Eastwood Tin-Zinc Plating kit

[TomoHawk]

They do look very nice.. How long do they soak?

Better yet, can you summise your whole plating process?

thxZ

[mgood]

In the 4th picture on #30 post it looks like you have a Amp Constant Current Rectifier. Here did you get this, could the 3 amp Amp Constant Current Rectifier from Carswell work?

thanks for info.

[motorman7]

In the 4th picture on #30 post it looks like you have a Amp Constant Current Rectifier. Here did you get this, could the 3 amp Amp Constant Current Rectifier from Carswell work?

thanks for info.

I am using a constant current power supply form a class I took a while back. It puts out 5V, 5 Amps constant current. I am using a large 25 Ohm rheostat that I got off of e-bay ($15) to adjust the current, .2 Amps per square inches to plate. So, I adjust to 1 amp if I am plating an estimated 5 sq/in. I run the line through my cheapo ammeter to tell me the current. All I really needed to buy was the rheostat. I had everything else.

Definitely the Caswell constant current rectifier would work better. I just didn't want to spend the money....yet. May see if I can find something on e-bay eventually to simplify the set-up with just a single unit instead of the 3 pieces I have now.

[motorman7]

Better yet, can you summise your whole plating process?

thxZ

First off I make sure the parts are free of oil and grease. I use the SP degreaser from the caswell kit in a crock pot (on 'high') to degrease the parts. I do not want to gum up my wire wheel.

Next I dry the parts then wire wheel to remove all rust, crud, previous plating, etc. Parts actually look pretty nice after this but will corrode quickly since they are bare steel.

I then wire up about 4 to 8 parts with single conductor copper wire. Eventually I will make a basket that is wired so I can do more parts faster. This is still a work in progress, but don't mind going slow at this point. So at this point I have my parts hanging, aboout .5 inches apart on my copper wire. This 'string' of parts is then hung in the 'pickle'. The pickle is 5% muriatic acid mixed with purified water (from my reverse osmosis tap). So, 1 part muriatic acid with 20 parts water. The Pickle is heated to 140 deg F. You can get the muriatic acid at Home Depot in the pool section.

While the string is pickling for 15 mins, I work on cleaning and stringing my next batch.

After the first string of parts has pickled for 15 minutes, I take it out and immediately put it in the plating bath. I wire it up, + on the zinc plates, - on the copper string. I leave it here for 15 minutes to plate. The plating solution is at 110 deg F.

While this is plating, I put the second string in the pickle, and start cleaning on my third string. So essentially I have developed a 15 minute cycle here.

After the parts have been in the plating bath for 15 minutes, they will have a nice shiney finish. I detach the electrodes, pull the string out of the plating bath, do a quick a quick 3 second dip in the pickle, 3 second dip in pure water , then 30 seconds in the yellow chromate. The yellow chromate is in the blue bucket heated to 80 deg F. After the 30 second dip I lay the parts on a paper towel to dry. That's it.

I am told for best corrosion protection you should heat the parts for about 30 mins at 150 deg F after the chromate dip. I haven't really done this yet, but have used a hair dryer to dry the parts.

Hope that helps.

Rich

[GreenZZZ]

Hope that helps.

Rich

Hell yes!!! Thanks for the sharing your technique. The results look fantastic!

[JohnnyO]

Roughly 15 mins in the 'pickle' and 15 mins in the plate tank, 30 seconds in the chromate.

Yes, that's the kit I have. Works well after a little practice.

Rich

Thanks for the reply, I have been eyeing that thing for a while now.

[TomoHawk]

I just finished plating the alternator arm using the Eastwood Tin-Zinc kit, and it came out really nice and shiny, almost like chrome. I just hope that I got enough of a coating on it to protect it for a bunch of years, because it's sanded so smooth it would probably completely flash rust the first humid day that comes along. :eek:

Edited January 23, 2010 by TomoHawk

[=Enigma=]

Nice write up Rich. Your process and timings are nearly identical to the process I settled on after much trial and error. The only differences were the heating of the yellow chromate solution and the use of a crock pot for heating the pickle. What a great idea! I knew I kept that crappy old crock pot around for a reason. Was the heating of the yellow chromate solution your own idea or did you read this somewhere?

Also, rather than string everything up on a copper wire, I got lazy and soldered a copper wire to a spring that I used for plating bolts. I simply inserted the threaded portion of the bolts in-between the coils. This allowed me to do up to 8 bolts at a time. I'll try to dig up some pics tomorrow if I have time Having a lab quality HP regulated power supply certainly didn't hurt matters.

[motorman7]

Hi Adam, I got most of my info from this page:

http://www.mckennasgarage.com/xke/jag_16.htm

It's kind of funny actually, because this guy says all the info is in the Caswell manual, but I found his write-up far better than the Caswell manual. Once I followed this guys process, things turned out great.

Also, I did break down and bought a BK precision 1621A power supply (like the one shown in the website above). After about 2 hours of plating, something in my set-up was dying (overheating most likely),and I had to shut down till things cooled. Also, this will handle larger items for the future.

Thanks for the feed back. I like the spring idea. I am thinking of setting up a wired basket here.

Best Regards,

Rich

[TomoHawk]

For those using the Eastwood kit, when did you decide that your electrolyte solution was spent? Mine has a little precipitate at the bottom when I transfer it from jug to jug. It could be the salt falling out of solution a the water evaporates.

thxZ

[Travel'n Man]

Great thread!

[motorman7]

I must say that I really enjoy this zinc plating stuff. I think the enjoyment comes from the fact that in about 30 minutes you can take something that looks like complete garbage and turn it into something gorgeous. Here are a couple before and after pics of stuff I did today. The flourescent lighting makes stuff look a bit orangey. In real life, the parts look much better.

The only problem I have here is Patience. I am supposed to let the Yellow Chromate dry for about a day since I dont bake it at 150 to cure it. The problem is that I want to assemble NOW. So, here is what I put together today. Most of this was plated and assembled today. Only a few pieces were done a last week. It makes assembly slow, but sure looks nice.

Edited February 14, 2010 by motorman7
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