Columbia BI with brass horn???

[jboger]

Lucious1958: Thanks for your response. When I wrote my question I was thinking that it might be expensive to plate brass with nickel and that tin would be a cheaper substrate. Thanks. Always learn something on the Forum.

[ts_13]

Here is the tone arm.

[Jerry B.]

It's quite easy to wash off the nickel plating. I carefully use a mild acid when cleaning chrome on my bicycles. I was impressed with the results so tried it on a junker Columbia nickel horn. It quickly became a brass horn. I am not saying with certainty that Columbia offered that size horn in brass. I don't know but the one Russie posted looks very nice and I'd be proud to display a similar horn.

Columbia nickel plated their aluminum tone arms. Over time the plating has a tendency to peel off. If that machine were mine I would strip off the black paint, remove any remaining nickel plating and polish the bare aluminum arm. The results are quite striking.

Jerry Blais

[startgroove]

Indeed, the close-up of that black painted tone-arm seems to show some bubbling or pitting under the black paint. That may have been the reason it was painted (to hide or subdue the weathering). Yet the reproducer appears to have a similar affliction.


BTW, the polishing on the brass horn shown on the BI above was done recently, and as far as I know, it is not an original finish.

[PeterF]

Hey Jerry -

What kind of acid do you use?

I have a Columbia bracket that needs the treatment.

Thanks!

Peter

[startgroove]

Here's a site that used an alkalai to remove nickel plating from brass:
https://www.finishing.com/120/77.shtml

[JerryVan]

As others have stated, the tone arm & back bracket should not be painted. They should be nickel plated. The horn should be nickeled also. A polished brass horn isn't such a bad thing, and as stated above, a polished aluminum tone arm really does look nice. It's the back bracket that is hard to make look good however if the plating is gone and it's rusty.

[Jerry B.]

Has anyone had success re-plating a nickel horn like this? Years ago I saw one that was redone but the plater was unable to plate down the throat of the horn.. It looked lousy.

Jerry Blais

[JerryVan]

Has anyone had success re-plating a nickel horn like this? Years ago I saw one that was redone but the plater was unable to plate down the throat of the horn.. It looked lousy.

Jerry Blais

I've seen the same result. It can be done, (since they did it 100 years ago), but the plater has to put an electrode through the center of the horn in order to deposit nickel in the throat. In the case I'm aware of, the plater either did not want to bother with added hassle, or my friend didn't want to pay for it. Bottom line, nickel wants to travel in straight lines and won't go around corners, so the interior of the horn makes problems without added set-up.

[SteveM]

Yes the nickel seems VERY thin in my BI throats, especially. Tim Fabrizio shined them up to "as new as possible" (as he is wont to do) but very carefully. I intend to never touch them again for their tenure with me.