Metal Plating at home?

Does anyone here do thier own metal plating for nuts, bolt, small parts, etc.

I'm not looking to do chrome, potmetal pieces or anodized type work. Just nuts and bolts.

I have lots of cars to do and I can't see shipping stuff all over the world. I am also not fond of the idea of mixing everything together in one big lot then trying to figure out what goes where again (like sending in 100 nuts/bolts, etc.).

Any product or equipment recommendations for zinc and cadmium plating would be great.

 

Start with the Caswell site.

 

I have heard bad things can happen when you plate .Its really not that expensive to have it done .I know some of the chemical's needed require a EPA number to buy . Good luck

 

eastwood used to have a kit i dont know if they still offer it. with all of the EPA regulations out now.

 

I have one of the Caswell tripple plate kits. I bought it several years ago and used it to plate small parts for vintage bicycle restoration. The effort involved to get good results, and the frustration when things go wrong make it not worth the trouble. I would not recommend it. Some plating kits, such as "copy cad", a simulated cadmium plating based on a zinc solution might be OK, but if you want to go all the way to a show-chrome finish, just take it to the pros! Plating can be pretty inexpensive if you do all the polishing yourself, which is mostly what they charge you for anyway.

 

Real Cadmium plating is going to be expensive. Cad is both environmentally and health-wise on the shit list. Zinc is what you see on all commercial hardware type products.

The yellow appearance is not from the Cad or Zinc, it is from the chromate coating that is put on after the plating. You can get yellow chromate on zinc parts, although most commercial hardware has clear chromate, which usually has a very slight blue or irridescent tint. There is also olive drab chromate and a black chromate. All chromate coatings are used to give improved corrosion resistance.

Plating at home is difficult as you need to balance the plating power with the area being plated, as well as keeping an eye on the chemical bath makeup. Plus some of the chemicals are hard to get and the EPA frowns on dumping the chemicals when you are finished. Zince should not be too bad at a plating shop, it is quite common and easy to do.

 

Most cadmium plating is silver in color and can be mistaken for Zinc, but it does not have the blue-ish cast to it... it was what was most commonly used prior to the 60's or so. The stuff that Caswell offers that they call "copy cad" is really zinc with a few additives to make it look like the old silver colored Cad from the olden days. I think Caswell also offers those other additives to mimick the yellow-cad.
www.caswellplating.com