Caswell Zinc Plating Kits - Reviews?

[philosopheriam]

Folks,

I'm restoring a 78 GS1000 and I have a multitude of hardware that could use re-plating.

I know people on here have used the Caswell kits before - if so, can you describe which kit you used (i.e. the brush plating or the dip kit), how did it perform, what additional stuff did you need, etc.

Thanks!

[daturat100r]

Good description of a diy setup for plating bike bits here.heaps cheaper than a kit
http://www.triumphrat.net/classic-vi...g-at-home.html.
Saved another page somewhere in my computer of another really good diy setup and when i find it i will pass it on here 4 u

[Big T]

I think Nessism is the authority on this

Others have found that just taking their hardware to a cad plater is easier and not that expensive

[Crankthat]

Good description of a diy setup for plating bike bits here.heaps cheaper than a kit
http://www.triumphrat.net/classic-vi...g-at-home.html.
Saved another page somewhere in my computer of another really good diy setup and when i find it i will pass it on here 4 u

Great link!!

[Nessism]

I think Nessism is the authority on this

Others have found that just taking their hardware to a cad plater is easier and not that expensive

Here is my old thread...http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...d.php?t=144575

Since posting this thread my technique has improved. If you have the right current and brightener additive mix in the sauce the parts turn out nice and shinny.

Since the Caswell's kit is not cheap I'd investigate that alternate electrolyte sauce recommendation. Save money where ever possible.

[SVSooke]

Great link!!

+1,was thinking of getting a Caswell kit to.Now I'll skip it as I have most of that stuff here.

[Nessism]

I didn't read through that entire thread on the Triumph site but from experience you need circulation in the electrolyte otherwise bubbles will form on the deposition site and cause a dull appearance. Zinc brightener is critical too unless you want to polish every part you plate.

[philosopheriam]

The trumphrat link does not appear to be working...

[SVSooke]

I'll send you the download when I get home,didn't work this morning for me either.Maybe the site's down for maintenance?

[daturat100r]

yes its been down all evening here

[four_shot]

It appears to be up as of 10:30 central time.

[GateKeeper]

read it here then...

all found here - http://www.triumphrat.net/classic-vi...g-at-home.html

Zinc Plating at Home Over the weekend I tried a zinc plating process for small parts at home that was entirely a do-it-yourself exercise. By that I mean that I did not buy any plating kit or anything elaborate for the process. I read about the process on the Honda 305 forum and based on photos publised by the author and having a bunch of crummy looking parts on my Scrambler, I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm sharing this here because I think everyone on this forum who is interested in sprucing up their old bike should know how to do this. This topic may have been covered on this forum before so I don't want to rehash old news. I'll just give you a quick rundown of what is needed and provide a picture of parts I plated over the weekend. I will be using the process when I get into the resto of my '66 Bonnie.

Materials
Zinc - I used pure zinc roof strips sold to prevent fungus on roofing
Vinegar
Epsom Salts - 100gm/liter
Sugar - 120 gm/liter
Small 12vdc power supply (3 volts minimum)
plastic pail
digitial multimeter or DMM (for measuring milliamps)
small variable resistor (potentiometer or pot) - 500 ohms Radio Shack
Brass wire brush
Digital timer - not absolutely required, but makes things easier.

Building the System
You make cathodes from the zinc plate and line the walls of the pail with them. Connect them all together using copper wire and the end of that wire becomes the positive terminal for the set up.

String another copper wire across the top of the pail that is electrically isolated from the cathodes. That wire is the negative terminal and the wire from which you will hand the parts to be plated. We'll call this the top wire.

Mix vinegar, Epsom salts and sugar until all is dissolved and fill the pail with the solution. Hang the parts to be plated from the Top wire with either copper or stainless steel wire so the part is fully submerged in the plating bath. DO NOT LET THE PARTS OR THE HANGER WIRE COME IN CONTACT WITH THE CATHODE!! THIS WILL SHORT OUT YOUR CHARGER. The current flows thru the bath, which is an electrolyte and conducts current via the Epsom Salts you added.

