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Originally Posted by gwjohnso
I plated three zincated aluminum items last night with flash copper. They came out of the bath dull but covered well with copper after 45 minutes. I polished the parts to my desired shine before I zincated and flash copper. When I try to buff the copper to a bright shine with white and loose cotton, I buff through the copper before I get a good shine. So, on one of my pieces I did not buff after the copper and went straight to the copy chrome. Plated for 60 minutes. Copy chrome did not throw thoroughly over top of piece and while buffing the copy chrome I went through to copper and to aluminum on some areas. So, I degrease the part, zincated the bare aluminum spots and flash coppered again. After 20 minutes I removed the part only to descover bright shiny copper where the copy chrome was left underneath and dull where I had buffed through the copy chrome to the copper and aluminum. What is up with that? Is the zincate making the flash copper dull? Do I need to strike with nickel prior to flash copper on these parts? Flashing with copper is suppose to be fine on zincated aluminum right? I wanted to post this problem on the forum as to maybe get some feedback from other users having this problem. I have opened several tech. support tickets and thought this may work better.
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I am having the same similar problem except I am not zincating aluminum. I am brush plating the flash copy directly on steel and it is coming out the same as you describe except for one additional problem. When I nickel or copy chrome over the dark flash copper I wash the piece with brillo and everytime not only does the nickel plate disappear so does the copper. I have copper plated with brushed on copper from another company than plated with nickel and all seems well. I was going to contact caswell directly by phone but I opted to try and heat the solution first and the piece to try again seeing if there would be a difference. until then any feed back would be greatly appreciated. WHAT DOES GIVE HERE?