Home Plating Kit, Works Pretty Good! Options

[Qarl]

I bought a home plating kit from Caswell Plating called Copy Cad.

It's a Zinc/Cadmium Electroplating kit.

It works pretty good. Next, I will dip them in yellow chromate to duplicate the factory yellow/iradescent finish on the parts.

http://www.caswellplating.com

[HarveyH]

Depending on the specific application, they may use aeration or mechanical motion of the parts to keep bubbles from adhering to the surface.
Generally, the farther the anodes are away from the part, the more even the deposition and less critical the use of shielding (current thieves) and auxiliary anodes, but the slower the rate of deposition.

Gloves are always a good idea when working with chemicals, also safety glasses and/or face shields.

Bigest problem is getting your parts absolutely clean to prevent flaws in the adhesion. A good method is to use a reverse current setup (reverse the polarity of the connections from plating, part becomes the anode) in a hot caustic bath with stainless steel cathodes. A strong solution of lye is good for this. Rinse well and follow up with a rinse in mild acid to kill any remaining caustic, rinse again, and then into the plating bath.

One of the reasons for the high cost of commercial plating is disposal of used chemicals. Lots of poisons, acids and caustics. Chromates are very dangerous, and easily detectable in the low parts-per-billion ranges. Gold and silver plating use cyanide complexes and can easily give off HCN (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hanged.gif) if you mess up.

Harvey