•I'm planning to have a set of bell bars from a 1919 Wurlitzer 153 replated and tuned. I'm curious: should they be tuned pure, or with a bit of temperament? I've searched the MMD Archives regarding the subject and can't seem to find any information. Many thanks! Craig Wiley Ohio [ A Style 150 instru...

•Craig Wiley asked a few days ago [191106 MMD] about the need to tune Wurlitzer band organ bells after plating them. In my experience tuning them is unnecessary, as they were plated originally. I've had a couple sets re-plated over the years; to me at least it really made no noticeable difference in...

Is there a safe & sane method for hobbyists such as myself to do nickel plating? Very nearly all of the nickel plated parts in my player have a badly trashed finish -- there is always some rusting, with much nickelling worn away from levers, pedal parts, and other parts that come in contact with the...

•I do all of my own nickel plating and my experience may help others decide if it is worth the trouble. The main advantage is that it allows me to do a lot of parts that I would not send away to be plated due to fears having irreplaceable parts lost. This does happen. Doing my own plating also allow...

G'day all, I am a restorer of tube radios and early technology, as well as MM instruments, and the need to deal with old nickel plating often arises. For very small jobs (screws etc.) or anything that cannot be dismantled and immersed in a plating bath, there is a handy kit available in the U.S. for...

•Hello everyone (including you 'piano' guys & gals!) I would like to find a reasonable way to do my own nickel plating on small music box parts. I've looked in my jewelry supply catalogs and they are grossly expensive. I don't want a $20 kit -- that doesn't inspire much confidence! I'd like to set u...

•There is a company called Rapid Electroplating in Chicago that sells small hobby-style electroplating kits for nickel and gold. Their kits are simple to use and effective for small lots. Typically, the power supply is a battery or two.

•Nancy Fratti wrote: > I'd like to set up a dedicated workspace with the necessary vats of > 'chemicals', but am totally unfamiliar with what those chemicals would > be or how to use them or where to get them. It has probably been too long since college chemistry etc. but as I recall, the plating pr...

•Nancy Fratti asked about nickel plating information. A few years ago we contacted Alan Baker Company, 160 Sylvester Rd., So. San Francisco, CA (415-589-5515) about purchasing a minimal amount of supplies for nickel plating. They supplied us with 1/2 nickel anode and a few pounds of necessary nickel...

•Nancy Fratti wrote: > I'd like to set up a dedicated workspace with the necessary vats of > 'chemicals', but am totally unfamiliar with what those chemicals would > be or how to use them or where to get them. One thing to keep in mind if you are going to go this route is that there may be all kinds...

•Thanks to everyone who answered my query on nickel plating. The biggest piece I'd probably need to plate would be a cylinder box spring barrel or winding handle. When a brass spot was revealed on a piece, after polishing, I've "gotten away with" the rub-on silver plating solutions in the past, but ...

•These parts were originally nickel plated. Why would you want to have a plating shop apply anodizing or black oxide when you could have them nickel plated? Hint: if you don't keep the beater wires in order, or if you mix up the pneumatics when recovering them, the beaters won't be in a straight lin...

•My sustain, soft, and non-functioning decorative third pedal are rusty and the nickel plating is long gone. The iron is exposed and they look awful. How much does it usually cost for a set of three pedals to be plated? How much to have them "dipped"? I understand these are two separate processes. C...

•I'm interested in having the metal parts in my Ampico drawer gold plated. Can anyone give me a reference to a company that has done this type of plating before? David L. Winkelblech Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

•I am doing nickel plating as a hobby. I can nickel plate anything with a brass or steel base metal. I can only do parts that will fit easily in a 10-gallon bath. Parts that are already prep'd beforehand, like sanded and polished, will be very reasonably priced. Parts needing prep work will cost mor...

•I had all the chrome for a Seeburg R done at Courtesy Metal Polishing in Villa Park, Illinois, and they did the old rusty speaker grills in brass. The job was done perfectly, an amazing job, and the old rusty grills are still beautiful in brass plating after eight years. Perhaps you already tried t...

•Hi All, In Fort Wayne, Indiana (not really far from the Chicago area), I had the Franke Plating Works (tel.: 1-260-422-8477) do all the metal parts for my Ampico drawer for about $100. They do custom plating of all kinds of parts in many different plating materials including gold. Pat DeWitt Fort W...

•Hi, I live in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and had my Ampico decorative parts plated at Franke Plating Works in Fort Wayne. Their phone number is 1-260-422-8477, email: info@frankeplatingworks.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]. I first tried brass plating but the color did not match the tracker b...

I have many parts to replate on my Philipps Pianella, so I asked about home-shop nickel plating some time ago in rec.crafts.metalworking. I was advised to try the Electroless Nickel Plating kits sold by Brownells. Brownells is primarily a gunsmith supply company, and their catalog is a treasure-trov...

Hello Everyone, Here is a way we have used for years to nickel plate parts that will not be subject to hard use. 1. In plating everything must be absolutely clean, so a good bath in a solution of hot washing soda is done first. If the part is really dirty we first clean the parts by annealing, which...