Plating At Home

Bought the only source of zinc I could find in my area and I am not even sure it is zinc. Claims it is.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_215441-1357...serSearch=zinc+anode&productId=3093111&rpp=48


Built a basic rig, mixed up a solution:
4.5 liters water
300 grams Epsom salts
100 grams zinc sulfate
200ml of white vinegar
1/3 bottle of corn syrup

Except I just mixed 50/50 vinegar and water and did not have the zinc sulphate.

First ran it off a battery charger but amperage appeared to be 5 amps at 6 volts so I switched over to a couple batteries to drop the amps and volts down. I still think I was running at high amps, showing about 1.7. Appeared to be plating slowly to not at all so I left it run about 9 hours. This is what I got. Now I am going to more carefully mix the mix and run one part at a time to see what happens. I think the shadows are from parts "hiding" each other from the zinc anodes.

So, I sprayed some blasted parts with laquer thinner, blew them dry and dipped them in vinegar for an hour and then tried plating them:
You can see thin areas but definite progress as these were only in the "machine" for an hour. During the bath, I turned them and flipped them a couple times to expose / face them to the anodes, like a rotisserie on a grille. I also re-positioned the anodes for even placement / exposure to the part.
At this point, after reading more, I think my mixture sucks based on the poor distribution of plating, extended time taken and color. And my anodes have limited surface area (and maybe aren't even pure zinc) which is also causing poor distribution and extended time. Another issue is probably that I am not regulating voltage, so probably running to much amps which is darkening the coating too. Edit: I am probably getting a caswell kit. You can see by the last pic, which was the cleanest and longest in vinegar soak prior to plating, that the bubbles as they coalesce and travel across the metal surface tend to streak the coating. The Caswell kit has a little pump (i suspect to keep bubbles from collecting causing patterns on the plating) and all the stuff including instructions which I am learning is a better bet than messing with less than premium formulations of my own.

I would guess the target metal has to be absolutely clean, bare metal to come out well.

Yea, mine are blasted clean. But just little speck in a pit causes lack of plating, so excellent degreasing then a vinegar bath is also super crucial thus far.

So, an update, since the caswell system has a pump, I put a pump with an intake filter and flow regulator into the bath at moderate circulation.

The resulting two pieces are way more evenly distributed and (Edit: minimal repositioning) to get even coverage. You can see near the bottom of the shafts a bit of flash rust that was on it prior to plating, still on it after.

Last images are the best job so far. Note the electrolytic anomaly with the metal differential on the shock stud backing washer.. Would not plate.

Color still sucks but since I am either lightly painting or dipping in black chromate, reckon I dont care too much right now.

We have a Caswell plating setup at my shop.

It works great. If you do anything at all from home, I would suggest getting a good voltage monitoring system and run an aquarium/ fish tank powerhead to circulate the acid, for more even coating on the nickel.

Nickel looks good, but it does not have the same tint as chrome. It is not as white.

Make sure flow is set in the direction that you want the brightest side to show.

IMO, It's good to have a setup to do your own acid copper. Flash copper is what you see on new parts, but acid copper is higher build, which gives you the material you need to fill and trim out parts that need pitting repaired.

Chrome shops pay workers to do a lot of sanding and pit filling that can be done better, with higher quality control at home, then sent off to some place that has the government paperwork with a thousand agencies to run chromium without contaminating an entire city's worth of water.

The less time it takes to have a plater do the work, the less it will cost you in the end.

We started doing it for quality control purposes, because I was sick of seeing details sanded out of things and pits ignored in the plating process, causing pinholes.

If you buy anything from Caswell, if nothing else, I would recommend the voltage controller.

Encouraging info about electroless nickel:

http://www.finishing.com/112/90.shtml

Anyone have updates? Here are mine:

I have a pile of blasted smaller parts.

Bought a 26 dollar grille rotisserie kit a Lowes.

Couple plastic colanders at True Value.

I built a rotisserie zinc electroplating tumbler to evenly expose smaller parts to the solution and dissuade / wash off poor plating leaving the better plating to stick.

My solution has been sitting stagnant for several weeks but I ran it thru a filter cloth and ran my tumbler for 10 minutes and already I could see an even plating.

I cut off all the tongs except one which penetrates into one of the colanders and is connected to a perimeter waffle shape wire. There was a weight doo-dad with my rotisserie kit so I connected the negative side of the system to the weight to have a slip commutator feeding neg juice to the rotating rod.

Running a wall wart power supply salvaged from some gadget or the other. It's rated at 600ma 5V. So, it feeds my parts about 650ma which is supposed to be near optimal. I have read 500 - 600 ma is best.

I am hoping an hour in the machine will do it. Results to follow.

After 10 minutes, a very even coating of zinc. I put it back in for another 10 as the harder metal materials appeared to be less coated. The normal steel material / smaller nuts appear thick coated already.

Hi All, I ran another test with the most important correct ingredient that I was missing.

This one was 5L tap water, 250 ml white vinegar and about 1 cup of zinc sulphate (10 pounds from amazon / Earthworks) is like 13 bucks.

I did not have the Epsons salt to complete the proper equation so I ran it anyway. This situation I blasted the parts clean and chucked them in 50/50 napa degreaser / water followed by a rinse and into 50/50 muratic / tap water. After 10 minutes I put them into my tumbler machine. Then I got side tracked with some visitors and let the machine run all night:

These parts came out and I did different tests on them with Caswell's black and yellow chromate.

Side note, my 50 / 50 dilluted muratic acid is a great tool. If you have a part that flash rusts or is not plated properly, chuck it in the bucket for 20 minutes and it will come out 100% pristine raw steel ready for plating.
Generally, blasting bare, de-greasing and a dip in acid is crucial for even plating.
No oils from your hands or dirt etc can touch your parts or contaminate your solution.

First pic, items left to right. Random linkage part was completely coated inside the U channel and out but the extended time in the plating resulted in a chunky thick but quite hard coating. Upper portion is shiny because I buffed it with that brass brush for 15 seconds.

Next to the right is a bolt which I buffed for 5 minutes with the brush.

Next bolt I pulled from the tumbler, dipped in water and let air dry for 30 seconds, then straight into black chromate. It was dull grey then turned dull black. Next bolt I buffed with brush for 10 seconds and into the black chromate, same results.

Rocker hold down, I buffed a bit better then into yellow chromate for 20 seconds.

Washers I pulled from tumbler and straight into yellow chromate, dull brown results.

Then the yellow bolt was the one I dry buffed nicely, I dipped in the detergent, rinsed in water and into the yellow chromate for 10 seconds, pulled it let it dry a few seconds then into yellow again for 20 seconds. Then let it air dry.

Now, I will try running the setup with the Epsons salt and kayro syrup and shorter period to eliminate some of the chunky surface. The Epson should help transfer zinc from my annodes, the kayro syrup supposedly helps line up the plating for a smoother and brighter finish.

Oh, and here are my new annodes 8"x8"x1/2" 99.5% pure zinc, from amazon for 9 bucks each.. YES!