Zoom,
Welcome to our twisted club. Maybe we should get T-shirts made.
Regarding your DMM. The different settings simply move the decimal point on the display. So if you are set at 2 amps, what ever you read to the right of the decimal point is something less than 1 am. If you are set on 200m, which is 200 milliamp, this is the same as 0.2 amps. If you are a medical guy, think about milliliters and CCs. Same idea.
Your DMM should have a separate plug or port for the amp scale. You put the black lead in the Common port and the red lead in the amp port. It will say right on the meter what the max limit of your meter is for amps. I'm doubtful looking at your meter that it will read much more than 2 amps.
I did confirm that this system will plate over existing plating. The return spring off the front brake is something I plated yesterday. OEM plating was in great shape, but the end that went over the brake arm was worn a bit. So I cleaned and and put it in the tank. Came out great. So that is not the problem with your spokes.
Something to keep in mind is that the sugar in the water puts a coating on everything, including your negative wire across the top of the bucket. I was hanging items and not getting any current reading. I cleaned off the neg wire as well as the hanger wire with fresh water and contact resumed. So, when you hang your spokes you should see a change in current as each spoke it added. Current should go up slightly. So if you do not see a change, then that spoke is not making contact. Press down on it to see if it does. If the current changes, then you know you have a contact problem.
Here's a link that shows a plating circuit. Dynamo in the circuit is the power supply. Tom Edison must've writtien this article. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top ... troplating
It shows both voltage and current measurement. Please understand that you would need two separate meters to read both at the same time as this circuit shows. Note that the ammeter, which is your DMM, must be in series, in other words the current must flow THRU the meter to the set up.
Yesterday I made a new set up since my zincs were pretty much shot. I saved all the good end pieces that were outside the bucket. I might melt and cast some ingots from the other left over scrap.
This time, I made two circular bands of zinc and stacked them up. So I have a 100% circumferential anode. I plated some heavy parts yesterday, two front brake cams, and they plated fine with no need for a zinc annode on the bottom of the tank.
Zoom, your coil of zinc strip lends itself to the same type of set up should you be so inclinded. Maybe it is overkill. But I'm trying to come up with a set up that will plate all surfaces at the same time, including nooks and crannies. This set up seems to work pretty well for this.
I'm also using much less time in the bath and the finish is no longer frosted or rough. I might unplate my spark plug connectors buy reversing the polarity and doing them again.
I have some old cad plated spokes in the basement. Most of the cad it gone. I'm going to clean one up today and plate it to see how it comes out.
We're gonna need a secret handshake, too.
regards,
Rob
For the home plating specialistSo if I understand you right. What I was seeing (as explained above) on my meter was that I had a really low amp input, and thats why I had an extended time in the bath and why a few didn't turnout. This thread has gotta help some other wanna be's out there. Is great being able to work this through with other members. Thanks for the help guys.
zoom,
From your photo it appears that you have the red lead plugged into the 10 amp jack but the range selector is set to the 200 milliAmp position. I think if you set the range switch to the 10 Amp (shown in white) position, you would be reading current in Amps. If your meter reads anything less than .2 (200 milliAmps), then you could switch back the 200 m position with the red lead plugged into the VOmA jack. Your reading will then be in milliAmps. Wilf Zoom,
You we must've been typing and posting at the same time because your close-up came in before mine but was not there when I was typing. You leads are set up to read on the 10 amp scale. But the dial is set to the Milliamp scale. Not sure what that will result in, but my guess is something other than an accurate reading. Switch the dial to the 10 amp range and you should be able to read amps. I would normally suggest that you move the red lead to the ma port and switch to the 200 ma scale for a more accurate reading. But with the x-fmr you are using with a 4 amp rating, you could blow the fuse in the meter or damage the ma scale if it is not fused. My bath is not bubbling as much today, either. Last time I thought the bath had died and tossed it. So, tried adding sugar (which only effects the crystal size of the zinc for a brighter finish) and it changed nothing bubble wise. I think my previous issue was dried sugar on the contact areas making a bad connection. I'm still using my bath today with very few bubbles and excellent plating results. Today I am trying an experiment with some chrome plated parts that are pitted. My suspicions were correct and this is working out great. I need to get back to my basement as I have a piece in the bath as I type this and it is due to come out. I will post end result pictures and a description of the process, which I think all of you will like A LOT, later today. regards, Rob PlatingZoom, Wilf, Snake,
I am getting a lot out of this thread. Thanks for all of your posts. I would ask what the secret handshake is, but I don't want to seem pushy. Has anyone tried buffing the zinc after plating?
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