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I am currently trying my hand a little nickel plating and need advice. I have plated the screws and base plates for my Vic I, but I have not figured out how to get the barrel apart in order to plate the pieces. Can anyone give me some advice on how to do this, or if it can be done safely (without breaking the barrel brake)? I should not have plated the associated parts without a good plan for the barrel itself, but what's done is done.

You might be able to try "brush-plating" the bullet brake housing w/o disassembling it. Check Caswell Plating's web-site for brush-plating kits.

The biggest issue you are running-up against here is the condition of the substrate metal.

The only thing the plating does is to "change the color"... sadly, it does not hide pits and scratches.

So, unless the parts are filled and polished smooth, the end result will be a shiny, pitted part, at best...

I don't know what you options are for filling pits, whether nickle will "take" to solder / silver solder, or whether you would have to build-up / buff with copper until the pits are filled.

Perhaps you might do well to scout-up some parts that are not as crusty and pitted ? The bullet-brake stayed around into the internal horn era, c. 1912 or a little later...

And... next time... use a good screwdriver which fits... Now you've screwed up the screws...

De Soto Frank wrote: So, unless the parts are filled and polished smooth, the end result will be a shiny, pitted part, at best...

As can be seen on the brake lever, which looked much more authentic before the treatment.

Damaged screw heads are really annoying. I grind my screw drivers to shape, so that they fit exactly.

I was going to try doing the exact same thing. I just assumed the 'bullet' part would unscrew from
an attachment point at the lever with a spring hidden inside the barrel. Hard to explain I guess,
It's just the way I imagined it going together (or coming apart).

Scratch my last post, I jumped the gun there. The curiosity was killing me so I took mine apart.
The lever was just pressed on to the pin that is attached (or part of) the barrel assembly. Once that was
off, I used a set of pliers to gently pull out the pin that is attached to the 'bullet' part. Once this was out
the bullet and spring came out of the barrel easily.

Pictures!!

This is the trigger (lever) and the pin that it slid off of


This is the pin that was removed from the bullet and all the parts removed from the barrel.


All parts

Thanks, Mr Grumpy for answering my question. I appreciate it very much! This machine was in kind of poor shape when I got it and I do not intend to take it to a pristine state. Just, more presentable than it was with the rust on all parts that are supposed by be plated. Some day, maybe I'll replace some of the parts or have them professionally done, but for now, this will do. Thanks again for answering the question.

I would just sand and file those parts to remove all the pits before
plating.

Professional platers do not usualy grind or buff those thin and small parts but rather wire brush (or chemically treat) them to remove the rust and then copper plate them and then buff and grind the copper plating and then re-copper plate and buff and grind again until the part is smooth and free of pits. Once they have obtained a good (copper) surface, they then nickel plate. If you grind those bare metal parts you may wind up with a "paper-thin" part when you are finished.
You must copper plate steel before nickel plating.
John