Cad and Zinc Plating

[Hugh Heifer]

Anyone try this?

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/zinc.htm

I have thousands of nuts, bolts and washers that are in fair condition. For abut $50 I can get one of those jigglers from Harbor Freight and have heard they work good. Then a hundred bucks gets me a plating system. The other day I spent $30 on a small bag of metric hardware at Ace. I figure this set up would pay for itself.

THoughts?

 

[trekker]

yep.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=63623&highlight=caswell

A few folks have used this with mixed results. It does take pratice and you get better after each batch. With the kit I got, there is enough chemicals and zinc to do all the fasteners.

 

[Coolerman]

Trekker, post up some more pics of what you have done with this kit. I saw your first pics back in 2005 and was pretty impressed. Thinking of doing this myself. I already have a cabinet blaster and have been powder coating most parts but some just need to be plated!

 

[ColoCruiserJeff]

Heifer-

I think you'll be pleased with the results with that kit. I know you'll spend more than that on shipping the items to a plater....unless you're lucky enough to have one locally. Plus there is always the fact that the second you ship out something with a ton of parts, you're not going to get 100% of them back....its just Murphy's law of outsourcing Cruser nuts and bolts stuff

Best of luck with the kit! We'll be following your progress!!

 

[wdFJ40]

I've got it and it works pretty good. You've got to have a good power supply. I use a 50amp battery charger, and pull 14 amps on bigger items. Also you have to regulate the current, I use light bulbs, for the bigger items I use the head lights from the 40. 2amps on low beam, 4 amps on high. Don't use the brightner if you want to do the copy cad. Caswell also has a forum that will answer questions also.

 

[Coolerman]

This thread is worthless without PICS! Show off your work!

 

[wdFJ40]

OK OK ! I'll try soon, but no promises, busy time of the year. If you want a quick fix, go to Caswell's site. People post pictures of there stuff there.

 

[wdFJ40]

This link has some pictures.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=63623&highlight=caswell+plating

Something I plated from around the carb I think and the emergency brake thingy

 

[Coolerman]

Thank you! Those look great! Guess I'll have to look hard at the plating kit now... That was the copy cad, then dip in the dichromate solution, and dry process?

 

[wdFJ40]

Clean the part,,, sand blast, wire wheel..... soak in muriatic acid, soak in soap stuff they send you..... plate ( 20 min).....rinse.... soak in chormate (20 sec), dry with heat gun on low..... let set over night..
I've spent many hours in front of the bench grinder with a wire wheel cleaning nuts and bolts.

 

[Cruiser804]

Wow, I can't wait to get my kit set up. I just built the bench last weekend.

I guess like with paint prep is the key.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Wow, I think I just got a Christmas list....

Jeff: do you have the Caswell copy cad setup, or are you shipping your parts out?

Anyone here use the Caswell power supply? How much current would one need to plate, say, a 3 foot u-bolt (7/8" diameter)? The caswell supplies are expensive, but there is nothing I hate more than a cheap tool failing (or failing to work correctly), so I usually pony up for the good stuff in that department...

Dan

 

[GetsUThere]

Anyone here use the Caswell power supply? How much current would one need to plate, say, a 3 foot u-bolt (7/8" diameter)?

I have one of the copy cad (zinc) kits and use the smallest power supply (3A). So far that's been enough for the stuff I've done, but most of that has been small (bolts and things like that).

For your example, I make the surface area about 87.24 sq in. According to their online calculator http://www.caswellplating.com/cdcalc.html doing copy cad would take a greater than 12 amp supply.

 

[bsmith123]

Interesting post your parts look like new good work

 

[AATLAS1X]

Plating is CHEAP to have done, my place acid strips and then plates all hardware in tumblers and hangs everything else. If I were to do every part possible it would be $3-400ish. Heck I could do all the diff housings, bumpers, doors and everything else but the frame for $1k

Sure the kit is cheaper, but having open chemicals around pets, neighbor are your kids is my eyes is a huge liability.

Shane

 

[Hugh Heifer]

I am sure there is a plater around Atlanta somewhere but I have been unable to find one that seemed willing to do just abunch of small items.

When plating small parts that cn not han (nut and bolts) what do you put them in? A strainer?

 

[trekker]

I looked around Georgia to do the cadium plating but the nearest was somewhere in Alabama.

So I purchased the Caswell kit and my results were very good. I would do some more but you really need to be set up to do it.

That is clean work area, clean parts, attention to detail, etc.

To do nuts and bolts I either wrapped them with copper wire or fashioned a plastic strainer (from the kitchen and shhhhh!) with copper wire threaded through it.

If I were to do this all over again, I would farm it out in one big batch and be done with it.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

I looked around Georgia to do the cadium plating but the nearest was somewhere in Alabama.

Do you recall where in Alabama?

A bit off subject but I found a place in Chattanooga, TN the other day that does large scale hot dip galvanizing.

 

[trekker]

I think I got the name from Hemmings Motor News in the classifieds.

 

[trekker]

I used to belong to a yahoo group that had a bunch of people doing their own plating. Some were set up for doing small jobs.

Try this:

http://tech.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/Electroplating/

I just tried it and cound not connect for some reason.