Need help with plating instructions

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:13 pm

Randy

A tensile test could be done just by restraining them in something and cranking up the nipple till the spoke breaks. To be a credible test we would have to do a few and know they had a similar history.

A bend test - which could test for the brittle state - would be just to clamp the spoke in a vise and bend it until it bent or broke.

I'll have a go when I am back home. I would like to have some comfort on this. I built a wheel for a friend about 20 years ago using 'aftermarket' spokes from David Silver and he did suffer a couple of broken spokes in teh rear wheel.

G

rrietman · Post by **rrietman** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:45 pm

G; OK so one would tighten until it breaks, or bend until it breaks. then what? what do we know? if one had examples that were known to be properly treated, then tested the same, one could draw conclusions. you buy spokes, you don't know. so I could take a batch of precious spokes, plate them, test them to destruction, and maybe learn something, maybe not. at this point I am happy that I can replate original spokes at home for virtually no $ and have had no failures. and these bikes don't just sit around. they get ridden---hard---a lot.
BTW the one bike that I did not trust this process on was my 75 GL1000. went with stainless from Buchanans. you know at 110mph you really don't want to be thinking about hydrogen embrittlement.
Randy

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:08 pm

Randy

HaHa! Yes sometimes it's just better not knowing.... I do have a ton of original Dream spokes - some of which I have had plated. I would be happy to test a few plated and unplated ones to see what the difference might be.

Hmmm Stainless steel spokes. You might wonder if they are made out of the right type of stainless and whether you get anything nasty happening between spoke and nipple....

You can worry about anything if you work hard enough at it..... :-)

G

rrietman · Post by **rrietman** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:14 pm

G;with stainless spokes I always lube the shit out of them hoping it will insulate the stainless from the plated nipples. (lessons learned in the boat repair business).
Randy

G-Man · Post by **G-Man** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:18 pm

Randy

I can see you're ahead of the game....

G

rrietman wrote:G;with stainless spokes I always lube the shit out of them hoping it will insulate the stainless from the plated nipples. (lessons learned in the boat repair business).
Randy

bamacl · Post by **bamacl** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 3:31 pm

I've been zinc / cromate plating spokes,bolts,nuts,washers,hangers ect using a kit from Caswell for a number of years and have never had a part fail. When I can find new NOS spokes I use them but as we all know some can be almost impossible to find. Those complete spoke kits from overseas leave a lot to be desired. My current project is a small hub S90 with the 195mm spokes and so far it looks like I will be replating all the spokes on it.

rrietman · Post by **rrietman** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:49 pm

the asian spoke sets are kind of hit and miss (I've done a bunch) best bet is to replate originals. I certainly would not worry about structural stuff on a S90.
Randy