plating the motion

I have reached the point in my build where I am thinking of getting stuff plated.
Mainly the motion work and valve components.

What thickness of plate have those that have already gone down this route chosen?
And did you plate the whole lot or leave the bearing faces blank? Like the connecting rods etc.

cheers
Nick

I was going down the highly polished route, my garage is dry and de-humidified. Tony has taken the same line. I guess I will plate them if I need to later. I would be careful with plating around the big and little ends as even the plating can be enough to stop the fit and then in scraping it away you risk the plating chipping of in a place you don't want it coming away.

Simon

I have had my motion stuff done as well as Andy. In both cases we had the bearing either protected or not inserted. When you say valve components you dont mean the actual valves themselves? Bit pointless as they are always covered in steam oil. I cant say what thickness they used exactly but I think it was about 15 microns and it was electroless nickel whihc is a very even coat. My platers are excellent and do lots of military, aerospace and medical contracts and will happily post out if you are interested.

I would be very careful of just polished steel even if your enviroment is dry, the engine is very wet when running and so can rallies be. The slightest bit of moisture will very quickly cause surface rust and worse in no time at all, its very easy to forget to oil up after you have had a day running etc.

Hey Nick, your alive!!!!!

Don't tell me your going down the bling route like the other southerners!!!   

Seriously, Blackbeard's motion is completely un-plated and not polished to a mirror finish and I have had no issues so far and we have been out in the winter in the rain too. The amount of oil that is flying around soon has the metal coated and just a wipe with a rag afterwards ensures the oil is spread nicely and engrained into the surface. On a rainy day it tends to sit on top of the oily surface and is easy to lightly wipe off.

Ask yourself this, how many full size engines do you know with plated rods (I could be digging a hole for myself here!!)?

Cheers

Brian

I'm very much alive….


I'm no way going bling i was thinking satin but definitely not shiny.

Have you plated any of your engine Brian?

In reply to your question regarding full size.
The Tiger Tractor has all her bare metal bits dull chromed and i mean everything.
As for the others I don't know.

I really don't want to bother with plating and as you haven't had any issues I'll probably not bother.
As you said once the oil is everywhere it isn't going to rust.

Has anyone else not plated and been ok?

sonick45 wrote:I'm very much alive….
Have you plated any of your engine Brian?

 
None whatsoever, chemical blacking of some components like steering chain, worm and wheel and chain shaft and some little components and that's about it. all the silver colour on Blackbeard is bare metal.

Yeah I think I'm going to go the same route and let the steam oil do the business.

I haven't plated the valve gear, as it is usually well oiled up. However, it is well worth while plating the fair leads, because these are very vulnerable to rusting - they are exposed at the back of the engine and unlikely to get oiled. Plating the smokebox door keys hides the silver solder and plating the catch handles hides the fact that they would not be made of brass in full size. I will probably get the brake shaft plated at some point, as this is a bit vulnerable to rust. Always worth oiling up the flywheel, as being cast iron it'll rust instantly.

Tim

Cheers Tim good advice.
nick