Honda-SOHC
Other Stuff => Tricks & Tips => Topic started by: Lobo on January 24, 2022, 12:59:04 PM
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I’m currently dismantling the 750 K2 as she’s long due a major refresh. Tonight I dismantled the carbs (& main plate) into their component bits, and sighed at the thought of (a) finding a good / reliable / cheap plater, and (b) endless bloody trips to & fro as the project progresses and (c) the inevitable loss of screws, and worse, non-replaceable parts in that process.
So…. have been looking at home plating kits (zinc initially)… not cheap on the face of it, but maybe so with endless wee parts. Saw UK Pete’s great write up on the Sandcast Only Forum - he had nothing but praise for home plating.
Consensus please - can I expect reliable and professional results, or can it all be a bit hit and miss? One factor I have to consider is that we’re ‘off grid’ as it were with Rainwater tank only, and septic tank - ie no formal drainage / town sewage system. We’re on seawater front… all ground water flows directly into the sea - bottom line I can’t easily dispose of the fluids on the property. Thoughts?
Ta.
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I've had good results for several years. If you have the space to store the various buckets so you can just get the whole set of them out when plating (as opposed to making up each time). Once you are using to the order of the process, it's easy - and I've had good results.
I've only changed the main solution once and put it in an old plastic oil container and take it to the local council recycling centre with my old oil (I wouldn't put anything like that down the main drains)
Sent from my moto g(50) using Tapatalk
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I've had great results over almost 20 years with kits and consumables from Gateros. No connection with the company but very satisfied with their service. I did a brief write up for the VJMC mag (Tansha) years ago and Gateros had it on their site a while back.
As with any finishing process the key ingredients are preparation and cleanliness. Garbage in - garbage out. The greatest advantage is that you have total control - no loss of parts except for an occasional special nut that flies out of the pliers when you are holding it to the wire wheel! Been there, done that, now use the T shirt for polishing as it shrunk in the wash! Turn around time is up to you for a change.
Seriously, it's a time consuming labour intensive job but unbelievably satisfying.
Ian
http://www.stallard-engineering.co.uk/Engineering/Zinc%20Plating.htm
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gateros kits come in various forms - with or without power supply etc. any advice/suggestions of which is best/can i use an alternative poer supply etc
pete
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gateros kits come in various forms - with or without power supply etc. any advice/suggestions of which is best/can i use an alternative poer supply etc
pete
I use an old battery charger with the variable current control that came with the kit
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so is it zinc or nickel you use?
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so is it zinc or nickel you use?
Its zinc
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many thanks. i know the price of zinc plating isnt very expensive but i guess it would add up if i restore two or three bikes. i'll give it a shot
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As I have said on previous post Pete, I like it as I do the zincing as I build the bike up - i.e. as I build a set of carbs, I zinc the metal work (as opposed to waiting to get sufficient parts together to make it economical to send to the zinc platers, and then risk losing bits)
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Thanks all - it seems a thumbs up for home zinc plating.
Can anyone suggest how best to finish the highlighted parts in the pics?
And the ‘main plate’ - should I simply polish it?
Ta,
Simon
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As someone who knows a lot about polishing I'd advise against polishing the main plate, far too many little nooks and crannys for it to turn out well, you'd end up with a patchwork of bright and dull areas. I'd advise either spraying in colour of your choice or powder coating, powder coating is far more robust as you'll know and easier to keep clean.
For the linkages, either polish or paint the same colour as the main plate.
I've got a zinc/nickel kit but as yet I haven't used it as some of the parts aren't ready to be done and as it's a space problem I want to do the parts in one go over a few days so I can then store the tubs in the loft out of the way.
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Just to add to Ian’s recommendations, very rewarding, cost affective and satisfying. Use containers with lids then store away until next use. No need to dispose of any liquids for a long time. Had a few projectiles off the wire wheel until I started using self grips.
