best method for heating Zincate solution

[KCV6]

Am going to finally have a crack at flash copper and copy chrome on some small aluminium pieces. Just wondering if anyone has had luck with any particular heater to heat the zincate solution, ceramic or glass? only talking around 1 gal of solution here.

Cheers Mark

[KCV6]

small tank of zincate sitting in a bucket of hot water works well......

[CarWiz]

I just did some aluminum door handles today but the Caswell's Zincate solution I used called for 70*. I think the ambient shop temp was about 90. I thought about dropping an ice cube into it but went with it as is. Came out dandy and plated fine with EN.

[KCV6]

CarWiz,

Much the same here, I found just getting the solution warm works ok, no real need to be overly accurate.

Cheers

Mark

[amerdunbar]

I used to heat mine, but have since just let it at ambient temp. My shop runs 55-60 F year round, and I haven't had any problems with it. If anything, reaction/zincating may take a few more seconds. My parts are usually warm though, coming from the SP tank and rinse.

[CarWiz]

Originally Posted by amerdunbar

My shop runs 55-60 F year round...

In this part of the country, we wear jackets when it gets that cold!!!!

[KCV6]

Just finished 10 pieces (starter motor end caps, thermostat housings, oil filter adaptors etc). worked MOSTLY fine. These were severely coroded so I ended out with minor blistering on 2 pieces after much copper building, sanding, building, sanding, buil......... where the pits were quite deep. Not enough prep on my part. I'm going to re-work the pitted areas and try a quick re-zincate and see how it goes. Other than that the zincate worked fine.

Cheers

Mark