Hi Guys,

I couple of people have asked for more information on the set-up I use for zinc plating, so here's a description and some photos of how I do it.

I started with this Jane Kits zinc plating kit: https://janekits.com.au/products/zinc-kit-4-ltrs/ I got it without the power supply as I have a variable current lab supply to hand, so the cost was only a couple of hundred dollars. I'm not endorsing Jane Kits, in fact the manual is tragic, and I had to do quite a bit of web research before I understood enough to proceed. There are other suppliers of DIY type plating kits in Australia. This is just the one I got.

One very informative source of information on electroplating is Geoffrey Crocker's youtube channel. In fact, that's where I heard about the Jane Kits. I'm not a chemist, so I'm not going to attempt to describe what's going on with electroplating, I'll leave that to others such as Geoffrey. I'd also hope that BobL will chime in with more information.

So far I've only plated steel, but IIRC I think I can do other metals as well with this kit. I'm building a sawmill and I wanted a way of protecting the steel parts that are not practical to paint. The kit has provided me with just the right solution. It's a fantastic capability to have added to my workshop, and well worth the couple of hundred dollars I've spent.

Here's the set up. The kit did contain almost everything needed, including all chemicals, 2 zinc anodes, aluminium tubes and copper wire to dangle the parts off, a jumper lead to connect the two anodes, etc. All I needed to buy was de-mineralised water to mix the chemicals into, and suitable plastic tubs for the various pre-treatments, rinses, and the plating electrolyte solution. The power supply is hooked up positive to the zinc anodes, negative to the part to be plated.

The 4 litres of electrolyte has been fine for small parts like spacers, bearing retaining rings and nuts and bolts, and some small brackets, but I'll be ordering another bag of the electrolyte powder to mix up to 10 more litres. The process has proved so successful that I'm now wanting to plate more and larger parts.

IMG_0950.jpg

IMG_0814.jpg

IMG_0951.jpg


The process is very simple. The parts are cleaned very thoroughly, dipped in a rust and scale remover (came in the kit), rinsed in de-mineralised water, dipped in degreaser (came in the kit), rinsed, then hung in the electrolyte solution for a calculated time and current based on surface area (the current info is buried in the manual). For most parts I've left them in for 45 minutes, and I've used between 0.5 A and 3 A of current depending on the size of the parts. Total time from finished and cleaned part to shiny plated part, is therefore about an hour, and you're then supposed to leave the parts to dry and harden for 24 hours before handling. I've not always followed this advice and have not had issues with the parts being handled after only a brief drying time.

After plating I use a chromate passivation process that improves the appearance of the plating and apparently also the rust preventative properties. The pre-dip and two colours, bright blue and yellow, come in the kit. These add either a bright shiny finish, or that gold like passivated finish that comes on some nuts and bolts. Both significantly improve the appearance. Fun fact: passivation means passive, or inert, as in less likely to corrode.

Here's some examples of what I've plated so far, all parts for the sawmill I'm building. The last photo here is of the first batch of parts I did. It looks like I didn't get some of these parts de-greased well enough because there are stains around the tapped holes where cutting oil must have been trapped. Actually, now that I think about it I had used Trefolex, which is difficult to clean off anything.

As always with electroplating, the surface finish you get on the plated part is exactly what you had on the raw part. Every file mark, machining mark, scotchbrite finish etc. will print through to the final finish. I'm more than happy with the finish on these parts, they are all going on an outdoor machine so looks don't really matter. I just wanted the rust preventative properties of zinc plating. I have great sympathy for anyone wanting to do decorative plating though, getting a good surface finish on machined or cut steel parts would be a real challenge.

IMG_0953.jpgIMG_0841.jpgIMG_0817.jpgIMG_0822.jpgIMG_0837.jpg

I'm sure I've missed some important information, so feel free to ask questions.

Graham.
Attached Images




Read the full thread at metalworkforums.com...