Caswell Plating

[Patcon]

1 hour ago, Namerow said:

There clearly is a correct process.  And one that produces consistent, high-quality results.  If there wasn't, there wouldn't be a plating industry. Our problem is the none of us knows with certainty what that process is, and how whether it scales successfully from industrial-size batches to little, hobby-sized batches.  I've recently been associated with a university-based research project being conducted with a big commercial plating operation located in southwestern Ontario.  Next time I'm visiting that campus, I'll see if I can break out some time to have a chat with the prof who's leading the research team.  It would be interesting to hear what he has to say about do's and don't's for these hobby-scale plating set-ups.  My fear is that he'll start showing me chemistry equations, in which case I'm doomed.

Yes, absolutely!! Get me the chemistry if it come up. My wife is a chemist and can translate for me.

I know there are two main types of zinc plating baths. I don't know which one is the Caswell system. I would love to know what our plating bath is. The brightener we use and the chromates.

The brightener being the highest priority as it is a consumable and fairly expensive. Plating tank solution next and Chromates last. If I could find a testing lab near me that wouldn't tear me a new one I would figure it out on my own.

A professor in this field could be a huge "Ringer"

 

[240260280]

Charles..see pm attachments

[Patcon]

I ran some plating last weekend and I ran it at a lower temp. Got pretty good results. Not conclusive...

This is a run coming out of the plating tank. Really nice chrome-like results. Might be hard to see in the pics

I also tried a little experiment. Sometimes tubes have some corrosion on them that makes them rough and thin. So I broke out the torch and some silver solder

This is built up. The end was not wanting to take solder

 

Zinced

Overall a good weekend in the shop...

 

[Namerow]

So that's it.  You're using beer as your electrolyte!

[Patcon]

Here is a short video of the plater

 

[Patcon]

Fired up the plating bench again today. It's sort of hard to start and stop. Would probably be easier to just plate until everything is done. The starting and stopping can make it hard to get the setup working right again.

I tried to plate this "grease catcher" today. It goes on the back side of the front hub, held on by the wheel studs. Got mixed results

I had these dull spots. I ran the current up and down and couldn't get rid of it. I ran this all the way through yellow cad and dried it. The dull spots wouldn't take color. Then I bead blasted it again and replated it. I had to rotate it a good bit to get it all to plate. I still had a few dull areas that I polish with a scrubby pad before chromating. Here is the result

I think part of the issue was my power supply was maxed out. I ran this basically at 10 amps and I think it could have been higher. I have found higher currents make my parts brighter. I plated some front grease caps at close to 6 amps and they fizzed the whole time, but they came out shiny and nice. You can see them in the earlier picture...

 

[Patcon]

I love having the barrel plater!!! I did these today in one batch. Load em up and let it run for like an hour.

I have found when my plate comes out really shiny, I blue dip for a minute or so, maybe less but I have to color dip for as much as 7 minutes to get color. I assume it's because the really shiny zinc is just harder and doesn't take color as well. I have also found when my plate isn't shiny I can turn up the current and the plate will brighten up. I have run as much as .32 per inch.

[Patcon]

and then I get humbled

Now admittedly I have some excuse. I was multi tasking on multiple cars and projects. Then I took a big swig of beer, which happened to have a wasp in it. Stung me in the throat, the little monster! Had to hurl him back up. When the swelling started to get spooky, ended up at Urgent Care getting shots in my rump. Spent the rest of the day asleep in my recliner. So the plating didn't turn out. I will strip them and try again on Saturday maybe

[grannyknot]

I'll bet you were one step away from being intubated, scary. That will teach you to pour your beer into a glass.

[240260280]

You weren't drinking this suff?

 

btw there is a Bee in Beer.

[Captain Obvious]

Wow. That's simply no fun at all!

Glad you're OK!

[Patcon]

9 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Wow. That's simply no fun at all!

Glad you're OK!

Thanks, me too. I think it had Shelley pretty wound up. I thought she was gonna kill us, driving us there! Did you see the dimensions in the other thread?

11 hours ago, 240260280 said:

btw there is a Bee in Beer.

Not interested!!!! They really aren't that tasty!