Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

I'm going to be plating some parts with zinc and thought I'd share the process with you guys. This is one of the easiest plating processes both in terms of procedure and ease of finding the necessary material. My source of information was an article written by Darlene Martin from Plating Resources Inc. I saved the article a while ago, and it's a good thing that I saved it because it appears to have disappeared from the internet, or at least I can't find it anymore.

The article covers multiple ways of doing zinc, nickel, and other metals, and a text version is attached here for your fun and delectation.

For me the easiest procedure was the alkaline formulation of the bath because it's the easiest to find the ingredients for the bath:
1. Distilled water (if you're a purist). I am guilty of using tap water once or twice.
2. 40 g/liter Sodium carbonate. This is a fancy name for washing soda. Here in Canada you can find Arm & Hammer "So Clean" washing soda at Canadian Tire for about $5 a box. You can also make your own from baking soda. Put baking soda in a pan and heat it up while stirring continuously until it no longer bubbles.
3. 90 g/liter Sodium hydroxide. This is caustic soda, or lye. I found caustic soda crystals at home hardware, about $30 for a 2 liter jug. I used it in making my own soap and still have some around.
4. 1/2% per volume Addition agent. My understanding is that the addition agent ensures a bright plating, which I don't really care about. The quantity is also very small anyway.

The formulation calls for zinc metal, 15 g/liter.

In the past I have used a battery charger as source of current, set on the 2A setting. I'll show some pics when I start plating stuff.

Anyway, join in the discussion if interested, it's not like I know this perfectly, but I have plated some parts successfully.

Interesting post Eugen! I’m all ears to hear about the process. My only knowledge about plating was from a few welding repair jobs I did at a plating company. They did plating of many different metals and the acids used to clean the base metals were very caustic. This place was a cesspool to work at.I just did a few repair jobs for them and they were very happy with my work. They wanted me to come back but I had to turn them down because I didn’t want to get exposed to the chemicals in the air. Harry

Interesting topic @Eugen Thanks for sharing...

Thats neat @Eugen . What is Addtion agent?

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 4:47 pm Thats neat @Eugen . What is Addtion agent?

Exactly I don't know.
I used once a little tsp and other times nothing.

Was going to do a little plating and can't find that lye. Where does the lye lie? I knew I had some left, but then again, maybe it's all gone.

So, plan B. Vinegar! That I got, plenty of. I try to always have a couple of gallons of that cheap vinegar around. And ammonia, but that's a different story.

There's another recipe like this: vinegar, water, and a fistful of salt. Vinegar, check. Water, check. Salt... just the pink joke from wherever in the world it comes from, 'cause I'm drat sure it's not from Himalaya. Let's experiment then, in a plastic container, add a gallon of vinegar, add a gallon of water, throw in a cup of washing soda (sodium carbonate). Let it finish bubbling, then two straps of zinc near each other in the bath, one on the positive one on the negative of the battery charger, on 2A limit. One of the zinc strips should show bubbling on its surface nearest the other strip. Let it go like that for about 40 minutes. The idea is that zinc will release into the bath ions, cat ions, or whatever they are called, my chemistry is not so good.
Fine, now here are the parts I want to plate. See how I did not wire bush clean all of them perfectly. Unfortunately I did not have enough patience for that last night. This reminds me to build that parts shaker that it's been on the todo list for a million years.
String them on a wire, put them in the bath on the negative wire. The zinc electrodes/strips go on the positive. And let them bubble.

Here they are after about 3 minutes.


Notice how some areas are already plated, but others, which have not been cleaned well, are darker and not plated (yet?). I put them in and will let them go on for about 20 minutes, see if it made any difference to the dark areas. Stay tuned.


SAFETY WARNING: don't drink the chemical bath, don't let it jump into your eyes, wear gloves, wear glasses, wear a jacket, do this in open air and don't sniff the gases, because I have no idea if the fumes are flammable or bad for your lungs. Better yet, don't do it because I don't know if it's dangerous. If you do it and you get hurt or you burn your house it's not my fault.

Eugen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 06, 2023 12:07 pm
SAFETY WARNING: don't drink the chemical bath, don't let it jump into your eyes, wear gloves, wear glasses, wear a jacket, do this in open air and don't sniff the gases, because I have no idea if the fumes are flammable or bad for your lungs. Better yet, don't do it because I don't know if it's dangerous. If you do it and you get hurt or you burn your house it's not my fault.

"Don't drink the chemical bath..."

We need to find you one of those kids chemistry sets from the '50s and 60's... don't know how my generation survived

@RoamingGnome


Ok, so the experiment continues. The parts that were not exactly cleaned well of rust went back in the plating bath for about 1.5 hours.

This is the result.

One not rubbed the other two with some rubbing for shine.

I declare the experiment a succes.