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On the several bikes I've restored over the years the one area I've never been happy with is carb linkages, I've always ended up carefully painting parts silver, while looking in envy at bikes where everything has been apart and plated like new - it's one of the first things I look at! (sad I know).
When I've had parts chrome and zinc plated one thing I always come up against is a minimum job cost from platers (£45 + VAT the last one I asked) - I can understand why they don't want to bother with 10p to plate a screw or something, so I am quite interested in DIY plating next time I do a bike. It must be quite satisfying to watch a part slowly become shiny and new looking again.
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If I could turn back time I would have bought a plating kit rather than get my engine bolts plated locally - still plenty of time to justify one for 2022/23
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I have been DIY plating bike parts for getting on for 35 years, starting with nickel plating parts before zinc kits were readily available.
I have had and (still have ) great results but it's a lot of messing about ... not so much on the plating itself but on the prep. required to achieve the levels of finish achieved by the ptofessional plating companies.
If I too could turn the clocks back, I would have found a reliable company, early on, that used to do a shoe box full of parts for next to nothing. Sadly, places like Allenchrome, who I used to use... won't do small batches anymore. So to get parts done locally there is nobody I know of and hence, reluctantly, I am back to doing it myself .... yes , very satisfying and great for small bits that are rocking-horse-poo and you can't possibly afford to lose or need in rush or forgot to send to the platers but still a load of messing about.
To make my point, looking back at the picture below from 5 years back, I has this batch done professionally for about £50. Try estimating the time to home-plate this lot ! Plus you would be shelling out about the same amount of money , if not more, for chemicals/anodes/de-ionised water etc.
[attachimg=1]
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That's true Ash BUT you'd still have the chemicals etc AFTER plating that lot, you also forgot that Allenchrome gave you a decent price because you did a lot of the prep work for them, you also didn't factor in the petrol etc to take them there and back plus the time away from home. You then have to work out how much it would cost to replace small parts they may have lost but you didn't notice and you can do a thicker coat at home. Gateros told me that typcially they leave in for 15 mins when Gateros recommends 20 mins at the same ampage.
I'd agree though that that much is daunting to say the least, I'd imagine they will still do amounts like that but I wonder how much it would cost these days.
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Ash,
I did find a very reliable local company when we lived in Southport who were not ripping me off but unfortunately with ever increasing 'elf an safety' demands they ceased trading. Royal mail don't treat us any differently here in Orkney but some couriers either refuse to deliver or impose such eye-watering charges we in turn, refuse to use them, so it's a great advantage doing the stuff yourself and you can do small batches 'as and when' without having lots of stuff dismantled.
The actual prep time can be ignored if you always send stuff away ready prepped, so it's just the plating/rinsing/passivating time - when you can be doing something else anyway!
I wouldn't go back to risking sending small stuff away - obviously I still have to rely on others for Chrome plating.
Ian
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Hmm ..being remote I can fully understand Ian's take on this and I admit that I did pretty good prep on the stuff I had done at Allenchrome. However, , he told me I didn't really need that level of prep due to their own prep that is part of their process. The travel factor cost doesn't come into it in my case as either my wife, my son or myself pass there at least once a week. Sadly, they won't now do a batch the size of the one in my pic. They need a full barrel, from a single customer, which is probably about 25 kilos. Julie will confirm this. My experiences on the chemicals is that they do get contaminated after quite a bit of plating (particularly by iron) and the anodes do get consumed. OK you can use hydrogen peroxide etc to restore but it's a load of messing about. Dont get me wrong I do agree with home plating as long as you have the time and patience but it's not particularly cheap...just the amount of Di water you use really adds up.
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Ok, so we all gang together, all members, we all throw our bits into a barrel until it's full, send it away and then sort out who's part is who's when they come back. Can't see any problems with that, can you?
