Refreshing rusty bolts

Here’s some of the zinc plating I’m doing.



Dont be shy, whats the method you’re using?

Electroplating

Have you made your own bath?

I sure have :slight_smile: got a set up to do silver/blue (in the pictures) and yellow/gold aka cad. Both are oem finishes to give the factory finish.

I’m impressed! You’ve made an extremely professional job of those.
All that remains now is for you to create a ‘How To’ guide, I’ve often fancied a go at that :smiley:

No how to guide as there way too much involved to explain the different variations to bolt sizes etc plus it’s not cheap to set up

More done this time the rear axle nut and adjusters.

The blocks were ali so I just ground them down and polished them will finish them off once I’ve got some final metal polish the rest w as plated

Still lots more to do but getting there slowly

See in my mind, it’s a question of finding a suitable container, filling it with some sort of electrolyte, dangling some nice metal and the item in it, then running a current though them and the liquid
Is it significantly more complicated than that then? :smiley:
I really like the look of the items you’ve done so far, superb finish :slight_smile:

You are pretty much there expect for the ph control, the cleaning process ( acid and alkaline solutions), controlling the current to prevent “burning” the item and air agitation l. Those small items took over an hour start to finish then there’s the drying time preventing water marks, curing, and the finish buffing.

It’s not cheap it’s not easy if I wasnt a geek at things like this I’d pay and wait the 4 weeks wait at the platers I was using.

how long with the plating last do you think ?

Apparently years. My reason for doing it as its alot cheaper than buying new bolts one by one and looks alot better than painting them. I noticed my painted bolts only last a month of two in our lovely weather so plating was the next step. Even if they need replating within the next year it still works out cheaper than buying a new bolt which will corrode in that time anyway.

Stepping up my plating game

Do em gold :cool:

Be careful on what metals you use to plate. Certain combinations don’t mix very well, for example chrome steel is best done with a base coat of copper, then nickel and then finally the chromium.

There are so many variables in electroplating, current, voltage, pH temperature, current density.

I have several books on chemical metallurgy if you are wanting to read them, they go into electroplating theory and practise.

Don’t worry kev I’m not doing chrome. Ph is controlled to 5.5 in the plate bath at a temp of 18-20c the current is controlled on a variable power supply I have a spreadsheet to help work out how much current to use for what square inch area I want to cover :slight_smile:

Eeeeeew gold bolts on gold wheels…

I’ve got the 20th edition of this in my bookshelf. Printed in 1966, but I don’t suppose much has changed has it?

Get reading then

I have several books on chemical metallurgy if you are wanting to read them, they go into electroplating theory and practise.
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now why doesn’t that surprise me :D:D