Caswell One-Plate® 1 Electroless Nickel Kit - Mini
Introducing Caswell One-Plate® 1
Caswell One-Plate® 1 – Electroless Nickel Made Easy
Caswell One-Plate® 1 Electroless Nickel is truly a revolution for small scale Electroless Nickel plating. No more mixing of multiple chemicals, simpler one solution additions, lower consumption rate of chemicals, cheaper and easier overall operation.
Caswell One-Plate® 1 uses ONE simple chemical for solution makeup and replenishment. Simply mix the required amount of concentrate and add distilled water. Heat to 185 deg F and start plating.
So Simple - Just Like Boiling an Egg
Mix Chemicals Into Included Glass Lined Tank, and place on stove top or hot plate.
Includes Thermometer
The Ideal Way to Plate Small Parts - Easily - Economically - Quickly
No Batteries, Rectifiers or Other Power Sources Required
Cyanide Free – No Fumes
Plates Many Metals - All Steels, Irons, Copper, Brass, Bronze, Lead Free Solders, and Nickel Alloys.
Even & Uniform Layer, Inside Tubes, Corners etc.
No Anode Shadow!
Mid Phosphorous 5%-9%
Turn This:
Into This:
* - Photos courtesy of Andrew Tuohy. Plated with Caswell Electroless Nickel Kit
Electroless nickel plating requires no anodes, power supply or electrical connection of any kind. The process simply entails mixing together some solutions, heating them to just off the boil, and then immersing the part to be plated. An auto catalytic electrochemical reaction takes place and the nickel is evenly deposited all over the part being plated. The thickness of the plate will depend on the duration of immersion. To stop the reaction, remove the part from the solution.
Like all plating, the brightness of the plate depends on the brightness of the part before plating. The brighter the shine initially, the brighter the shine after plating. Numerous variations of the final finish are achieved by changing the surface preparation.
Electroless nickel plating is not new; it has many applications in industry. Because the system plates evenly over all areas of the part, even down tubes and holes, it is frequently used to plate firearms and small hand tools. For the motorcycle restoration enthusiast, electroless nickel is a great tool for evenly plating the air cooling fins on many engine blocks, particularly older Indians & Harleys.
Electroless nickel plates at an approx. rate of 1 mil (1/1000") per hour. Indoor decorative applications will need approx. 0.25 mil or 15 min. of plating. General outdoor items (hand tools, hand guns) should receive 0.5 mils or 30 min. Items requiring high corrosion resistance should receive 1 mils or 60 min.
As the baths are used, nickel depletes from the solution. You will need to replenish this periodically, using our unique method of calculating the nickel loss. Additions to the solution may be made with very small quantities of One-Plate® 1 solution.
This system will NOT plate pot metal. Plate with Flash Copper first. This system will plate aluminum if the metal is primed with Zincate first.
MAX LOAD
Electroless Nickel plating uses a chemical reaction rather than electricity to plate nickel onto parts. This reaction will not occur if there are too many, or too large a part in the bath.
| Kit Size | Maximum Surface Area Plated At Once |
| Mini | 70 sq in |
| Standard | 140 sq in |
| Deluxe | 2 Sq Ft (288 sq in) |
| Jumbo | 4 Sq Ft (576 sq in) |
MAKING UP THE ELECTROLESS NICKEL SOLUTION
| Kit Size | Caswell One-Plate® 1 Solution | Distilled Water | Size Of Tank |
| Mini (0.83 Gal) | 1 Pint (473ml) | 90 fl oz (2.66 L) | 8" diam x 6" high |
| Standard (1.6 Gal) | 1 Quart (946 ml) | 1.35 Gal (5.11 L) | 8.5" dia x 6" high |
| Deluxe (3.4 Gal) | 2 Quarts (1.89 L) | 2.8 Gal (10.6 L) | 14" dia x 10" high |
| Jumbo (6.7 Gal) | 1 Gallon (3.78 L) | 5.7 Gal (21.5 L) | 16" dia x 13" high |
Kits Contain:
- 2 x Glass Lined Tank
- Thermometer
- Mist Control Balls
- One-Plate® 1 Solution
- SP Degreaser
- The Caswell Plating Manual
- Free Technical Support
Dispersions - Boron Nitride, Silicone Carbide or PTFE Nickel
One of the most exciting elements about our new Electroless Nickel System is that you can convert our regular nickel system into either a Boron Nitride, Silicone Carbide or PTFE composite plating system.
