Jensen,
I live 500 feet from the ocean and I can't see much deterioration in my zinc parts over two years, mind you, I store my bike in my basement when not in use. If the zinc starts to dull I'll just re-plate it.
The passivation chemicals are just too wicked for me to want to play with and I am sure we have similar environmental laws, so I'm not going down that road.
Wilf
For the home plating specialistI talked to Caswell Plating this morning. They sell both a yellow and a blue passivation that is okay for use in home plating. They do not sell a clear, although they said a clear is available. Guy was not very forthcoming with info and I had to poke him a lot. Anyway, he said the blue chromate is a very slight blue tint so it is very much like a clear. I poked around their site looking for the MSDS sheets for the chromate products. Could not find them. But I did find this article on their website that talks about their zinc plating kit and the gold passivation process, which the article says is toxic and a respirator must be worn while doing this. Here's a link to that site if you have an interest in reading further. http://support.caswellplating.com/index ... cad-review
Here's a link to some FAQs on that site. One is regarding the chromate coating. Answer is sulfuric acid. http://support.caswellplating.com/index ... al-support I guess we'll see how the parts hold up over time. I am no where near the ocean and keep my bikes in a garage when not ridden, resting on large polymer floor mats. I think I'll be okay. My polished alum parts hold up nicely. Wilf's experience is encouraging as well. regards, Rob
Hi,
No worries Rob and Wilf. I was wondering if you did passivate at home, because there are some nasty chemicals involved. I also respect you guys to do this at home, it is interesting reading how you plate at home. It's just too easy for me to get the stuff plated together with the company stuff. Jensen assembly of Japanese motorcycles requires great peace of mind (Pirsig)
Several years ago I too became interested in do it yourself plating. I ordered the complete Triple Chrome kit from Caswell to do small items that would fit in a 2 Gallon bucket. I did a few items in nickel and "Copy Chrome" with pretty good sucess. I never ventured far enough to do a part in triple chrome, (nickel, copper, nickel, chrome) but did get all the chemicals, tanks, heaters, and misc. equipment to do so. I've since then lost interest in doing any plating at home. I've gotten into building flat track racers lately (3 more this winter, (2) 305's and a 250) so plating at home doesn't fit. We've got a decent powder coating operation here at the shop. I've been using the "Almost Chrome"(NOT even close but good enuff to keep the rust off) powder for anything that does'nt have a thread, and sending all my nuts, bolts,washers, and originally zinc plated stuff off with production parts from the shop to the guys that do our production plating. If anyone is interested in this plating system, I would be glad to give it to them for free if they will come and get it. I paid upwards of $700 back in '04 and really just want to get it out of my way. It includes the plating and rinse tanks (2 Gallon Size with the plating solutions ) for Electro Cleaning, Copper Plate, Nickel Plate, Chrome Plate, Zinc Plate, and Copy Chrome Plate. All the anodes, heaters, aerators, tubing, makeup chemicals, some of the bus cables, and a complete plating manual with detailed instructions for all of the processes. I beleive that all the supplies for replenishment if needed are available from Caswell. The solutions are made up so I will not ship the stuff. It has to be picked up here in southern middle Tennessee. I also have a 25 amp Plating Rectifier that I will offer to sell if whoever wants this stuff is interested. I paid around $300 for it and will take $200 if they want it. You really do not need the rectifier with the kit. The manual gives detailed instuctions on how to make a salt water rheostat (less than $5) and use a car battery for the power source. I used the car battery method for all the stuff I did with good results. So,, if you want to get into chrome and nickel send me a PM and I'll get the stuff out of the attic.
Mark That's one heluva an offer, Mark. I would be surprised if somebody is not knocking on your door later today. I looked at the chrome plating kits, but the cost was prohibitive for home plating, in my opinion. I guess I'm a cynic, but I never expect anything to work as well as the seller says it will work. So that combined with the priced prevented me from every trying the Caswell chrome systems.
I think you have to want to do everything yourself to get into doing chrome. If you are in a business building stuff, you don' t have the time to do it all and vendors for plating and such become the preferred avenue. The little guys like me, that just do this for mental therapy purposes are probably the best suited since there is no due date for any bike to be finished and as much as we love to see them done so we can ride them, working on them is just as much fun (usually). It's the old journey versus destination thing. regards, Rob
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