Electro-plating with Caswell system

Product Review on the Caswell Electroless Chrome Plating Kit

Compliments of Bob Huber

I have spent many hours polishing out the aluminum on my beloved V-MAX with a kit that I purchased
from Caswell Plating and have had the side chutes and carb covers chromed by a professional shop.
When I first saw the kit advertised on Caswell's web site I was very sceptical that a novice could
produce results that would match that of a professional shop. I WAS WRONG ! (Gee thats unusual).
Before going any furthur let me state that the kits offered are not meant to plate LARGE PARTS.
I wanted to chrome plate misc. bolts and nuts on the bike that are hard to find, expensive and time
consuming to have done by a shop. The kits they offer are the perfect solution.

You must realize that any job well done takes work and the proper equipment to do correctly.
With this in mind I will give you a list of what I consider MUST HAVE before even considering
purchase of a plating kit.
1 - A polishing kit which consists of grinder, buffings wheels and polishing compounds. (These can be
purchased thru Caswell)
2 - Degreaser (mineral spirits and acetone work well)
3 - A little experience in polishing out the parts (can't be bought).
4 - The ability to boil water and cipher out square inches.

The process of electroless plating is not new and has been used commercially for many years.It is
basically the same process used in plating done with an electrical transfer system ( + and -poles in a
solution for the plating process). The difference being that Electroless Plating uses heat and chemical
reaction to achieve the same results. The kit consists of (3) solutions that form a plate of nickel/cobalt
alloy (harder and bluer than nickel). The solutions are mixed together
with distilled water and then heated to create our plating solution. The only thing you have to remember
that with any plating process the end result will only be as good as the effort put in preparing the part
(Junk in and you get Junk out). Caswell supplies you with a time chart and maximum quantity (square inches)
that can be chromed at any one time. They also supply you with the correct procedure for replenishing the
solution for future use. After polishing,cleaning and degreasing the parts to be plated (very important)
you are ready to start. Simply bring
the solution to a boil then reduce heat to simmer,add the parts and stir occasionaly. The longer the parts
are submersed the thicker the plate. A 60 minute bath will give you a 1/1000th inch plate which I found
out to work well for the parts I was plating. Caswell states that with new parts (totaly clean) the parts
will come out of the solution ready to bolt back on. All of the parts that I cleaned and chromed came out
of the solution a dingy gray color but with very little polishing they turned out great. All in all the process
works well but there are a few things to be aware of. The solution can become easily contaminated and
rendered useless with the inadvertant introduction of zinc (old zinc plating), lead or copper. You will
know this when the parts become black during the plating process. Time to dump the solution and start
over (an expensive mistake). The 1/Liter kit that I used will plate approx 75 square inches of material
which works out to about $1.00 an inch. This is about what you would pay a professional shop to have it
done. The advantage being the fact that I was back on the bike and riding the same day. So if you have
the time and are willing to put forth the effort you can and will produce professional looking chrome
plate using this process.

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