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I had a local plater who did industrial stuff that I used back in the 90's for the stuff on my 1100R/Phil Read Rep resto's. Provided I prepped the stuff, he was good and cheap. Went back to him several years ago and he'd moved to a more 'elf and safety' friendly unit (there's houses built on his old chemical leaky site!) and the cost had gone through the roof - probably H&S related and easier to make money on bigger batches
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Ok, so we all gang together, all members, we all throw our bits into a barrel until it's full, send it away and then sort out who's part is who's when they come back. Can't see any problems with that, can you?
Yes that would work I am sure .. I am nearing the end of getting all of my parts for my bikes now though, so I would't be a contender. It's a shame as one more fairly small batch at Allenchome would have seen me though. Sadly, I have had to spend hours on end just doing a relatively small batch at home and I don't honestly think the finish is quite as good as the pro's have done for me, particularly in terms of gold passivation.
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Ok, so we all gang together, all members, we all throw our bits into a barrel until it's full, send it away and then sort out who's part is who's when they come back. Can't see any problems with that, can you?
In theory that sounds a good plan Ken. But, not every part can be barrel rolled, there are still lots of parts on our bikes that need to be wired, individually and its the labour involved in individual wiring that make the process expensive. Plus, you would never be able to return the correct, exact items, to the right owner. It would be a nightmare and if one persons prep is not as good as another, there is a big problem.
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Hmm ..being remote I can fully understand Ian's take on this and I admit that I did pretty good prep on the stuff I had done at Allenchrome. However, , he told me I didn't really need that level of prep due to their own prep that is part of their process. The travel factor cost doesn't come into it in my case as either my wife, my son or myself pass there at least once a week. Sadly, they won't now do a batch the size of the one in my pic. They need a full barrel, from a single customer, which is probably about 25 kilos. Julie will confirm this. My experiences on the chemicals is that they do get contaminated after quite a bit of plating (particularly by iron) and the anodes do get consumed. OK you can use hydrogen peroxide etc to restore but it's a load of messing about. Dont get me wrong I do agree with home plating as long as you have the time and patience but it's not particularly cheap...just the amount of Di water you use really adds up.
Yes Ash. Allenchrome will still plate for us but only if we take our usual 25kg up for plating, plus any bits that need wiring.
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Ok, so we all gang together, all members, we all throw our bits into a barrel until it's full, send it away and then sort out who's part is who's when they come back. Can't see any problems with that, can you?
In theory that sounds a good plan Ken. But, not every part can be barrel rolled, there are still lots of parts on our bikes that need to be wired, individually and its the labour involved in individual wiring that make the process expensive. Plus, you would never be able to return the correct, exact items, to the right owner. It would be a nightmare and if one persons prep is not as good as another, there is a big problem.
Actually Julie, that was a tongue in cheek post. It would never work, far too many parts look almost identical.
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Ok, so we all gang together, all members, we all throw our bits into a barrel until it's full, send it away and then sort out who's part is who's when they come back. Can't see any problems with that, can you?
In theory that sounds a good plan Ken. But, not every part can be barrel rolled, there are still lots of parts on our bikes that need to be wired, individually and its the labour involved in individual wiring that make the process expensive. Plus, you would never be able to return the correct, exact items, to the right owner. It would be a nightmare and if one persons prep is not as good as another, there is a big problem.
Actually Julie, that was a tongue in cheek post. It would never work, far too many parts look almost identical.
I really thought you were being serious Ken 😂😂😂.
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Who supplies the barrel?
We could operate like a brand tub and you go in blind fold. You keep what you draw. Bit like buying of some unscrupulous eBay sellers. :)
Seriously though. Can anybody recommend an anodising company as I’m refurbing my tank badges.
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According to anodisers, and I've talked to quite a few, only certain types of alloy can be anodised. I'm pretty certain tank badges are made of what Bryan calls pot metal, and thus can't be anodised.
I've got an experiment running next week where I'm testing 2 parts of my 500 in a special process, it's to see if they will stand up to it or disintegrate, if they do then no loss as they are spares, if they don't, oh my, watch this space, although it depends on cost I suppose.
Gateros do an anodising kit Phil, maybe worth a punt