Has anyone ever tried this at home.
I have gotten it setup, and am having mixed results.
Trying to fine tune it.
They definitely dont come out all shiny.
They have to be polished
I tried to restore these old rusted spokes. From where they started, I think the results were very acceptable had I wanted to stay original. In the end, I opted to buy new rims, so I ultimately replaced the spokes with some new ones.
I use a product called Copycad from Cadwell Plating, a DIY provider. This is very accurate, and the parts come out with that whitish Cadmium finish manufacturers used in the past, that was basically outlawed some years ago. Now I just buy the Copycad Anode and mix my own salts much the way you do (I do most plating at 3V and it comes out nice). They have anodes and complete kits for Zinc, Cad, Chrome, anodizing, nickel, tin, brass and even gold:
Caswell Plating (https://caswellplating.com/search-results-page?q=anodes)
Warren
You can polish the white away with regular old mothers polish after the fact. FYI.
I've been using a file card followed by rubbing with 00 steel wool and Mother's liquid metal polish. Tiny brass brushes have been useful for some of the non-hardware shaped parts.
Also - if anyone's thinking about doing some plating at home ebay has some plating tank power units for about $35. They're quite handy when you change parts. The big ones need more juice and it's easy to keep the voltage at 2.9.
And - I got a small flat rate box of jewelers grade zinc ingots for $20
I haven't tried the Caswell products yet.
Hours of Fun!
To de-nasty old and corroded parts that are tedious to de-rust, like spokes, before plating I toss them in a rock tumbler.
WW
I attached some pictures of my setup.
Also the plated parts
I then polished & dipped into the Chromate solution.
They said to dip 10 - 15 seconds.
But I found they came out way to yellow.
So I did 3 - 5 seconds.
If they are still to yellow, a quick dip into a 1% HCl solution then rinse should take some yellowing out.
Before you zinc plate, the parts must be clean, clean , clean, or the zinc wont stick.
took right out of the acid bath, rinsed with toothbrush & put right into plating solution.
I used an aquarium filter & pump to circulate & clean the solution
You cant leave the parts out after acid wash or they will flash rust.
Did about 3 - 5 quick zinc coats, polishing with toothbrush & rubbing compound in between.
Then after used a dremmal & soft wire wheel.
Dont clean the crevasses to much or the zinc will come off
BIG POINT:
They say to calculate the surface area of the part, and that will tell you the plating amps to use.
Well. if you look at the parts I did, theres no way.
BUT, the plating is relative to your setup.
I did a part & found for my setup it took between 0.7 & 0.9 volts to plate correctly.
That was about 1 to 2.5 amps per piece depending on the size of the piece.
Just adjust the amp knob accordingly
You assume your solution is zinc+ saturated. the electrodes remain at a constant distance apart. In that manner each piece will be relative to another in plating using the voltages above
I have worked with anodize and conversion coatings in the past, and each individual part was attached to a racking system that kept the parts separated and allowed electrical current to each part. All parts received current, and suspended in the solution. Your photos of the spokes in the dish appear as though only some are attached and seeing current.