easy to recharge the copper by just using a larger copper anode next time around. But, if you get the copper too far either way out of balance you'll start to have problems with it as well. But it seems to have a wider operating range of copper concentration.

All that said, I'd still avoid the stainless out of concern of contaminating the nickel, even slightly. Nickel is almost always the last step (or second last step, in case of chrome plating) and what a nightmare to redo a part tha made it through everything else (which is usually 90% of the time invested in replating a part).

Ken