Well I gave it a try today. Excellent day to do so. Have a blizzard going on here in Mn, so nothing else to do.............except blow the driveway a few times while plating.
Over all Iam pretty satisfied with the spokes. I did about a third of the front tire spokes. A couple didn't turn out so good. You can see one in the middle in below pic. (complete ones on left and undone ones to the right). Did them three at a time. Time in the bath was about 40". took them out then rinsed them, a light scotchbright go over, and a clean rag wipe. They were cleaned very well yesterday, then today before putting them in I soaked in an acid for about five min, rinsed then in the bath. Don't know why the couple didn't turn out. Even redid one but came out the same.
Also below is my set up. Found an old britta pitcher (the depth was right and seeing through the side is a plus). I used a couple of different power supplies, both had the same results. One was an old train transformer, ran it about 3-4 amps (if I use my meter right, I'll stick to medicine......its easier than electricity), voltage is unknown. The other was my multi battery charger, using the 12V 2amp setting on maintain, meter read the same 3-4 amps.
Used the previous discussed elctro solution of vinegar, epson salt, sugar. Zinc strips
Discussion: They seemed to take a long time in the bath to get a disiried result. Wondering if I should have put another zinc strip in. Maybe more power so less time also? Snakeoil or Wilf, did you guys need to add more sugar during the process. I noticed about my fourth set of three that after few minutes I didn't see the bubbling around the spoke along with a cloudy film. I added a bit more sugar and the bubbling and cloudy film around the spoke returned.
For the home plating specialistzoom,
Several things come to mind with respect to your results: -if you're only plating 3 spokes at a time, you have ample zinc surface area, so no need to add another strip -I only tried plating a spoke once and the plating did not take so I wondered if the spokes had some kind of plating (other than zinc) already. -I'm not sure about sugar replenishment but it seems unlikely that the concentration would have changed that much after only doing a dozen or so spokes. -I'm intrigued by your measurements and tried to read your multimeter settings and wiring but couldn't make out the detail. It seems odd that you would have 3 to 4 amps flowing from a battery charger on the 2 amp maintenance setting. I've plated way more surface area than 3 spokes and have never used more than 4.5 volts and 400 milliamps. Wilf
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