Nipple Plating/Coating? Spoke Coating after Polish?

I have recently polished all of my spokes but I have no idea how to protect them. Should I just coat with some car wax and keep them as is, or coat with some clear coat?

Also, I have no idea how to re-finish my spoke nipples. How do these pro-shops paint the nipples awesome colors and not mess them up while truing?? As of now they look stock, not rusted at all but tarnished. I have no clue how to polish these things because they are so small and I can't hold on to them. Any tips here from the group?

I would love to buy a new set of nipples from Buchanans but knowing how good the spokes came out after polish, I just can't justify the money knowing there's nothing really wrong with the nipples. Can you true a wheel without touching the stud part of the nipple, and only using the screw head to tighten?

Thanks!

You have to use a wrench to get them tight enough.

Generally, they aren't painted, they are powdercoated, which is MUCH tougher than paint.

To polish a nipple, you have to thread it onto a spoke to hold it, or as I do in my shop, I make a holder by threading a piece of rod, turned down on the end.

AlphaDog,

Thanks for the response. I noticed you had powdercoating in your tag. You have a ballpark what coating a set of 72 nipples would be? I couldn't figure out how to keep it off the threads but I figure you guys have a trick to handle that.

Also, what about protecting polished surfaces? I like the vintage look I got when I polished the spokes but it's essentially bare metal now witha coat of wax on top. What do you use or do you just leave it alone?

I also considered experimenting with gun bluing to see what I could cover up on the nipples.

I charge $1.50 for spoke and nipple and hang them together. I leave about 3-4 threads showing that gets coated because seldom are the last threads on the spoke engaged on threads in the nipple that usually has a recess in the tip before the threads start. I'll only do nipples separately for $.50 each if I have spokes to hang them with. You may wear a ring around the base of the nipple when truing them but it shouldn't show.

o1marc, sending you a PM.

I'm not so much a powdercoater, per se, as I do my own powdercoating in house for my projects.

Powder getting into the threads is not so much a problem, because of something called "faraday effect." A little can get inside the nipple, but not that much. Also, as Marc says, the spokes and nipples usually get powdercoated together.

Personally, I think the best way to go is to order a set of stainless spokes and nipples from Bucannon. You can either order them polished already, or polish them yourself. I wouldn't bother polishing and old set of spokes, to tell you the truth. Also, to powdercoat anything, it pretty much needs to be sandblasted first for best adhesion. A polished surface is not so good, adhesion wise, but I do put powder candy colors over polished aluminum all the time.