Electroplate an action?

[Mram10us]

Has anyone ever tried to electroplate an action with copper, nickel, or other metal? Wanting to try it on an action.Thanks guys

 

[jackieschmidt]

Would it be solely for decorative purpose?

 

[DaveTooley]

I would look Into PVD coatings.

 

[Walt Krafft]

I have had a couple of rifle actions hard chrome plated. A Rem 700 and a Win 70. I also had a Win M12 completely nickel plated. APW in Alabama did the work.

 

[Walt Krafft]

Top picture is the finished M70. Bought it as a target rifle just to get the action. Bottom picture shows what I found when I took the rear target site mount off. Inserted plug screws, APW tigged them. Then polished and plated.c
pop y

 

[Leeman]

I have an action that I had electroless nickel plated around 16 years ago. It's gone through four or five barrels in that time and still looks as good as the day it was done.

 

[WSnyder]

DIY Electroless nickel. They have electro as well if you want to gear up for that.

Plating Kits - Electroless Plating Kits - Electroless Nickel Plating Kits - Caswell Inc

caswellplating.com

 

[Mram10us]

Would it be solely for decorative purpose?

yes. copper to be shined up real pretty

 

[Mram10us]

I would look Into PVD coatings.

i can easily do copper and nickel. can pvd be done at home easily?

 

[Mram10us]

DIY Electroless nickel. They have electro as well if you want to gear up for that.

Plating Kits - Electroless Plating Kits - Electroless Nickel Plating Kits - Caswell Inc

caswellplating.com

i am curious how that differs from a standard in house nickel plate. thanks

 

[Mram10us]

I have an action that I had electroless nickel plated around 16 years ago. It's gone through four or five barrels in that time and still looks as good as the day it was done.

good to hear it was tough

 

[Walt Krafft]

Copper polished up will not stay that way long. The chemicals used in plating are very toxic! Think cyanide! Not something to be done at home in my opinion. Pay the money and let the pros do it. They have proper ways to dispose of the chemicals.

 

[mike mccormick]

I would think it almost impossible to keep copper from oxidizing. It would look like a 60 year old penny fairly soon

 

[troupe]

Like Dave Tooley stated, PVD is a very good process or nitride, a lot depends on the action. Some processes work through very high temps and I have heard that the nitride is very iffy on the soldered on Remington bolt handles and bolt faces. H&M told me they were leery of doing a Remington bolt. Very slick process.

 

[jelenko]

Bottom picture shows what I found when I took the rear target site mount off.

Wow! Looks like drilling for oil.

 

[209jones]

X-Ring channel on YT, put out a vid yesterday on coatings and how they interact with the substrate material and some of the material differences. Didn't talk about copper, some discussion on hard chrome, but, illustrates why some coatings work well, and some don't, depending on what material they are put on to. No idea what coating you could use on copper to stop oxidization, or how well the copper would stick with whatever steel you want to coat.
Worth a look anyway.

 

[Mram10us]

thanks guys. i am well aware of safety, since i already do electroplating. just haven't tried it on an action. has anyone nickel plated there action or other rifle parts by themselves?