Caswell Plating

[Namerow]

Nice work, Chris.  Pretty labour-intensive, but a great end result.  Looks like the acid prep and chromate finishing dips have paid off, so I guess I'm off to the hardware store to buy a few more buckets to add to my growing collection.

 

Your findings about the lack of first-level sensitivity to voltage seem to mirror those of others who've tried this.  Anything from 1.5V to 12V seems to be fair game.  I need to put together a hi-load potentiometer for my setup so that I can get a bit of current control happening.

[grannyknot]

John, you could just borrow my caswell pwr supply when I'm done my run.

 

I skipped off work early today so I could get a production line going and get a bunch of stuff plated,

about a 1/3rd of everything I plated had to to be re-done because of spots I missed in cleaning or was contaminated on the way to the tank. This process doesn't let you get away with anything.

The muriatic acid is excellent in showing what still has to come off with the wire wheel, the pic of the engine bay trouble light shows a layer that still needs to be removed.

 

After a couple of hours this black soot stuff builds up on the zinc anode, it just rinses off but it starts slowing down the process. The pieces started coming out kinda milky or cloudy towards the end,

not sure what is causing it.

 

[wheee!]

I am super fine sandblasting most everything that will be plated, then wire wheeling, then muriatic acid dipping (repeating as necessary!). Hope to avoid the pitfalls you have pointed out. Thanks for all the awesome tips Granny!

[HuD 91gt]

Wow.  This is really neat.  Keep up with the updates!

[240260280z]

A dip in nitric may brighten.

 

Check sugar as an additive too,

Edited September 29, 2015 by Blue

[NapaBill]

Well I did pick up the Caswell power supply, some brightner (that doesn't work) and some yellow chromate,

the rest of the kit I hobbled together from reading all the links in this thread.

I'm just waiting for my kit to come from Caswell, but I found a power supply that looks identical to yours on Amazon for $60:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PWNQMYI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

[nix240z]

The Caswell is a Constant Current Rectifier...

I'm just waiting for my kit to come from Caswell, but I found a power supply that looks identical to yours on Amazon for $60:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PWNQMYI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

 

Once you get the hang of how your kit works best, you can get very nice results.

 

It took me a lot of trial and error(month or so) to get results that I liked with my setup.

What other people were doing did not work for me.

 

The one thing that I did do, was to  write down what I did for each step as far as prep work, plating time, bath temp, amps while plating, amp per SQ. Acid dip time, chromate dip time, chromate bath temp, etc. This helped my figure out what worked for my setup. What works for some will not work for others.

 

A few pictures of some of the last things I plated.

 

Edited September 29, 2015 by nix240z

[grannyknot]

nix240z, you should be doing this thread, that is beautiful work, how are you getting it so shiny?

Spill the secrets.

Chris

[Patcon]

I have seen Steve's work and it is beautiful. He walked me through it one day when he was plating. I have notes somewhere...I believe Steve is right though to some degree everyone's setup will work a little different but you would think the overall method would be the same with just minor differences

[nix240z]

l

 

I have seen Steve's work and it is beautiful. He walked me through it one day when he was plating. I have notes somewhere...I believe Steve is right though to some degree everyone's setup will work a little different but you would think the overall method would be the same with just minor differences

 

Each part must be shiny to start with, I also make sure my zinc plates are shiny and clean and not dull. Agitation is a must when plating and I do use a small amount of zinc brightener.

 

Then it all comes down to your technique what will work with your own setup.

What works for me might not work for you, I tried many other peoples way and it just would not work for me.

 

very important is the prep and the correct calculation on amps to use, if this is to high you will burn your zinc plates and if it is to low you will get the same result as being to high, which is dull plating.

 

That is why you must do a lot of trial and error and figure out what will work for you. If you use to much brightener your  chromate will wipe off, to little and it will be dull.

 

Once I figured my setup out, I do it the exact same way even down to the seconds on some of the steps.

As funny as it sounds but seconds count on some of the steps.

 

sand blast

wire wheel

acid dip

wash

 

I then plate at

.14amp SQ

100 deg bath

2 agitation pumps

20 min plating time

85 deg chromate bath

[Careless]

Amazing thread. 

I should provide grannyknot some tumbled and cleaned items to see if they differ in plating finish.

[Patcon]

That would be very interesting...