More Electroplating

I had a little more free time today so I had a go at plating some more parts.  Firstly here is how yesterdays bracket looked today.

I like the rainbow effect you get.  This only appeared after the part had dried for a bit.  There are a couple of areas that are a little rough to the touch.

You can see on the top of the part an area that looks a little dull (scraped?) compared with the rest of the part.  Still, large areas were very good.

Close up on remaining corrosion.  Whilst much better than when I started with this part it should all be gone.  I will need to treat this further.  Happy with this as a first attempt though.  I have since did a little more research and learned that wire wool can be used prior to degreasing to smooth out rough patches.  It also seems important to tackle all rust before plating.  I made up a tank of Deox C and will ensure all parts get a dip in this to clear any corrosion before plating.

Parts I am going to plate today.  These are a mix of starter bolts and some brackets from the engine.

Starter Bolts.  You can see the original plate is still in good condition on most of it, but the heads are corroded.  Hopefully this will mean some good results.

 In Deox C to start with.

Cleaned then in plating tank.  

After plating

 After Yellow Passivate dip.

 Finished parts

To say I am impressed is an understatement.  I did not expect to get such a nice finish so quickly.  I expected to have to muck about with settings etc to get it right.  The parts look brand new!!  One thing I learned today was that temperature is very important.  I have heaters in the plating tank and Alkaline bath, but the Deox C once it had cooled down from the initial mix slowed down massively.  I think I need to buy another tank heater (or move to Spain!).  Additionally I gave the heads of the bolts a wee rub with the wire wool before cleaning and this did take a layer of scale off.  I think this has made a big difference.  I currently have a nice pump pulley steeping in Deox C.  This responded well to the wire wool but Deox being a bit slow means I wont get a plate on that today.  Maybe tomorrow if Easter does not get in the way too much.

James

Electroplating

I have had a little free time this week so I had a go at setting up the plating kit.

I bought the Ultimate Zinc/Nickel Plating kit plus power supply from Gateros Plating.  The kit was £130 ish and has comprehensive instructions enclosed.  Here is what was supplied:

Firstly I needed to make some space for all the tanks.

Then I laid out the contents and confirmed I had everything I should have.

Everything as supplied

The Zinc and Nickel Anodes

Bubbler, Pump, Heater and Power Supply at the back.

 The Chemicals as supplied.  Some nasty stuff in there.

Very important PPE!

I had to make a 'Tank Bar' in order to hand everything from.  Most people use a copper bar with flattened ends.  I did not have any copper and I did not want to buy a large roll for only a short length.  I did however have some steel U shapped metal left over from some shelving.  I cut some slots in it and grinded off the powder coat.  I had decided to use an old paint container (cleaned) as my plating tank.  

My Tank Bar getting its trial fit.

I saw a post somewhere about plating multiple small parts at once.  I found these pea stem holder things at the local garden centre.  I figured I could modify them to hold multiple strands of parts at once.  Initially I thought about bolting them to the tank bar but later realised if I did this I would not be able to plate any more without removing the bar of making more whilst parts dried.  I may rethink this.

I mixed up the chemicals using warm water making sure to be wearing my PPE.

I started my by plating my tank bar.  As I had removed the powder coat I needed to protect it from corrosion anyway.  I started by popping it in a bath of Alkaline Cleaner for a few minutes followed by a tapwater rinse.  This was followed by a further short period in an acid bath again followed by a tapwater rinse.

In the plating tank.  It took me a wee while to get the right current.  Initially the plate was a dark grey suggesting too high a current.  I dropped this a bit and the plate went to a bright zinc.  I plated for about 25 minutes.

Plating results.  Clearly I could only fit half the bar in the tank.  This however gives a nice comparison.  Plating on the right obviously.  I followed this with a dip in the yellow passivate.

The resulting yellow passivate finish.  I did the other side immediately afterwards.

It turned out reasonably well.  There was an odd black stain where the water surface is.  Not sure what this is?

I thought I would give an actual car part a go.  I chose a bracket to start off with.  I had already cleaned this in my ultrasound bath so it was pretty clean.  Had a wee bit surface corrosion present.

Part pre cleaning.  Not you can make out a little of the original finish on the part still.

Back side.

 Acid dipping.

In the plating tank.  You could see the surface change after just a few minutes.

Post plating.  Really nice bright finish.

Back of the part.  Looks good.  Possibly a small bit of corrosion remaining that I missed pre plating.  We can see how this is after passivation.

Post yellow passivation.  Finish is good but a little uniform yellow.  As I understand the colours will bloom after it has dried for a bit.  I will leave until tomorrow and see what it looks like.

That's all for today.

New Toys - Ultrasonic Cleaner / Electroplating

For some time I have been trying to decide which way to go regards cleaning up of all the parts I have removed so far.  I have been using a toothbrush and some Bilt Hamber Surfex HD which has been good but very time consuming.  I thought about buying a parts washer but I am somewhat limited on space.  Some research led to to purchase of an ultrasonic cleaner.  Bought it from ebay for around £100.

Fresh out of the box.

In the garage.  Its meant to be a 10 litre unit however I have found that it only holds about 6 litres.  It should be big enough fot most things I fancy using it for though.  As a trial I dug out an old and crusty looking thermostat to see what it would do.  I just used water for this first test.

 Crusty Thermostat

  Crusty Thermostat pt 2

Apparently you need to turn it on empty for 5 mins to de-gas the water.  I used tapwater in this case but apparently you get better results with de-ionized water.  You can just about see the distorsion on the waters surface and bubbles being liberated from the water.

In it goes

Results.  Definitely lifted off the water corrosion products and the brass is much more visible,  Did not shift the green copper? corrosion.   This was in for 5 minutes.  Definitely made a difference though.  On to some proper stuff.

This is the water box from the rear of the engine.  Its covered in oily dirty on the outside and the inside is water corrosion products.  I could buy a new one of these but I wanted to see if this was recoverable?

More detail.

In it goes.  You could see a cloud coming off it straight away as the machine was turned on.

Results - Pretty impressed with this.  It needed a wee wipe when it came out but it had made a considerable difference both inside and out.  Some minor corrosion still visible on the fixing holes - I'll deal with that later.. This was in for 30 mins @ 50 degrees C.  Used some Surfex HD  as the cleaner in this case.

Finished article.  I am pretty pleased with this.

I am looking forward to trying this out on some more things.

My next toy is an electroplating kit.  I have went back and forward about paying for plating to be done but I decided its something I would like to learn how to do.  It will be cheaper overall and less risk of loosing something important.  I have been very impressed by the results that I have seen from some others at home.    I bought the ultimate zinc / nickel plating kit from gateros plating,  It was £129.  I have a power supply left over from a previous project I can use.

Kit as it arrived.

At the time of writing I have not yet unpacked this.  A friend of mine has done plating in the past and it seems something you need several hours to set up in the first instance.   I need to wait till I have a day in the house without the wife and kids around and i'll give it a go.

James

Vapour Blasting Results

As you will remember I sent some aluminium parts to be vapour blasted.  They looked like this:

Well here is what they look like now!

And some close ups

Clearly the water box outlet pipe has seen better days.  This will be hidden by the hose so I wont do anything more with this.

Top Engine Mount.  Really impressed with the visible detail.

 Alternator Mount Rear

 Alternator Mount Front - This was so dirty before.  Looks brand new!!

 Inlet Manifold.  Photo does not do it justice

 Throttle Body - Look at the brass fittings!

Rocker cover.

To say I am impressed is an understatement.  It will all need a thorough clean to ensure no blast media remains.  This lot cost £100.