I found this site:

http://www.caswellplating.com/

Have you done any home plating - cadmium, yellow chromate, nickel or other?

How easy is it REALLY...? Does it save any money-time-hassle? Seems like it would be a good solution for doing small nuts/bolts etc.

Is the plating of good quality?

Worth trying or better to just take the parts to plating shop?

The last person I remember doing his own plating soon dissapeared into 914 oblivion and was never heard of again... DIRK WRIGHT

So be carefull, you're playing with fire

cheers,

Jeroen

Wasn't Karl headed down this path a few months ago?

I've done it (Copy Cad and Yellow Zinc kit). I bought the 2 gallon and added some additional power packs. Works pretty good, but you DO have to follow the directions and pay attention to temperature and the amperage/voltage/sq cm rules.

What do you wanna know?

Oh, and I did the Caswell Plating stuff!!!!

OK, Karls crazy, who's next?

The zinc plating works really well once you figure out the voltage/amperate/sq cm crap.

The yellow zinc "coloration process" leaves something to be desired.

Also, you have to plate 1 to 4 things at a time unless you invest in better equipment. This can get tedious after a while.

Really you have $150 invested in the kit. I checked with the local plating company and they can do 10 lbs of stuff for like $50.00 in a day or two.

Check the archives for some pictures of what I was able to do.

For those less crazy than me, just bring it to get plated.

Look up Metal Finishing in the phone book.

I'm just giving you a hard time Karl, I actually think its cool that you gave it a shot

I attempted it and was successful (minus my fingerprints)

I can plate things up to about the size of a human arm in length, I only have experience in nickle, silver, and gold, but it's all the sameish.


M

Karl's picture has me confused. I remember wondering the same thing when he posted this before in his progress report. Why does the cad plated pivot appear to be smaller than the non-refinished piece? Usually a lighter colored, brighter item appears to be larger?

Mike

It's the same size... just an optical illsion due to the flash.