Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I had popped downstairs to check on how the paintwork was curing and found I needed to be within one foot of the two pieces now before detecting any further off gassing, so they will be ready for reassembly on the weekend. While checking, I also decided to make sure all the other parts were good to go and it was a good thing I did. I had not done anything yet with the two Shakeproof No. 18 Wing Head Cowl Fasteners.

I remembered the one survivor on the Sender was in very good condition and confirmed that with a quick look, which also reminded me these parts had a bright finish originally, along with their larger ‘Airloc’ cousins. The two I had to work with now only had a thin band of bright finish left along the ‘SHAKEPROOF INC’ stamp along one side of the wing. Everything else had worn away. Since all my electroplating to date (going way back to around Post #400) had been flat finish work, I went and reviewed Jordan Baker’s thread on his Otter restoration where he had done some plating and bright finish work on some electrical parts. A very helpful thread.

So for two days now I have replated and polished the two No. 18 Fasteners.

The first photo is the top fastener after plating and the polishing of the wing head started. With that much done, I then compared it to the survivor on the Sender, as per Photo 2. So far so good.

The third photo is the top fastener with polishing completed, and in the 4th photo I have compared its finished state with the original, ‘as acquired’ look of the bottom fastener.

Finally, in the last photo, both fasteners have been replated and polished.

Its interesting that the more you use your electroplating solution, the more loaded it becomes with the metal electrolytes you are working with and the faster the plating times become. When I first started this electroplating work, a good plating layer took one to two hours before metal whiskers’ would start to grow on the object being plated. Your metal anode plate also etched away at a pretty quick rate. This plating work only took 15 minutes per item before the whiskers arrived and the anode plate only had a slight discolouration along its edges that were in the plating solution.


David