Plating ?

What kit did you buy Pilot? Please let us know how it works out. Pictures as well if you can.

I bought the cheap kit from Eastwood. Hopefully it warms up around here in the next couple of days so I don't have a problem with the solution being to cold which I would think affects the process. I have read quite a bit about doing this so I may end up buying an aquarium heater. We will see. There is so much information out there on this stuff that it is hard to tell what is believable and what isn't.

Furthermore, if this kit doesn't work I am going to try what Gord did. His post is super informational.

Thanks Pilot, good luck with everything.

So here is my review on the Eastwood kit. I am pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I plated a couple of parts last night to try it out after I went through some junk stuff to plate. Here's a pic of the first part. I only had it in the solution for about 4.5 minutes. The part on the left is actually a little cleaner than what I started with. The part on the right is plated. It doesn't look that great in the first picture but the second it pops.





I then figured that part came out cool so why not try one of the chain adjusters. I left this in about 13 minutes.

Before



After



Here is the set up. It is actually really easy to do the plating. The cleaning of the part is the most critical. I started by wire bushing the part and getting the junk of and then mixing muratic acid 50/50 to do the initial wash. Then the part went in the blast cabinet and then back onto the wire brush. During this whole time I did not touch the part with my bare hands. Right before going into the solution I gave it another acid bath then into fresh water and then into the solution and fired it up. I made a copper bridge for holding my parts in the solution. After you pull the part out of the solution it will be a dull gray so you have to polish it with metal polish and they say to do that by hand. Well I tried that and gave up and used a drill motor buffing wheel attachment thingy and buffed it at slow speed. The kit comes with Autosol polish. I am not impressed with it and resorted to Simichrome. I think it works better.



So the bottom line is that for the $70 bucks I think it is a good buy. Cleaning the part is the time consuming part. But the outcome is well worth it. I will see how in works in doing more parts.

Some one mentioned a brightener for the zinc plate. I found it today searching around that if you use the system Gord and darty are using to use liquid vanilla in the solution. I don't think you need much.

If this helps,

After plating, use a real soft wire wheel to clean grey off of part.
Then use steel wool for in areas that can't be had.
I plate a total of 3 times, then polish final plating.

I'm doing axles, brake levers, kickers, you name it with great results.

Basically darty that is what I am doing after the first couple of parts as it saves alot of time polishing. I tried the wire wheel last night and it worked great. I have only used one coat of plating though. I was going to try 2 or 3 coats on a part this weekend. Thanks for the heads up.

Here is something to read about, "hydrogen embrittlement" that has to do with electroplating. Not so much the plating but cleaning with acids. Spokes may not be the best candidate for home plating I would assume. Interesting stuff really if you are not a metalurgist.

Here's the link
http://www.greensladeandcompany.com/pdf/Hydrogen Embrittlement - What it looks like.pdf

Ha! our new bridge spanning from Oakland to San Francisco had a number of bolts fail due to hydrogen embrittlement. Maybe the engineers should have been surfing CH first.

Great information on the plating guys. I have wanted to start doing this for years.
I just thought I'd mention that for cleaning and polishing plated parts, especially bolts I have been using a little Harbor freight grinder polisher that works much better than a wire wheel. One of the wheels supplied is a very aggressive felt that may have some very fine wire in it. The neat thing is that I can get the grunge off without removing the original plating.

http://www.harborfreight.com/bench-grinder-with-flex-shaft-43533.html

Is thread plating or plotting ideas?

Neat stuff, typpy might have to hit harbor freight.

Will apple cider vinegar work or would distilled vinegar be better? (I just bought apple cider vinegar, Epsom salt, sugar, and an air pump for a fish tank today) I might have to get one of those cool little buffers as well. What temp. should I try to have the solution at?

We ended up not using the fish tank heater. It seemed to make no difference. If you are plating in a cold garage this time of year it might. But in your house it shouldn't.
If you already have a bench grinder, you can just pick up a buffing wheel for it here: http://www.caswellplating.com/buffing-polishing/buffing-wheels.html There are a ton of different types. I have a buffing machine, but any grinder will work with the right wheel. One of these might be too course: http://www.caswellplating.com/buffing-polishing/buffing-wheels/scrubber-wheels.html I use a sisal wheel: http://www.caswellplating.com/buffing-polishing/buffing-wheels/sisal-wheels.html and then regular flannel wheels.

Yeah, I have a bench grinder with a cloth buffing wheel & a wire wheel. I bought two buffing wheels one for course work & one for finnish work. I have a heater & was wondering what temp is best. thanks for the input gord.

Apple cider ok? ........waiting for an answer because I bought some & want to mix my solution ASAP.

Since we haven't tried apple cider, I would have to say stick with straight vinegar. Hate to see you mix up a batch and find out it didn't work. Plus it's available at any grocery store. As far as the heater goes, an aquarium heater only goes to around 80 degrees anyhow, so you can try it and see how it works. Can't hurt anything.

Thanks Gord....I'll keep ya posted.

I bought an aquarium heater at a yard sale yesterday for the entire price of $1.

I could not find "plain" vinegar. I have never shopped for vinegar before. I saw distilled, apple, cleaning, & many more types but not "plain" vinegar. I settled on "cleaning vinegar" because it had a higher acid content & was clear in color. I'm gonna mix a batch & let it bubble overnight.

Gord, what exactly does the aerator do to the "concoction". If you can answer that today I may be able to buy one at a yard sale in my hood for a couple of bucks.

The aerator keeps everything moving instead of the solution just sitting there. probably keeps it from seperating as well. They are very cheap and also for a fish tank.