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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing 1989-2024
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Prepping & plating lead fishing lures?
I LEAD CAST SOME OF OWN FISHING LURES ONTO ALREADY nickel PLATED BLANKS. IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO nickel PLATE THE LEAD PART TO GIVE IT A PROFESSIONAL LOOK. THE LEAD LOOKS FINE RIGHT AFTER I CAST IT, BUT IN A SHORT TIME IT TARNISHES. I WOULD LIKE TO ATTEMPT THIS MYSELF. IS THERE A PROCESS OUT THERE THAT WOULD FILL MY NICH.
I WANT TO BE ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS FIRST. SECONDLY I'D LIKE TO KEEP THE HOMEMADE THEME WITHOUT IT COSTING AN ARM AND A LEG.
KEVIN FRIES- COLUMBIA, Illinois, USA
2001
Q. Thank you for taking my question. I am a 45 year old third grader when it comes to this, and your responses are fabulous. I am trying to silver plate small pieces of either chromed steel or brass for fishing. I would like to do this at home on a very small scale. I can use cyanide if it can even be found, as I have a haz-mat site readily available. Can you tell me a book to read, or basic advice as to how to silver plate onto these substances that will be durable enough to bounce off the bottom once in awhile and still retain the silver coating?
Thanks so much.
Eric Daboling- Washougal, Washington
2001
Q. I have another company do my electroplating for me and I have a few questions for those who know the process, because I don't.
First, they tell me they are having trouble with the (plain fishing) jigheads. They say that the shaft is "rough", because they aren't dipping it into the acid bath because they are worried it will damage the lead and hook.
Second, when I get them to plate the brass bodies and beads, they have some difficulty keeping the finish VERY shiny. They tell me know that they will dip them twice to help improve the finish, will it help to improve the finish. I have them plate gold, nickel, copper, and silver, and they tell me they are using 100% gold. ANY help will be appreciated!
Thanks,
Keith S [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]Fishing Lures - Ford City, Pennsylvania, USA
2003
2003
A. Keith:
When plating fishing lures, I cannot imagine the chemical damage that your plater is mentioning on the jigheads. Typically, lead being soft will lend itself to dings and dents from hitting each other during plating.
I suggest your plater contact their vendor for a proper plating cycle. Also, pure gold plating yields a really soft deposit. They may wish to install an alloy gold that is hardened with another metal. Finally, you did not mention if your plater ever plates with hooks on your lures. If so, the parts will clump together, and this is an entirely different set of problems. Happy fishing.
Ed Budman [dec]
- Pennsylvania
With deep sadness we advise that our good friend Ed passed away Nov. 24, 2018
April 1, 2013
A. Hi Keith. Gold plating, and most plating, is not usually inherently shiny. You probably need to nickel plate the jigheads to bring out the shine before you gold plate them. God luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Multiple threads merged: please forgive chronology errors and repetition 🙂
Q. Hi,
I make lead fishing lures for a hobby and I have been getting them plated for years but now it seems that the plating is just peeling right off of them when I get them back. We used to put something in the tumbler with the jigs before we got them plated but I ran out of it and never knew what it was. Now I talk to people and I heard that I should strike it with lye or lime before sending them out to get plated to remove the grease and oil, but then I heard that after a few minutes exposed to air the grease will come back and be useless. Does anyone know what I can do to prep the lead so that the chrome plating will adhere to my fishing lures?
Michael Neenanhobbyist - Staten Island, New York, United States
2004
A. It sounds like you are having the parts plated who doesn't have the proper pre treatment for lead. Lead has to go through a very specific cleaning process most typically using a fluoboric acid and nickel strike. Very few shops use this anymore because so few plate lead. Dipping the parts in lye (sodium hydroxide) will not enhance the quality of the plating. A "strike" is a short plating process used as a boundary barrier between the base metal and the subsequent layers of plating. I think dipping the parts in a lye solution is a bad idea. In fact, it could etch your lead. I think I'd find another source that knows how to plate lead.
Daryl Spindler, CEF
decorative nickel-chrome plating - Greenbrier, Tennessee
2004
December 5, 2013
Q. Dear all,
Hello
All my souvenirs medals are cast in lead.
I then do alkaline copper, acid copper, and bright nickel plating.
Afterwards, bubbles appear and you can see the metal underneath the peeling blister and the metal colour on the medals.
My question is:
can lead casting be successfully electroplated without bubbles. What is the chemistry in alkaline copper with lead, using the electrochemical series.
Plating shop manager - Port-Louis
A. Plating on lead doesn't have to be difficult.
1. Clean in a heated alkaline detergent, preferably not home-brew, but one from a plating supplier.
2. Rinse
3. Pickle in 10-20% fluoboric acid, room temp, 30-60 seconds.
4. Rinse.
5. Plate in bright nickel, acid tin or cyanide copper.
Without the fluoboric acid step you will have adhesion problems.
Jeffrey Holmes, CEF
Spartanburg, South Carolina
December 13, 2013
A. Expanding on the advice above, lead forms insoluble salts with chlorides and sulphates, you plate over the salts, it peels, so stay out of sulfuric acid and HCl until you get it "covered", dip through 30%/vol fluoboric acid and then enter the nickel strike tank "hot" (make contact before going in), OR better still, cover the lead first with nickel plated from a nickel fluoborate solution, then go into your conventional Watts type nickel.
Robert H Probert
Robert H Probert Technical Services
Garner, North Carolina
December 16, 2013
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