Connect the negative lead of the charger to the negative terminal of the set up (Top wire) . Connect the positive lead of the charger to one terminal of the potentiometer. Connect the positive lead of the DMM to the other terminal on the pot. Connect the negative lead of the DMM to the positive terminal of the set up (cathode wire). Set the DMM to milliamps or amps as your meter requires.

Look at the rating on your charger. It should give the output voltage and the output current. It may give the voltage and watts instead. If it gives watts, just divide the watts by the output voltage to get the output current in milliamps. That output current is your max current. If you exceed that, you will damage your charger.

Part Prep
You need to remove all the old plating and any rust prior to plating. You can bead blast, acid clean, wire brush, sand, whatever you prefer. Remember that the plated finish is only as good as the finish on the base metal being plated. I use Phosphoric Acid to remove any old Cad plating and any rust. Stubborn rust like deep pits gets bead blasted. Then with rubber gloves on to prevent greasy finger prints, degrease the part thoroughly in something like acetone, dry it and then suspend it in the bath.

Plating
With everything connected and the part in the bath plug in your charger. Adjust the pot so that the current in ma is at or below the max output current for your charger.

Leave the part in the bath for 10 to 30 minutes. Unplug the charger and remove the part. The part should be plated with a dull light gray coating. Brush the plated surface (this is called carding) with the brass brush until the bright zinc plating appears. You can put the part back in the bath for a second coat, which I normally do.

Keep in mind that the plating will add anywhere from 0.0005 to 0.003 inch of plating, depending on how long you plate it. So fitted parts may need to be masked with paint or tape or sanded down when finished. The axel in the attached photo would not fit thru the wheel bearing when it was done so I polished the plating from the shaft section. The OEM plating was only on the ends of the axel as well.

Attached is a photo of some 305 Scrambler parts I plated over the weekend. This was the first time I've ever done this, having read about the process on the 305 forum on Friday. Here's a link to that thread so you can read the other details I observed as I did this. http://www.honda305.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6584

I've also attached a photo of my set up. My pail is a 1/2 gallon pail that had hot tube chemicals in it before. Try your local diner for similar plastic containers. They get tons of them and normally toss them out. Don't use a huge 5 gal pail because proximity of the part to the cathodes determines the time required to get a good plated surface. Also note that the plating is line of sight. By that I mean the zinc ions travel from the cathode to the anode (part) in a straight line. So if you have only one cathode, the surface facing it will plate better than the surface not facing it. This is why I say to surround the outer wall of your pail with zinc cathodes all hooked in series. This also means that for parts like the axel spacers and that big axel nut in the photo, I had to make a small cathode to fit inside the ID of those parts and not touch. I made a smaller set up with a small plastic butter tub to plate the ID on those parts first, and then did the outer surfaces in the set up shown in the photo here.

You won't be disappointed with the results. Happy Plating!

regards,
Rob
Attached Thumbnails

Those roofing strip are best found at roofing supply houses. Zinc is zinc so you could use any source, including a scrap yard. Zincs for boat use can be used and you could slice them up if you had no other source.

You can order the zinc roof strips on-line. The brand I used is called Shingle Shield. A box is about $50 and holds 16 3x36 inch strips. I made my set-up from one strip which with tax comes to just under $4.00/strip. I thought about selling individual strips at my cost plus postage to offset the initial cost but I'm hanging on to them for now. Might use what is left on my roof when I reshingle it as I have a roof fungus problem.

I would suggest you talk to some local roofers. They may have leftover strips they would sell or perhaps even give to you.

Another source of zinc is old drycell batteries. Not alkaline or rechargeable batteries. Just the standard good old drycells. The outer casing of those batteries is pure zinc. You can slit it and peel it off the gooey tar insides and use that. Think of all the batteries we have thrown out over the years. We could be plating forever with all that zinc.

