Hi, newbie on here

[NickIrons]

Hello all,
I was given the address of this forum from an engineering friend
of mine, after I asked him some questions relating to zinc plating
that he couldn't answer. I've recentley been trying to zinc plate
origional nuts, bolts and other items for my M/Cycle re-build,
using chems from the pharmacy, a battery charger and zinc from
old battery casings, I have had reasonable results, but not to the
standard that I had expected. I've tried the search option on this
forum, but there is too much information to take up in one go. As
I understand it Caswell, are one of the best suppliers for home plating
operations, and I would apreciate any help from you guys to point
me in the right direction as regards to the purchase of the correct
materials. Below are a few pictures of my plating efforts so far, all
the pieces were origionally slightly corroded mild steel, they are
coated, but with no shine.
Many thanks and all the best, Nick.

[KCV6]

Hi Nick,

Most probably the easiest answer and simplest route for you to take would be to buy the copy cad system and go from there. What you are missing from your solutions is the brightener which gives the zinc plating its bright mirror finish. Brighteners contain wetting agents and leveling agents that allow the zinc to deposit level and uniform. You could resurch the formulas for industry standard chloride zinc setups, but in the long run it is simply more convenient to just buy a kit. I would recomend trying to get a decent constant votage/constant current power supply. Zinc operates in the range of 0.5 to 1.5Vdc for the smaller stuff.

look up the copy cad system in the home page area under plating and try a search on "copy cad"

Cheers

Mark

[NickIrons]

Thanks Mark, I'll take a look.
ATB.