DIY Bright Zinc Plating
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2022
- 120 g/L NaOH
12 g/L Zinc Oxide
20 g/L Dohenys Extra Strength Flocculent (cationic amine polymer)
0.5 g/L Vanillin (brightener works synergistically with polyamine compound)
3-5 A/dm^2. I typically do 3.5. starting out doing 2 but I 3d printed a hull cell and it showed that between 3 and 5 is the sweet spot and is actually brighter than lower current density.
10 minutes
Then dip in Caswell yellow chromate.
***Not shown but I rinse between the plating bath and yellow chromate solution. - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
I've been tinkering with this cocktail for a few days now with some great results. It's probably as good as the Caswell kits i'd say. Thank you for sharing!
I think the most important step is setting the correct amps for the part. Easiest way i found to do this is to start at zero and slowly increase the amps until the part just starts to fizzle. Not too much or you will burn the part. Or do it the Caswell way. Surface area in Inches X 0.14 = AMPS. The litre i made i had to add about another 10g of flocculent to get the crome finish. The more time and flocculent i added, the shinier the parts. Also used 15g/L instead of 12g/L of Zinc Oxide to decrease platting time (more than 10 min).
A few tips for anyone trying this out. Make sure all ingredients are close to 100% pure. Give the zinc anodes a clean every now and then or when they get really black (sandpaper works well). A magnetic stirrer or a mini water pump is a must. If the part does not come out 100% perfect, a small buff with a metal polish will make it super crome! I was looking for a crome finish so i used a Blue chromate.
Glad you are having success. I’ve noticed as my bath has gotten dirtier it’s much more sensitive to the correct current. I should probably make up a fresh one.
Pretty cool 😊
Nice job
Very nice!
Thanks!
Looks very good! A very well done job and great you share the specific info how you did it 👍👍
Thanks
Thank you!
I looked up the "recipe" for a commercial brightener -- Turned out to be 90% water, and 10% pure saccharin! You don't want the coffee kind as it has many 'other' things in it.
Are you using zinc for the anodes?
Also, I tried this formula, started with experimenting on a penny and the results I got were very dull gray or even near black at 3.5v. The container I am using is a 1000ml beaker so the anode and cathode are pretty close which I've heard can have an effect, and my power source is an ancient electro-plater with a single voltage regulation knob, I was using between 1.5 and 3v. I'm guessing I possibly have too much current for the size of the part since we're talking very little surface area - the electro-plater has a gauge for the current draw but it's not even moving with the voltage I'm applying.
For anode area I'm using roughly 75% zinc and 25% steel, this prevents too much zinc buildup in the bath. It's more important to know the current and adjust it per surface area to be plated. Controlling current indirectly by voltage is almost impossible, too many variables.
Hi,
Worked very good,thx!
Can you pour this mix into sink when done ?
Is the vapor toxic. does vapor cause corrosion of equipment,tools in garage?
I used a respirator and did at edge of garage door with a fan blowing across and out but it would be good to know all aspects of safety.
Hi good questions. High concentrations of HCl will release harmful vapors so take care if you’re using that as a cleaning step. Also during plating you will be generating oxygen and hydrogen gas. Best to do this with some type of ventilation. Vanillin is somewhat volatile and will release vapors too. Other than that there should be no vapors released.
As far as pouring into sink you should be fine if you pour it very slowly with running tap water. Just dilute it a lot. I’m not 100% sure on this, safest bet would be to dispose of it at a hazardous waste day at your town, if possible.
Hi,
Thanks for quick reply...
I strip zinc with muriatic acid and then wire wheel part,degrease and plate...fyi,
I put several nuts with old but intact zinc plating and they came out nice.
After cleaning zinc plate a few times with scotch pad I had to sand it aggresively to clean it..wondering if these zinc plating strips can be used until basically erroded to nothing?
Thanks...
.
👍 60
Did you source all on line? Any details on where?
Looked really good...
I watched guy from u.k. also and figured it may be difficult or expensive to source chemicals,items here...thx,Joe
Yes all online. Most were amazon.
Hi,
thanks again for video...do you have to use the yellow passivate ? hard to tell exactly if the plated parts have a yellow tint..looking more for the brite zinc of motorcycle hardware...thanks,joe
No you can skip the passivate or use the "blue" passivate. Whichever you want. Some kind of passivate will help prevent corrosion for a longer period of time.
Haven't checked the rest yet but 100g Vanillin costs 45,60 euros.
That is really a _lot_ of sodium hydroxide. Do you put that in only to bring the zinc ions into the solution or does it have another purpose? I am going to try this with just zinc chloride instead of zinc oxide and NaOH. Oh, and thank you for sharing your process with the world!
