Rinsing and the Enviroment

[need1moretool]

Hello, yes I am a newbie. I have purchased the triple chrome kit and I am trying my best to understand everything before I start my first piece. I will try to short and hope not to get too long here.

I have completed setting up my table and tanks. I have read the manual and watched the tape atleast 5 times each. I have spent no less than 10 hours reading in the forum. I want to make sure that I control the hazards and protect the enviroment the best I can. I hope that someone responds to my questions as with my last post no one ever replied. I ended up just deleting it.

1. I noticed, in the training tape, that each time a part gets rinsed that it is done over the tank it just came out of using a spray bottle. I understand how this keeps the residue with the original solution and keeps it from getting contaminted.

Does the part ever dipped in a distilled water tank?

2. If so, how do you top off the plating tanks using the distilled water used for rinsing when residue from each solution ends up in the rinse water? Contamination appears to be very important and I do not see how to keep this from happening without seperate washing tanks for each solution.

I have many more questions but answers to these would help alot for now.

Thanks
Jeff
need1moretool

[sswee]

I used buckets to rinse my parts when I first started. Two for each process. A primary to get the majority of rinsing done then a secondary to final rinse before the next step. You can get different size buckets in the paint dept. of most home improvement stores. After a little time, I upgraded to an RO filter to be able to rinse my parts in fresh water. Hope this helps.

[need1moretool]

Additional Questions


Thanks sswe,



I see how that works with the seperate buckets but a couple more questions about the RO Filter.

I bought the RO Filter with my kit. For your process, I take it that you first spray off your part over the tank then move it to your RO Filter source for final washing? How do you handle the water from the RO Filter final washing? Do you pour it back into the tank?

Again Thanks,

Jeff
need1moretool

[sswee]

How much water are you talking about? I have a sink in the shop that I rinse the parts over. Before I put the sink in I used a 5 gal bucket to rinse over. Then watered the grass.

[dadkar2]

I'm not completely sure about the watering grass part !!

If you keep two separate buckets for each process rinse (with distilled water) you can pour the rinse water back into the plating tank. Keep the pair of distilled water buckets separate for each plating step, and label them. When the first rinse starts showing the color of the plating solution, pour the first rinse back into the plating tank for topping off, and then use the second rinse tank in place of the first. Refill the first tank and use it as the final rinse. That way you'll always be recycling and you'll keep the second rinse tank clean. As a final rinse, use the spray bottle over the second rinse tank. The part should be clean enough to put into the next process step at this point. And, nothing ever gets dumped into the environment.

The water in ALL rinse tanks and spray bottles needs to be distilled water, regardless of how you make it...either through RO or buying it at the grocery store.

Kind regards,
Ken

[need1moretool]

Thanks

Thanks again for the responses. I am glad that this forum is here and really appreciate the help. Because of your commments, I am going to alter my set up. I am trying to get set up so everything stays neat, orderly, and clean. Looks like I am going to alternate my tanks on the work table based on what I am working on or plating. I have five holes where the tanks slip into the table and that just isn't not enough with all the rinsing tanks.

Given that my long term goal is to do triple chrome on steel and aluminum.

Question. How many total tanks, including rinsing, should I have under ideal situations for SP degreaser, Pickels, Zincate, Flash copper, Acid Copper, Nickel, Chrome?

Thanks
Jeff
need1moretool

[clydes]

D I water is the way to go i agree. you can rent a small system from your local water supplier that will make D I water for a little or nothing then putting a cartieage in line with your house hold water supply and they recharge it when the filter is used up. 1 carterage to recharge is about 100 bucks but it makes 250 -300 gal of water from your tap water. i understand most dont need this much but having it on hand out of a tap makes life easy. clydes

[dadkar2]

2 rinse and 1 plating per step = 3 x 3 =9
Remember that the rinse tanks just have to be able to allow for the object. You don't need a big tank to allow for anode spacing.

For degreasing, I would use an ultrasonic cleaner, regardless. You can probably use a sink rinse for this, as long as the ultrasonic cleaning solution was biodegradeable. You'll be cleaning it again anyhow, so distilled water isn't that important yet.

From here on all cleaning and rinsing should use distilled water.

For final soak or electroclean, you need a cleaning tank plus two rinses. That brings the total up to 12. Again, for cleaning and rinsing you don't need big tanks--you just have to be able to contain the item (unless you're electrocleaning, in which case you need a stainless steel tank the size of your plating tank).

For pickle, you need a pickle tank and 2 rinses.
For zincate, ditto above.

I believe that brings the total to about 18.

In my setup right now, including the ultrasonic cleaner, I have 11...but I don't zincate yet and I don't chrome yet...just nickel.

Kind regards,
Ken

[need1moretool]

Thanks Again

Well, I think I finally got it. It is not as simple as it looks when compared to viewing some of the work shops and pictures of other set ups. The five tanks is not showing the whole picture. No pun intended!!

I am sure with all your help I will get thru this and have some fun too.

Again thanks.



Jeff
need1moretool

[dadkar2]

Jeff,

Also be careful. I've always been somewhat leary of the approach of cutting holes right next to each other and setting the tanks so close to each other. The aeration process will send droplets of plating solution into the air and they'll inevitably land next door in the neighboring plating tank. My preference is to do two things:

1. Keep the tanks about 1 ft apart
2. Cover the tanks while in use with a sheet of lexan or similar. You'll have to cut a slot with a circular saw halfway through the lexan cover. But this also serves to hold the hanging wire in place, preventing it from drifting around due to agitation. Label these covers. Make 3 of them. Don't exchange them between the 3 plating tanks. It's worth the effort to avoid cross contamination.

Just a little trick from years of experience at this.

Kind regards,
Ken

[need1moretool]

Thanks dadkar2

I must admit that I have already cut my holes and yes they are too close! I really like the lexan idea though.

I got a another question!

Do the solutions gas off while degreasing or plating? I guess I am trying to find out how air tight the tanks can be during any of the processes.

Thanks
Jeff
need1moretool

[dadkar2]

If the solutions are heated to 120F, there will be somewhat accelerated evaporation of the water from the tanks. The only real concern with gassing is the chrome tank and you must use the mist suppressant to control this!! I would advise a fume hood if you are doing this in a garage or basement. For that matter, you should plan on ventilation regardless. The room will get steamed up with water vapor if you don't.

Also keep the area where the plating is done separate from where the buffing is done. Buffing is a dirty process. I have a dust collector that I use with a homemade buffing box to keep the area clean. That's another option.

Ken

[dadkar2]

There may be some gassing with the zincate...I recall you said you are going to work with aluminum.

There isn't any reason to put tight fitting lids on the tanks during the plating. The lexan idea will allow the tanks to breathe, while catching a lot of the water vapor and solution sputter from aeration which will then drip back down into the tank.

Ken

[need1moretool]

Thanks

dadkar2

Thanks for all your help!

Now, I can get some more work done on my set up and I will post my results.

I must say you are one (cool) dude.

Thanks again.

Jeff
need1moretool