nickel on brass

[baldysm]

I'm having all kinds of problems getting nickel to stick on brass.

I polished the brass with Caswell buffing compounds, cleaned them off real well with acetone. Plated with a rectifier set at 5V.

Of the 3 parts I was working on, 1 seemed to take the plating fairly well in most spots. There was a couple areas that just didn't seem to take any nickel, even after repeated cleanings with acetone. The other 2 parts didn't take nickel at all I don't think.

I then plated with rhodium from a competitor. Seemed to plate ok until I used Simichrome to clean things up. The plating didn't last more than 3 strokes with a rag before it was almost totally gone. The spots that seemed to plate on the 1 part survived much better.

The brass is all from the same bar of 260 brass, polished at the same time (night before I plated them) using the same process.

I have used the nickel on plain steel and it worked, but have not had success with it on either stainless or brass.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Scott

[lcaswell]

Don't use acetone to clean...use our SP Degreaser.

Simichrome is extremely agressive - use something milder to polish if you need to.

[baldysm]

Thanks Lance. I'll give it a shot.

Do you have a recommendation for something less aggressive than Simichrome, and perhaps a source?

Thanks!
Scott