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The booster will fit in the bottom of a 3.5 gal pail with .5 to .75 inches of clearance.
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Well, I don't know how big a 3.5 gal pail is, so still can't visualize what you have going. There is no substitute for a good estimate of the booster surface area.
How much distance is there between anodes & booster? You certainly want a lot more than .5-.75" separation between them.
With 36" of anode, I'm getting the feeling though, that your booster is bigger than your anodes, which will give uneven and/or poor plating.
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Do I rub off the white rust dry?
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Rubbing it off is not a cure, it's just a means of identifying IF it's white rust that you're seeing.
The proper thing to do is PREVENT it from white rusting in the first place, by chromate, WD-40, wax, paint, etc.
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Right now I can't go from blasting to plating.Blast at work , plate at home.
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In that case, depending on how much time elapses in-between:
- a few hours - pickle the parts in mild muriatic acid right before plating. This will remove any minute surface rust that has developed.
- overnight - hit the fresh blasted parts w/WD-40 to prevent rusting. Degrease then acid pickle right before plating.
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Will the acid solution you mentioned be correct to strip the zinc and chromate finish?
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Yes. The stronger the solution, the faster it will strip. 15-20% is more than enough to strip parts w/in 5-15 minutes (just depends on how thick the plate is). When the parts stop fizzing, the zinc is gone.
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Seems like I always have to run my solution through coffee filters.
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Why? The electrolyte will get cloudy w/sediments, but still plates good. Filtering does remove the brightener (if you use it).
Sean