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Laverdaroo:
I've a bench top variable power source with controllable voltage and amps. If you've not got one, happy to lend it out for a bit if it helps you out? I wont be plating until after christmas so its redundant for the minute.

AshimotoK0:

--- Quote from: Oddjob on October 27, 2021, 12:25:16 AM ---
--- Quote from: AshimotoK0 on October 26, 2021, 07:24:22 PM ---
--- Quote from: Oddjob on October 26, 2021, 06:24:07 PM ---
--- Quote from: AshimotoK0 on October 23, 2021, 10:10:20 PM ---Here is the YouPlate advice Ken

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That may be confined to where the solution is in the chemicals Ash, it seems to work when plating from anodes ok or I doubt that Gateros would sell the kit, according to them the result is 90% zinc and 10% nickel.

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From what I can make out Gateros was started by a hobbyist (nowt wrong with that) but the Youplate people are professional plating suppliers that have starting selling to the home plating market and  thought their reasoning for not offering Zinc/Nickel was pretty convincing. By the way, Caswell Europe asked me to evaluate the power supply that Gateros sell and it was very poor build quality so. IMHO, don't be tempted to buy one.

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Bit late to tell me that Ash.

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Bit late to say about the companies or the Power unit Ken ?

Re: Gateros ... I always used their chemicals when I plated my own stuff 10 years ago. They were extremely helpful and I got good results. I loaned my plating stuff out to a guy in Hull and he plated everything on his import CB750K2  with it and his bike was featured in Classic Bike Magazine's '10 best bikes of the year issue 2011.  (see pic. attached)

My main issue with home plating is the overall cost compared with getting it done commercially as the costs can really stack up and it's very time consuming and fiddly to get right. Washing everything in de-ionised water adds to this too.   But very satisfying when you get it right though. Plus I have found commercial prices / leead times have gone up a lot since the pandemic so trying it out  it again.

Revisiting this all ten years later there are a few more home plating  kit suppliers out there now  and the thing about YoupPlate is they sell all of the chemicals separately ..... most other places sell you a 'kit' of replacement chemicals. On the zinc-nickel plating I considered the options and it's tricky enough maintaining the standard bright zinc solution to get decent results (it's fine when you 1st use it but it degrades over time and needs PH balancing, brightening maintenance chemicals adding and 'plate-out' to remove contaminants after a while. So I  read the You Plate notes and decided against it and to stick with standard bright-zinc with passivisation.

BTW I made a schoolboy error last week   :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ ... I connected the electrodes the wrong way round and left the zinc plating for 40 minutes meaning that excess iron got into the electrolyte and trashed 5l of chemicals. I read up about adding Hydrogen peroxide and then filtering etc but in despair I just threw it all away and decided to get the ready mixed Youplate bright zinc stuff this time.  Plus, I doubt I will ever get the connection wrong again after that expensive error..... well hopefully!

On the Gateros PSU .... I was asked to evaluate the same PSU that Gateros buy in, by Caswell Europe and we mutually decided that's it a cheap and cheerful construction and we wouldn't recommend it. Having said that, they have been selling it for a while and you could get decent results from plating with it, so don't worry if have already bought  one. I would use a separate multimeter to check the plating current though because the current reading on the two examples we bought wasn't very accurate.


Sesman:
C’mon guys. We need to see some shiny product. Waiting and wishing… ;D.

Do you plant to do some yellow passivate, it’s my favourite finish.

AshimotoK0:

--- Quote from: Sesman on October 27, 2021, 10:54:05 AM ---C’mon guys. We need to see some shiny product. Waiting and wishing… ;D.

Do you plant to do some yellow passivate, it’s my favourite finish.

--- End quote ---

Done with Gateros Bright Zinc & blue passivate.

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Sesman:
That looks just mighty fine in the photo. Are you happy with it?

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