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Mar 13, 2021 12:36:11 GMT
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Hi folks, I've recently bought a DIY zinc plating kit from Frost. Unfortunately I'm having issues with zinc crystal formation (looks like grit stuck to the part) and incomplete plating.
As far as I can tell I'm doing all the prep properly. Pickling in phosphoric acid to remove rust and previous plating, washing in soap and rinsing thoroughly before popping it in the bucket and leaving it for the time in the instructions.
I've just picked up a fish tank pump to agitate the tank, and will try at a warmer temperature as well, but any tips or teqniques would be very welcome!
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Mar 13, 2021 18:21:51 GMT
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I bought a similar kit from Gateros plating, and they have a FB group for advice and tech help like this - do Frost have anything similar? If not, you could probably join the Gateros one in there and ask the question without mentioning where you got your kit from. Also look through the issues other people have had, there might already be a similar question on there.
Are you sure you have the current set correctly? One of the problems I had originally was that my kit came with a very basic power supply - basically a bit of coiled wire and a crocodile clip to put along it to make the adjustment. Switching to a proper power supply made a massive difference to the quality of the plating. The fish tank pump will help as well - you don't say if you've tried it yet. My first zinc plating kit didn't have a pump, and it took ages to plate stuff not all that well.
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Mar 14, 2021 11:09:26 GMT
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Thanks man 👍 turns out I did not have the current set up correctly! Managed to do a bodge job of attaching the wires to the chocolate blocks and sorting that out has got a couple of test plates working nicely.
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Mar 14, 2021 17:42:59 GMT
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That was how a decent power supply helped me - the one I upgraded to shows the actual current being drawn, so I can easily see when I haven't made the connections properly. I could probably achieve the same with the original PSU and a meter, but this adjustable one is handy for other uses. For example I've made a modification to my "Brother" labelling machine so I can use the regulated PSU instead of having to find six AA batteries every time I want to use it.
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Last Edit: Mar 14, 2021 17:44:23 GMT by droopsnoot
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