Nickel Plug and plate newbee

[overcashier]

I tried solution in a shot glass and used one of the small pens and dipped a small milled piece of hobby store brass. When I pull the piece it is covered with a green scale. It will polish off and I have an ok amount of plating. Is this solution spent? There is some sentiment in the bottom of the glass. The brass piece is 3/4"X1/4"X1/16" dunked for amount 2 minutes in room temp solution with the metal of the pen about a 1/16" in the solution. It starts off with nice fizzing but seems to weaken after a while. I have 24 of these pieces to do, should I just get the regular nickel setup and dip them all. The pieces are all cleaned, shiny and sitting in walnut shells in a tumbler and ready to go. Do i need to scrub all of these with soft scrub first!(yecch).
Thanks
Greg

[bhhodges]

the hobby store brass might of had a clear coat of some type on it??

bill

[cbrooks]

More than likely the brass did have a clear coat on it, as this prevents the brass from tarnishing as stated by bhhodges. You will need to use a paint stripper to remove this then clean with sof scrub or dish detergent and thoroughly rinse with distilled water before plating. I would suggest dipping more of the wand into the solution when using the immersion technique.