Slug manufacturer?

[David King]

Specifically they might have used a screw machine with bar feed and cutoff. I doubt very much if anyone was standing there watching it happen. That would be a boring job.

[Possum]

OK Joe....

So how do you cut slugs with those bull's eye rings, whats the exact procedure? I've looked at metal lathes on Ebay and I don't see how it works....

[NightWinder]

Joe, virtually all the covers have the "FlashCopper under the Nickle plating. Is It nessesary to do this to nicklesilver. Gibson covers from the 70' did'nt have the flash under. Would you have to Perchase the flash also to plate your own covers? Screws dont have flash. Slugs. Why covers. Thats the problem Im haveing trying to age some covers. I like wearing the edges down to the nickle, and still having some of the plating on the middle. The flash shows up as between the plating and the nickle, and its total shit. ???

[Spence]

So how do you cut slugs with those bull's eye rings, whats the exact procedure? I've looked at metal lathes on Ebay and I don't see how it works....

Get a blunted parting tool and part off a piece really fast.

[Joe Gwinn]

Joe, virtually all the covers have the "FlashCopper under the Nickle plating. Is it nessesary to do this to nicklesilver? Gibson covers from the 70s didn't have the flash under. Would you have to Purchase the flash also to plate your own covers? Screws don't have flash. Slugs. Why covers? That's the problem I'm having trying to age some covers. I like wearing the edges down to the nickle, and still having some of the plating on the middle. The flash shows up as between the plating and the nickle, and it's total shit. ???

I would doubt that nickel silver covers are plated with anything, with the possible exception of gold. A lot of nickel-plated covers are sold as nickel silver, but it usually isn't true. Nickel-silver is an expensive material.

If one were to plate nickel silver, I don't think a flash coat is needed, but I've never done it either. I would see what Caswell recommends.

If there is a copper flash, it is going to show wherever the plating is slectively worn off. I bet one can use a nickel flash, at least on many metals. Again, consult Caswell.

As for making the edges and corners wear off first, putting the covers in a acid bath with waterlogged wood chips and tumbling ought to take anything protruding down quite fast.

[Joe Gwinn]

Specifically they might have used a screw machine with bar feed and cutoff. I doubt very much if anyone was standing there watching it happen. That would be a boring job.

Right. I was thinking of how to make six at a time, as needed.

One can buy old manual screw machines on the used market for not that much money, but it takes a mechanic/machinist to set one up. After all, a screw machine is a machine tool.

[NightWinder]

Well, this goes back to the acid thing. First, the nickle plating comes off, then the copper flash, and the raw nickle is underneath. So baically, with GJ covers there is a flash coating, and a "finished plating". 2 coatings, that can restrict some transparentcy.
Or is he fucking all of us and his covers are white brass? This is the kinda shit that is just plan stupid.....I'd think that you would'nt need a flash coating, and older gibson covers did not have it. At caswell they explained the flash fills the pits in the material too, so it could be an issue of not using good material, or the tooling is just shit and puts unnessisary stretchmarks in it. ???

[David King]

Possum come on over to the house sometime and I'll show you in all the detail you could ever want. If anybody needs a few at a time I'd be happy to oblige provided you sent the material. I can't cut off hardened tool steel, nickel steel or alnico magnets but anything else is fair game, $.50/cut + postage

[David Schwab]

Well, this goes back to the acid thing. First, the nickle plating comes off, then the copper flash, and the raw nickle is underneath. So baically, with GJ covers there is a flash coating, and a "finished plating". 2 coatings, that can restrict some transparentcy.

I really doubt a thin coating of copper is going to do anything to the sound that the thick cover isn't already doing. Copper foil shielding doesn't effect the tone. Also I don't think any covers are raw nickel... nickel silver maybe. Nickel is magnetic and would pretty much stop the pickup from working properly.

Or is he fucking all of us and his covers are white brass?

White brass is another name for nickel silver. Nickel silver is copper, nickel and zinc. Yellow brass is copper and zinc.

[Joe Gwinn]

Well, this goes back to the acid thing. First, the nickle plating comes off, then the copper flash, and the raw nickle is underneath. So basically, with GJ covers there is a flash coating, and a "finished plating". 2 coatings, that can restrict some transparentcy.

I agree with David S that this thin a coat isn't likely to have much effect compared with the thick metal onto which it is plated.

Or is he fucking all of us and his covers are white brass? This is the kinda shit that is just plan stupid.....I'd think that you wouldn't need a flash coating, and older gibson covers did not have it.

One reason to plate nickel over nickel silver is that tooling is expensive and depends on the material to be formed, and it may make economic sense to make one stock cover, and plate as needed to get the various finishes.

Another possiblity is stainless steel, plated as needed. Try filing a corner - does it file like steel, or like brass?

At Caswell they explained the flash fills the pits in the material too, so it could be an issue of not using good material, or the tooling is just shit and puts unnessisary stretchmarks in it. ???

Or copper plating is cheaper than polishing the stock cover before applying the final plate. Deep drawing always yields a roughish surface, no matter how smooth the blank and die surfaces. It's because the metal is so severely stretched. Some alloys tolerate this better than other alloys, but none come out with mirror surfaces.

[Spence]

Some of you will remember the problems Andy C at Tonerider was having with surface pitting on drawn PAF covers. It's standard proceedure to plate with copper to fill in the imperfections before applying a layer of the finish metal. polishing nickel is very time consuming and expensive.
As a side note, a lot of nickel covers turning up on my shores are not nickel at all. They have a yellowish chrome plate. This is to get around the RoHS issues which have since been proven to be a very expensive waste of time and money.

[NightWinder]

Plated garbage

Have a look: This is the cover with the plating off. Raw Nickle/silver. Inside you can see that the dull natural finish. the upside has been polished.

[NightWinder]

Hitting the nail on the head again, it is time consumming to polish the raw nickle silver. Point being, Original Pafs did not have the the copper plating, and from a pureists satndpoint......What gives?

[NightWinder]

I really doubt a thin coating of copper is going to do anything to the sound that the thick cover isn't already doing. Copper foil shielding doesn't effect the tone. Also I don't think any covers are raw nickel... nickel silver maybe. Nickel is magnetic and would pretty much stop the pickup from working properly.




White brass is another name for nickel silver. Nickel silver is copper, nickel and zinc. Yellow brass is copper and zinc.

It does. I have tested with sound clips. The Eq shows a bump across all....Try it, you'll see. I woulod'nt use raw nickle for covers....only solid nickle baseplates.
I know this..... You've stated befor. I originally thought N/S had silver in it?

[NightWinder]

Copper flash

these were originally "Nickle plated". From left, sitting in some acid, here you can see the copper plating. The finished one has not been polished, but there are no pit marks, although some seem to have some stretch lines, these are not bad at all. Idealy, I will replate them myself after polishing.