Soldering and Nickel Plating

[Steve Plucker]

I was wondering if I were to fill some small holes on a steel part with solder and smooth out the area that was soldered, will nickel plating adhear to the solder?

Thanks.

Pluck

[John Stone]

If you use silver solder.

[chrs1961815]

I have only seen and heard of copper being used.

[Chuck Sea/Tac]

Ask your plater

[McMimmcs]

Originally Posted by Chuck Sea/Tac

Ask your plater

Great advice ! Who would know better !

[Bob Bidonde]

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Hi Steve,
Solder is lead, and lead was once a common body filler material. A quality nickle plating will have copper first. Copper adheres to lead. By the way, bullets have copper plating!

[Steve Plucker]

I think I will use brass rod...it should flow ok.

Thanks.

Pluck

[SSsssteamer]

I have been this route. My plater "Specialized Plating" in Mt. Vernon, WA will not plate over lead solder repairs. He will plate over Silver solder repairs, and about any other metal. He does nice work and in 50 years, my sliver solder pre-plating repairs have never let us down. Silver solder is not lead solder. Its price reflects this.

[RandyinUtah]

I have used silver solder in the past and then chrome plating process. Had to repair a set of lando arms so the extra cost was worth it.

[leo]

I was doing a lot of research on plating in the now defunct CAR magazine (lots of copies saved) and found something about a type of solder which could be used to patch pits in pot metal before plating. Unfortunately I do not remember the name......

[rotorwrench]

Brass works but takes around 850 degrees F. Silver is higher at around 1200 degrees F for the easy type. I usually braze stuff than needs repair for the plating process unless it's soft metal like zinc die cast. I have a special rod and flux for it (Muggy Weld).

A person needs to have the right flux and clean, clean, clean. There are different rod sizes too. The type of job designates the materials needed. I use oxy/acetylene to do most of this type stuff. Map gas and propane can work on some things but I like to get it hot quick and get the job done fast so that it doesn't bake the part too bad. You can't even tell it was soldered after the plating process. Of course, plating is all about how good the polish job is prior to going into the tanks.

Plating might stick to the soft solders but the metal is too compressible. It can be easily damaged even if there is plating over it. The plating is generally very thin and the soft metal can yield under the plating if it gets bumped.