Note, once you add a dispersion material, you cannot go back to regular Electroless Nickel Plating. You also cannot use other dispersions, so, for example, if you wanted to setup a PTFE system and a Silicone Carbide system, you would need two complete kits.
All dispersion Electroless Nickel systems will plate a matte grey finish. They could be polished slightly after plating, but will never be as bright as regular electroless nickel.
The amount of dispersion per kit size required is shown in the table below. You will probably want to purchase slightly more for replenishment.
| Kit Size | Boron Nitride | Silicone Carbide | PTFE |
| Mini | 5.3 fl oz | 2 fl oz | 19 grams (0.67 oz by weight) |
| Standard | 10.6 fl oz | 4 fl oz | 38 grams (1.4 oz by weight) |
| Deluxe | 21.2 fl oz | 8 fl oz | 76 grams (2.7 oz by weight) |
| Jumbo | 42.4 fl oz | 1 Pint | 152 grams (5.4 oz by weight) |
Boron Nitride
BN EN is an extremely slick, abrasion resistant, low-friction, high lubricity coating.
Ideal for all types of guns, engine pistons, fry pans, in fact anywhere where dry lubrication and non-stick is an issue. We see interesting potential in lining parts of Paintball Guns to prevent wear of the soft aluminum.
The coating can be applied in 20 minutes, to zincated aluminum, steel, nickel, copper, brass and bronze. Other metals can be treated as long as a nickel plate is previously applied.
Where corrosion may present a problem (such as on steel) the part should be previously plated with at least 0.0002” of Electroless Nickel plate. Generally gun components can be plated directly without a base primer of nickel.
The coating is applied at 0.0002” in 20 minutes.
The system requires constant agitation, so a pumping system is required. The pump must be able to withstand 185 deg F. If you do not have such a pump, we sell an optional unit. You will also need fittings and tubing to connect the pump to the plating tank - available in any hardware store. We sell such a suitable pump here.
PTFE
PTFE is an excellent coating to provide low friction values on parts, especially where two parts are sliding together. It is especially useful on tools, molds, dies, cylinders, gun parts, bearings etc. and provides self lubricating properties to the parts it is applied to.
Our PTFE Electroless Nickel system plates a mid-phosphorous nickel plating, with 20-25% PTFE deposits, and plates, in many cases, twice as fast as conventional EN/PTFE processes.
The coating is not effective for corrosion resistance, so where corrosion resistance and lubricity are desired, plate the part first with our regular EN system, then plate with the PTFE system.
The system is easy to operate, requiring no complex chemistry knowledge, expensive pumps, or filtration.
Mild solution agitation is recommended during the plating cycle to keep the PTFE particles mixed. Manual movement of the part in the bath would be sufficient, or the more enterprising user could construct a simple mechanical mixer.
Silicone Carbide
Silicone Carbide Electroless Nickel Plating creates an extremely hard and wear resistant surface (almost matching the hardness of diamonds) and is used on parts that bear endure heavy loads with little to no lubrication.
Commonly found on pump shafts, machinery parts and even scissors, this coating will outperform almost all others in durability.
Parts being plated should be non-magnetic, to avoid excess particles being attracted to the part. Mild agitation of the solution is required to ensure the Silicone Carbide particles remain suspended. Manual stirring or part movement in the solution will usually suffice. A small aquarium air pump could also blow air into the solution through some airline.
The system plates at a rate of 0.2-0.4 mil per hour.