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'68 BSA Victor Build..... Bloody 'ell mate... You 'effin daft or sommat?!?

Jim said:
So it took the better part of the day experimenting but I've finally got a system that looks to work pretty well. Keep in mind this is after de-rusting the item and scrubbing/wire brushing as needed. Here's the drill.

Wire wheel to remove any crud/soot left from the dirty acid dip.
Acetone dip.
Dip in new (clean) hydrochloric acid tank.
Acetone dip again.
plating tank.
In between each step was a clean water rinse and shop air dried.

I also changed the post plating treatment... A soft wire brush is better, faster and cleaner than metal polish... by a lot. So I put the polish away and the brush is the go to method from here on out.

This rear axle nut was redone and polished. Came out good.
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And here's what they look like using a soft wire brush. Those 3 nuts are a new one, an un-plated one and an old one re-plated. Which is which?

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I can finally put a fork in the swingarm. Big ass nut and washer plated, installed and torqued.

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Anyway to transfer this information to the Tech section
Under plating ?
 
Mikey said:
Anyway to transfer this information to the Tech section
Under plating ?
Click to expand...
Well my original plan was to put all this plating stuff in my plating thread and link to it from here. Kinda effed that one up huh? :doh:
Yeah, I'll add all this info over there.... the pertinent parts anyway.
 
Made a 28" long tank out of wood scraps and 4 mil plastic sheet just for the rear brake actuating rod. Since the TD250, RD200 and RD350 also use the same setup, well... don't feel like mixing and filling that thing twice. Might as well knock 'em all out at once.


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Rather than pour the mix from the other tank into this one, I mixed up a new batch, minus the Karo syrup. I can tell absolutely no difference. It behaves the same. I'll donate the remains of the corn syrup to the kitchen cupboard.

...and all the bits from my drunken sailor night are slowly trickling in...


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Downeaster said:
Could you elaborate on the "soft wire brush" please?
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Got 'em on Amazon ages ago. They weren't what I wanted... which was the stiff ones. Almost threw 'em away 'cause I was agrivated about 'em. Glad I held on to 'em now. I'll see if I can find 'em...


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Jim said:
Got 'em on Amazon ages ago. They weren't what I wanted... which was the stiff ones. Almost threw 'em away 'cause I was agrivated about 'em. Glad I held on to 'em now. I'll see if I can find 'em...


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Believe it or not, Dollar General has had those AND brass brushes in the past. I have a drawer full of them (mostly filthy now).
 
Jim said:
Made a 28" long tank out of wood scraps and 4 mil plastic sheet ...
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Went back through this thread to see where you show your zinc source; do I assume correctly that it is the zinc sulfate monohydrate shown in Post #537? Is there an advantage to use this as opposed to a piece of solid zinc such as a sacrificial anode?
 
atom4488 said:
Went back through this thread to see where you show your zinc source; do I assume correctly that it is the zinc sulfate monohydrate shown in Post #537? Is there an advantage to use this as opposed to a piece of solid zinc such as a sacrificial anode?
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You're asking a rookie here.... :whistle:

You still need the sacrificial zinc anode. Got those from Amazon. As far as I understand it, the zinc sulfate monohydrate saturates the mixture so most of the plating comes from it and the anode supplies the current path... and replenishes the zinc in the mix as it's pulled to the plating surface. Make sense?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BPSGYSCY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00T6I1SKS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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About the only thing I did different from the CB750 link is not use the Karo syrup in this latest batch. They came out just as good as the previous mix with the syrup. I think if you stick to their recipe you'll get good results. And you definitely need an adjustable power supply (current). With the first batch in the plstic tank, anything higher than about 300Ma would burn (soot) the edges. But when I went to the bigger homemade wooden tank, it wouldn't do anything until I got above 1A. These rods were cooked at 1.2A. But the different size and amount (surface area) definitely calls for different amounts of current.


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Ah, yes of course, the solution needs to be saturated with zinc ions ready to be deposited on the cathode. If I recall, I had to run my system for quite a while to free up some zinc from the anode. The major game changer that you have incorporated in your setup is the variable power supply. I tend to think the reason I wasn't getting a sufficiently thick deposit quickly was the lack of juice.
 
atom4488 said:
Ah, yes of course, the solution needs to be saturated with zinc ions ready to be deposited on the cathode. If I recall, I had to run my system for quite a while to free up some zinc from the anode. The major game changer that you have incorporated in your setup is the variable power supply. I tend to think the reason I wasn't getting a sufficiently thick deposit quickly was the lack of juice.
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I'm on short notice for a trip to S. Dakota, so not sure when, but I'll try and do a writeup in the plating thread on the (my) lessons learned and hopefully some helpful tips soon. I'll put up a link when I do. Meantime, about all I did is covered in this thread... it's just kinda scattered.
 
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