On a knife edge

Strap, buckle, and box making, reviews, and more
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Phaedros
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by Phaedros »

Another quick update:

Image

Bevels and edges finished.

Now front and back need their surfaces ground and then the cleaning and plating begins.

I‘ll build another jig or two to make the pins. I didn’t get them consistent enough on the protos.
That’ll be one for the tip and one for the bending.
„I asked her for gasoline, she gave me water...“

Me, side of the road, pushing my bike.
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NortON
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by NortON »

Great job! :thumbup:
WTB Tr0y, Southy, NW 3-piece dial MM, RP
Superspark69
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by Superspark69 »

looking forward to mine :)
Nick_B
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by Nick_B »

Me too :-)

And just when I thought I'd not be getting a knife edge buckle for love nor money...
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VanSong
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by VanSong »

Nice work, indeed!

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

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Phaedros
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Re: On a knife edge

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One more update... not the one I wanted but nevertheless I find it important to also document when things don’t go as planned. I had set myself the goal to finish the buckles by today. This didn’t work out. Somehow my plating solution went crazy. I have five buckles plated and all came out differently. The first two were matte and grey after which I added some acetic acid to spice things up a bit. This didn’t work out at all, the third one‘s all spotty. I thought evaporation and maybe too much acidity so I added some destilled water after which things looked better but still way off the results I got from a fresh electrolyte.
I might also have contaminated the solution, I don’t really know...

What I‘ll do now is set up a fresh batch of electrolyte and refinish the previously plated buckles. I am really sorry this is taking longer than I anticipated.

I‘ll take some pictures of the bad platings for reference, once I‘m able to stop banging my head into the wall.
„I asked her for gasoline, she gave me water...“

Me, side of the road, pushing my bike.
Nick_B
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by Nick_B »

Sorry to hear that you've had a problem with the plating process. Never done it so I cannot actually be useful and offer useful advice - so I will shut up now ;-)

I hope the next batch works out better. These things happen, but it doesn't make it any less of a PITA.
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Phaedros
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by Phaedros »

After having my wife’s family of six over for five days and getting some time off of the subject, I finally found the culprit!

Image

Image

It wasn’t the electrolyte at all... stupid me grabbed the wrong degreaser from the shelf. I unknowingly switched frome acetone to lighter fluid. The latter will degrease nicely but is insoluble in water. This I used to rinse in the ultrasonic which produced an emulsion that stuck to the buckles like mayo to french fries. The stench of the acetic acid covered everything else so I didn’t even smell the difference...

What a mess! No wonder the plating wouldn’t take.

Back on track now, updates shortly...
„I asked her for gasoline, she gave me water...“

Me, side of the road, pushing my bike.
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Emilio
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by Emilio »

Nice!
Superspark69
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Re: On a knife edge

Post by Superspark69 »

Cant Wait :)
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