Zinc Plating at Home

[KFH]

Has anybody tried zinc plating at home?  I have read that all you need is a zinc block, the correct chemicals and and a battery/ power supply.  The instructions seem quite simple.  If you have how successful was the results?  The instructions I have are quite concise.  There used to be a person not far away from here who did if for his bike and other people but have no luck in tracking him down yet. There are a few reasonably priced  kits available in Australia via the Internet however I have the majority of the parts in the kit except the chemicals and the pure zinc.  Any advice where to get chemicals would be appreciated.

Plating all the small bits at home would be a godsend.  Nothing to get lost at the platers.

Keith

[Johns]

Keith,

Im my experience, as with everything, preparation is the key. All the parts to be plated, including screws and nuts, should be sandblasted to get all the grease and muck off them. For best results polshing helps (seriously) particularly the larger parts with flat surfaces. This way you get a less "salty" effect.

Quite frankly, its so cheap I wouldn't bother doing it at home. Once your plater knows what sort of result you're after he will provide a better finish.

Cheers
John

[KFH]

Thank John for the input.  My problem is finding a plater who is closer than 150k away whom I would trust without losing some bits.  I can sand blast with a small gun and brickies loam.  It does an excellent job without removing metal - running the gun at 80psi. Charges from the closest plater (150k )is $35 for a drop which is about 700mm long and talking to them this would be about 15 to 20 nuts.

Keith

[mikey]

Hi,
        I can't help you specifically but I do like to look at this site often.

http://www.caswellplating.com

It is an American site and obviously chemicals kits can't be shipped here but if you do know what they are all you have to do is find them here. Easier said than done.

There is also a forum, much like this one only about plating and polishing, which is absolutely fantastic reading. (in my opinion)

Are there any Aussie sites out there the same as caswell that anyone knows about?



Cheers    M

[mikey]

Tyy this guy


http://www.janekits.com.au

[KFH]

Thanks Mikey  I have already been across the Australian site plus a couple of others that are very interesting The American site looks very interesting - will go through it more thoroughly and hopefully find the forum you mention.

Keith

[mikey]

It's called "finishing forum" and it's on the left side of the home/main page.

[fe1957]

Hi,
        I can't help you specifically but I do like to look at this site often.

http://www.caswellplating.com

It is an American site and obviously chemicals kits can't be shipped here but if you do know what they are all you have to do is find them here. Easier said than done.

There is also a forum, much like this one only about plating and polishing, which is absolutely fantastic reading. (in my opinion)

Are there any Aussie sites out there the same as caswell that anyone knows about?



Cheers    M

Hey Keith, If you add a ".au" for caswell you will find the Aussie distributor.
I am also investigating a kit, lucky for me there are three from work interested.

cheers
Grant

[mikey]

Hi,
          After much google searching trying to find the Aussie siteI had nearly given up and happened to go back to the US caswell site and spotted a bunch of flags from different countries.

Clicked on our flag and bingo.

http://australia.caswellplating.com/


Cheers  M

[mikey]

Hi,
          After much google searching trying to find the Aussie siteI had nearly given up and happened to go back to the US caswell site and spotted a bunch of flags from different countries.

Clicked on our flag and bingo.

http://australia.caswellplating.com/


Cheers  M

Spooky,
               After looking at the site the Aussie distributors address would have to be no more than 500 meters up the road!!!

Small world huh.

[countryboy]

Spooky,
               After looking at the site the Aussie distributors address would have to be no more than 500 meters up the road!!!

Small world huh.

Sorry to hear this i have had a lot of experience with caswell australia and find their products to be unbeatable for home kits and give the same quality as a profesional plater would.

what were you searching for to find a plating kit with no luck in returing one from caswell australia i'll pass the info on to them to try and help people in the future.

For any one else who is intrested in any plating they can be contacted directly on 03 97417103 or at http://australia.caswellplating.com
they also have a lot of repair products i have found that are available on the USA site that they can supply. almost the entire USA site is available through them with a phone call or order on line