Tin Zinc plating

Alright. Here is the rundown on Eastwoods plating kit.

inside the box is this

Pretty hokey.

I wonder what they charged me for this atomically crappy device?

Now I didn't have any D batteries hanging around so I grabbed a power supply and set it to 3 volts

Poured the electrolyte into the tub, clipped the anode to the side and used a piece of steel TIG filler rod to lower a piece into the solution.

The trial piece. Distributor hold down for the Ford six. Just run through the tumbler and degreased.

After maybe 30 seconds of plating

and then a light buff with the supplied autosol

Pic doesn't really show the difference but it is VERY apparent in your hand. It looks great!

Some random identical brackets from the bin before and after side by side

Total time plating and buffing about a minute and a half.

This piece was plated and then tossed into a vibratory tumbler with a rouge impregnated walnut shell that I think is intended for cleaning bullet brass. It is all labelled "Cabellas" We scored it off CL for $20 or so. I just wanted to see if I could make it as low labor as possible. It worked!

So there we go. The kit is hokey but works really well. I am sure the battery pack works just fine but I didn't feel like picking any up.

The battery pack is actually what seems to get the brunt of the bad reviews of the kit. Once they start to run down, results start to get not quite so uniform.

So i suppose my main question is: How much was that power supply?

I think i asked you in this other thread, but this kit only does the silver zinc plating, right?

Just silver zinc. I think Caswell does a yellow zinc kit.

If I didn't have a few lab power supplies hanging around I suppose I would rig up one of those DIY ATX based supplies that are so common.

If you want me to measure the thickness and alloy %, just let me know. We make/sell/service XRay Florescence coating thickness gauges that can measure it. (Small industry, been in it 15+ years now.)

If you don't have a power supply, go to the electronics area at your local Goodwill/Salvation Army/Whatever second hand store. You can usually get a computer power supply with 3.3, 5, and 12V outputs for a buck or three.

I've been meaning to get one of these coating kits, as it would be easier than collecting pretty fasteners at the junkyard a pocketful at a time. Have you tried any threaded parts with the Eastwood kit?

Bryce

Everyone with a shop should have a good variable power supply. They come in handy so often!

Ditchdigger, that does look great! So all you really need from the kit is the electrolyte solution?

The electrolyte and the sacrificial anode. I am sure there are recipes out there for the stuff. It smells familiar but I haven't looked into what it is.

We did do some bolts the other day. Went just fine.