Zinc plating

[mgcjag]

Hi All......Will be stripping down the front & rear suspension over the winter & after visiting CMC on a seminar saw that on a lot of the front suspension they use zinc plateing (sent to a plater).......Ive seen some plating kits & wonder if anyone has used them & if they produce an equivelent finish to a plater....Would make a usefull bit of kit in the garage for nuts/bolts/brackets ect but only if they work lell.......One of the CMC guys recomended plating then painting silver & then coating in clear wax spray............Your thoughts please .....Great day today so now off for a run in the E. Steve Hook

[Heuer]

Steve

I investigated home plating and even bought the Caswell book. You need plenty of space to set the system up along with a considerable investment in chemicals, bowls and power supply if you intend doing anything bigger than screws and washers! Start here: http://www.caswelleurope.co.uk/ It is real enthusiast stuff and a hobby in its own right: http://www.caswelleurope.co.uk/Scoopercc&z.htm for the full story.

[christopher storey]

I have done some nickel plating over the years, and found the major problems to be

1.I am too impatient , and this results in inadequate cleaning , scouring and preparation of the part . The result ? patchy finish

2. Current control is quite difficult unless you invest in a dedicated adjustable DC power supply, and excess current nearly always results in poor and dull finish

3.One of the problems is failure to agitate the solution during plating. As a result, air/CO2 bubbles lodge on the plating surface and produce poor finish. I believe some people use aquarium agitators to try and solve this


If you have more patience than me, and perhaps are better organised, it may work , but overall I have concluded that it is useful for small parts like some throttle linkage bits , but for anything larger, I feel that the professionals will always produce a better result, which may well be cheaper also - I got all my front suspension parts done for ?75!

[ChrisC]

I have a Caswell kit but I am nickel plating components rather than Zinc - you will read / hear a mix of opinions about which is better. For me Zinc is too bright a silver colour but then nickel is slightly more yellow than the original cadmium plating. I think nickel has a longer lasting finish than Zinc.

Doing the plating is pretty easy with the kits but you do need two things that are not included. I recommend that you buy a cheap variable power supply so that you can control the current (which is important). The control that comes with the kit just about works but it was complete guesswork and i could not get a consistent finish. A variable power supply allows you to get the right current per square inch of metal plated.

Cleaning the items is absolutely paramount - I shot blast everything as it leaves a nice matt finish - modern nickel and zinc items are far too shiny.

Agitation of the liquid is dead easy - I use an aquarium pump with a bubble stone on the end. it works a treat and is very cheap.

It does take a little while to learn the mix of the right power for the right length of time but I now find that as long as the item is spotless (dont touch it with bare hands) I am getting a pretty good finish.

To be fair I dont try to plate anything over 12 square inches in total surface area - primarily because my power supply does not produce enough current but mainly I cant get a good enough finish on something that big. Suspension components therefore get professionally plated.

You can see some of my plating on my blog (see signature)

Alchemy is fun.... :)