Warning, relapses may occur at any time! Rob, it will be well worth the effort. They are gonna look great, can't wait to see pics!
Davo
For the home plating specialistAnything is better than how they looked. Lots of pitting both on the side of the rims and of course in the typical valley area where water just loves to collect.
I wrestled with having them done in black. So, I modified a picture of my bike by blacking out the rims and it just did not look right. So I went with what they call "chrome", which is really a very high luster silver. It need to be clear coated because the silver is not very durable. My hope is they end up looking like shouldered aluminum rims. So I have about a week and a half, to clean and plate my spokes. If I get really ambitious, or have a killer hangover during the holidays where I cannot do much that requires major movement, I'll dig out the nickle plating stuff and replate my nipples.... all 76 of them, one at a time. Gee I miss the old hippy dippy days when I'd go out in the garage, roll a doobie and get completely immersed in polishing all the nooks and crannies on whatever my ride was at the time. I had an old overstuffed easy chair out there and every so often I'd wake up about 3am wondering where I was. This was at my folks house. My mother used to flash the lights in the garage when my folks were going to bed (there was a switch in the house). Sometimes she'd forget to leave them on after flashing and I'd wake up in the dark and have to feel my way around the garage looking for the light switch. Ahhhh, the good ole days. Attached is my a pic of my bike with the rims chrome and then blacked out. I think the black rims make the bike looks like somebody put it on steroids. regards, Rob
Your polishing story is great Snake, not that I'm recommending those kind of activities to anyone!
Many was the Fri or Sat night in the 60's my pals and I would ride over to someone's parents garage for a "tuning" session before the weekend's race or ride. I remember sitting next to my 305 with a can of Nevr-Dull and just getting entranced with the gleam of the polished aluminum and arguing over who's side cases were the shiniest. Great memory, thanks for making those neurons connect. Wow guys, what a difference! So a few days ago we were talking about the spoke plating and my experience getting the right power source etc., I had done a few but a real slow process (20-30 min per 3) using the trickle charger. But they turned out ok, fairly shinny right out of the bath. So last night I decided today I was going to get a chance to work on them again (also got the new used power source off eBay for $25). Made my bath and put the zinc in last night. Came down to the basement this afternoon to get started and the bath looked like witches brew bubbling. The zinc was half eaten up also.....cooooool! Hooked up my fancy dancy power source dialed in 500milliamp (figured thats what I needed from last attempt) which gave it to me at about .8-1V(my charger was giving me 300milliamp at about 12v) (should also add that my spokes were effervescing at that voltage) put 3 spokes in then checked them in about 10". Hmmm didn't look so good and didn't polish well. Tried it again and this time paid more attention. Checked at 3,5,6,7 minutes. 6" at 500mamp for three was perfect. Pulled them out rinsed, dried, carded, polished with flitz and they look like new.
Next question I will pull the zinc out now but I would think I could save the bath since its so loaded with zinc ions floating around or should I chuck it? It might be a week or two before I work with it again. Nice work Zoom. I posted a follow up regarding nipples in your nipple thread. I found that my nipples were steel. At first I thought they might be chrome plated because it looked like there was a brass plating under the chrome. But I just tried plating one and the zinc took so it could be copper plate with zinc over it. This will sure make things easier.
If you go to the Caswell Plating site, you should find some good info on zinc plating and how to control your current and voltage now that you've gone state-of-the-art with your new fancy schmancy power supply. Hey Wilf, he probaby won't talk to guys like you and me anymore since we get our power supplies out of the dumpster. I guess we're what you call plating riff-raff. regards, Rob
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