I have to make a correction to the instructions in this post, but the actual post is locked and won't let me edit it again. Not having any experience with plating, I have the terms cathode and anode backwards in my instructions. The positive and negative terminals are correct as the current flows from positive to negative. But in an electrolytic solution, the cathode is the negative terminal. So the workpiece is the cathode and not the zinc and vice versa for the zinc.

I was using battery terminology, which is reversed. My mistake. Ignorance abounds when you've never done stuff like this before.

If you copy and paste the instructions to a Word document, just do an Edit, Find and replace all the Anodes with a work like RALPH. Then do Edit, Find and replace all the Cathodes with Anode. Then go back and do Edit, Find and replace all the RALPHs with Cathode.

Sorry for the mistake.

[GateKeeper]

and some more

Well, you made me actually measure what kind of resistance I'm adding to the circuit in order to control the current. My pot did not cost me anything because anytime I throw something out that has good parts in it, I strip it first. I think the pots I have came from an old metal detector I pulled out of somebody's trash last year. I have a 1K ohm pot on one set up and a 2K pot on the other, only because that's what I had in the basement. The range of adjustment is nil as I can barely feel the pot move for major swings in current.

So, I measured the 1K pot to see where it was set from the last parts I plated yesterday. It is set at 5 ohms. This would explain the lack of fine adjustability with my 1K pot.

Radio shack has a 25 ohm rheostat for $3.99 on their website. I would think that would do it for you.

So although the 500 ohm pot will work, I think a pot in the range of 25 to 100 ohms would be more appropriate. Another correction to the original write-up.

Zinc Plating bath recipe Others have asked this question before and although it's buried in this or one of the referenced threads on the topic, I thought I'd simply post the recipe I use for the electrolyte.

Dissolve 1/4 lb of Epsom salts and 1/4 lb of white sugar into a quart of white vinegar.

You are right, Doug. First left in the bucket it will continue to eat away your zinc. It also will fill with what appears to be some form of smut, probably a type of zinc corrosion product. Or it could be the impurities in the zinc with is no 100% pure.

I made a funnel out of a soda bottle that fits snugly into the gallon vinegar jug. When I'm done plating, I simple pour the bath back into the jug and pop the cap back on.

What you will find is with time the bath starts to get dark. That's a sign it's time to make a new bath.

Save all the remnants of your intial zinc plates. My first set of plates looked like lace curtains after doing my 305 hardware. Cut those bits up and drop them into your new bath while it is still in the jug and let it sit overnight. They will be gone in the morning and your bath will be nicely charged with zinc ions. This will slow down the destruction of your actual zinc electrodes. I learned this the hard way. First bath was made and put into the bucket with the new zinc electrodes. Within a short period of time, they were the above described lace curtains and the thickness of tissue paper. I made new electrodes and they lasted well over a year. The point is to pre-charge your new bath with zinc before you start plating. Overnight is usually enough time. If all you have is one big chunk of zinc, then just leave the bath overnight in the bucket for the same result.

[Badooka]

Used Caswell for years before it was so popular and the pricing was fair- now it seems almost ridiculous what they charge for the products. Some of the hazmat fees are understandable but not the cost of the products. The DIY kit mentioned seems like a great way to go- pretty well written too. Also zinc that is used to wrap batteries is of a better grade for plating.

[philosopheriam]

Used Caswell for years before it was so popular and the pricing was fair- now it seems almost ridiculous what they charge for the products. Some of the hazmat fees are understandable but not the cost of the products. The DIY kit mentioned seems like a great way to go- pretty well written too. Also zinc that is used to wrap batteries is of a better grade for plating.

Exactly - my goal was to use this on nuts/bolts/etc. For the cost of the Caswell kit I can buy all new hardware. Also, on a 35yr old bike, it may be a wise idea to change some of the engine mount bolts and other structural bolts with new ones.