So far I’m very pleased with my first attempts at DIY zinc plating! I read several on-line tutorials and thought this gentleman did a particularly fine job. Here’s the link:
Zinc Plating with Common Materials
So far I’ve found the process rather easy; although it does take a little fiddling to adjust the current levels for the part or parts you’re plating. Initially, I made the mistake of using too much juice.
I also expected too much too quickly. The first time I put some parts through the process, I thought they’d come out thick-coated and shiny. They weren’t. I’ve learned to put the parts through the soup several times to build up a the zinc layer.
Pro-platers call each run through the soup, ‘a strike.’ In plating, unlike baseball, the more strikes the better! :-) With my setup, I find two strikes is a minimum, three is better, and I can’t tell you the results of four strikes – yet -- because I’m finishing #3 as I write this!
Not surprisingly, the quality of the finish depends on how much care you put in. And, of course, prep is everything! After bead-blasting, de-greasing and acid-etchining I plop the parts in a bucket of denatured alcohol (as described in the tutorial).
Once the chemistry and electricity is set up, it’s a leisurely process. I hang two or three Norma clamps in the bucket and pour another cup of coffee. Ten minutes later, pull the parts out, clean my cathodes; and hang some more parts. While those are bubbling, I use ‘scotch-brite’ to polish the parts that just came out of the bath. When all the parts have been ‘striked,’ ‘struck’ – I start again.
As the zinc builds up with each strike, the finish looks better and better. So I just keep at it while I do other things around the house.
I also bought yelllow zinc chromate, which turns the zinc yellow and offers additional protection. I haven’t tried it because, well... I haven’t finished enough strikes with white zinc yet!
In the midst of completing that third strike on my first ever batch of parts; I’m certainly unqualified to give advice on zinc plating. I’ve posted this just to share how very ‘do-able’ this is. I’m sure a pro-plater would produce a better result. But my plater is an hour away and I don’t need that on this set of parts.
I bought a cover for the plastic bath-bucket; in which I’ll store the chemicals, power supply, zincs, etc. Since I often have small parts that need rust protection, I think my homemade kit will get some use.
Robert