I think it's for a couple things. 1.) to help dissolve the zinc oxide. 2.) high pH 3.) ionic strength aiding the current flow in the water. There are other ways to do this, I think zinc chloride typically uses an acidic bath, I'd suggest searching for zinc chloride specific recipes. From my reading it seams the "brightener package" is the key thing that industry tries to keep secret.
Hi there thank you for the brief explanation. I ordered my chemicals according to your instructions. I just want to ask a simple question for not to blow my house to sky :) Is it possible to mix together all dry powder type chemicals in a seperate container and add the proper amount to "lets say 1 liters of distilled water at the same time instead of weighing and putting everyone of them one by one and stir them for 5 minutes individually. Thank you again for this great video. Cheers
You will want to mix the NaOH into the water first, this will elevate the pH of the water significantly (pH 14+!!!). This will help the zinc oxide to dissolve. So I would first dissolve the NaOH, then the zinc, then the flocculent, then the vanillin. You could try it all at once but it might take longer for everything to dissolve.
@@mhdelano Thank you for your answer. I'm going to do it that way. And with the remaining dry chemicals (because I bought 1 kg NaOH) I will make a concentrated solution that I will add DI water and dilute in the future. (of course I dont know if it is okay to store it for a year or two that way). Thank you again. Cheers
This video is awesome, I have everything to replicate what you’ve shown here, but what’s your solution, just straight vinegar or something else? & did you use zinc oxide bought from online, or did you extract it from batteries, or just dissolve some pure zinc in the solution? Thanks !
Never mind lol it’s DI water, & I bought some food grade zinc oxide. Hope I can get the same results as you!
Well I tried it out, it came out pretty friggin good. Just make sure the hardware is polished before plating if you media blast to clean, I used a bench grinder with wire wheel. My scale was also pretty vague so i’m sure some of my measurements weren’t as accurate as they should’ve been, but the final result is awesome, even the captured washers on my bolts were plated
Would a pool clarifier made from "Organic Cationic Polymers" be a suitable substitute for Dohemy's Floculant?
I have sourced all ingredients except the floculant quite easily. I live in Australia so no Doheny's or Sparkle here. Nearly all floculants I can find are aluminium based and from what I understand these arnt the right products. Could you please point me in the right direction.
That sounds like it is a similar product. I would try it.
In Australia you must source pool solutions super clear by iq, same stuff
I've just found "Hi Clor Super Floc" advertised at Bunnings. It says it is "polyallyldimethylammonium chloride" which is a cationic amine polymer. Sounds like the right thing
Do you have the zinc and chromate baths at room temp? Gonna give this a try. My acid bath plating results are really inconsistent
Yes room temp.
Do you have to add flocculent often? Or how much do you add when the parts are getting less bright? I bought some vanillin too so same question with that
I've just been making up a whole new bath once it gets really dirty@@bobwiegand7992
Getting Doheny's flocculant seems impossible in my country
Can be replaced with another flocculant polymer for swimming pool?
Composition isn't declared
That idea came from this video: th-cam.com/video/Bc6n-vZGG-g/w-d-xo.html. I think that guy is from the UK and he used something called Sparkle. The people in the comments of that video discovered that "Sparkle" and "Doheny's Extra Strength Flocculent" are the same.
@@mhdelano Thank you! I'do some resarch
@@mhdelano His finished product looked more like the Brite zinc for motorcycle hardware than others.
What is the strength (%) of your hydrochloric acid?
This is what I used: www.homedepot.com/p/Klean-Strip-Green-1-Gal-Green-Muriatic-Acid-GKGM75006/202690263. I think it's 20%
What's the purpose of use vanillin? Does it help brighten the zinc?
You got it
@@mhdelano I tried doing this without the vanilli and the finish was dull. I used the doheny product though. I figured that would be all you need besides the other chemicals for the alkaline solution. I used 100% sodium hydroxide and the zinc powder and anodes. Tried using more of doheny product with no success. I saw the same video for the guy in the uk like you mentioned. I'm wondering if doheny is as good of a product as he was using???? I tried doing this 3 times the same way in regards of the chemicals. I messed around with the amps to see if that was the issue. Either dull of dark gray cause I used too many amps. Anyway you can post links for the zinc powder and sodium hydroxide. I'm wondering if the zinc powder I'm using is correct. It said 100 percent zinc oxide. Food grade. Help! Lol
@@funnydude8523 the vanillin helped me a lot. I’d start by adding the vanillin.
@@mhdelano I'm gonna order the vanillin to see if that will do the trick. I already ordered the caswell solution and brightener to try their system. Gonna try both systems to see which one is best at this point. Thanks for the help.