RoamingGnome wrote: ↑Thu Apr 06, 2023 12:42 pm

Eugen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 06, 2023 12:07 pm
SAFETY WARNING: don't drink the chemical bath, don't let it jump into your eyes, wear gloves, wear glasses, wear a jacket, do this in open air and don't sniff the gases, because I have no idea if the fumes are flammable or bad for your lungs. Better yet, don't do it because I don't know if it's dangerous. If you do it and you get hurt or you burn your house it's not my fault.

"Don't drink the chemical bath..."

We need to find you one of those kids chemistry sets from the '50s and 60's... don't know how my generation survived

Natural selection . The dumb ones didn't make it .

Comparison. Zinc plated and wire brushed vs the old state still to be done. The zinc layer is thick enough to take a good brush on.

Eugen wrote: ↑Thu Apr 06, 2023 5:12 pm Comparison. Zinc plated and wire brushed vs the old state still to be done. The zinc layer is thick enough to take a good brush on.


003845C5-8024-4465-AB3E-DE2577E54906.jpeg

Looking good

Inquiring minds want to know By chance did you mic them before and after, just curious how thick the plating is


Gordy

Haven't thought about. @Gordy , I will the next ones. Good idea, thanks!

@Eugen Well done!

I’ve never tried this before, I’m going to have to keep this in mind for future use!

I was wondering about the threads on the fittings. I remember back when I was working on Harleys I would send various parts to a plating shop. I would have to clean out the threaded holes with a tap. The bolts would not screw into a hole until I cleaned the plating off the threads. Harry

Interesting project for sure...

The part of me that always wants to know more - would be interested to see the difference between plated and unplated parts after some exposure to the elements...

also remember seeing a web post about using electrolysis for rust removal...


https://www.instructables.com/Electroly ... aka-Magic/

@Harry , as far as I can tell, the plating doesn't seem to be thick enough to affect the threads on these fittings. They screw in very smoothly. When the plating is finished the surface is a little rough, which I smoothed on the soft wire wheel.

@RoamingGnome In fact I just tried (again) electrolysis for rust removal, and every time I try it, it takes for ever, so I give up after a few hours. These are the rust removal methods I tried and my impression of them.

Krud kutter: this is baed on phosphoric acid. My favourite for larger surfaces, or when I know I'll paint over. Really good, again, for not very deep rust. You're supposed to wipe it after a while, otherwise it leaves a white residue. If you wipe it after it ate the rust, the metal has a dark appearance, an oxide which is a good primer for painting. For USA, the Ospho product is like this but even better.

Evapo-rust: good for smaller parts, you leave the parts in the liquid for several hours. It does not affect the base metal, and the rust does go away. Very deep rust takes a lot longer or doesn't get affected. This liquid is water based, so it's not as evil smelling like muriartic acid.

Muriartic acid: this is really dangerous, but I have tried it (surprise). I don't really like it, and it does eat the base metal too. But it does de-rust, if left long enough.

Electrolysis: my experience with this is that it takes forever to get any rust off. Not my favourite, I don't have enough patience for it.

Wire wheel: I have many wire wheels that go on the drill or angle grinder. The rougher wheels are by far the fastest way to remove rust, but you know, it requires labour. Most of the time this is what I do, at least to get the thicker rust off, and then apply the Krud kutter for an hour or so, wipe that, and ready to paint when dry.

Regarding the exposure to elements, the unplated parts are steel. I think you know how steel reacts over time. The plated ones have a zinc layer. I know how zinc reacts to the elements, especially when it is on steel. To me it's the thickness of the plating that was in question. So last night I put a very rough wire wheel on the cordless drill and went at one of the parts. I had to put a real effort for several minutes to remove the plating on that area. So it's both thick and really well stuck to the metal, where the steel was clean. There's a another aspect of zinc on steel. You know they use on boats and inside boilers, zinc sacrificial anodes. Look at the series in this picture. The order is such that the metals above corrode before the metal below it, if they are both in contact with a corrosive agent (like dirty water). So, zinc on steel, in water, steel will corrode after the zinc is gone, if both are in contact with the same water at the same time. This is why even an imperfect plating with zinc will be much better for protection than no plating at all. Imagine, in a boiler, there is a large surface of steel on the inside, and one or two pieces of zinc, to protect it. Because the zinc attracts the corrosion to it. That's my understanding of it.

Update on the bath solution. My wife bought me pickling salt and new vinegar, so I replaced the bath last night. I didn't like the old bath started to have some dark deposits after three batches of electroplating.

The new bath is just white pickling vinegar (5%) and water equal parts, and pickling salt. The quantity of salt is not important, you just need enough to make the bath electrically conductive. For me for the 3 quarts of water and 3 quarts of vinegar, a pound of salt was plenty. How do you know it works? When you apply voltage to the zinc and parts you will see the parts bubbling. On my battery charger, set on 2A, the dial indicator also shows significant current draw.

To minimize confusion for people reading this at a different time, I will update the first posting of this thread with this new simple bath solution, because I like it best. It's simple, it stays clear, and works.

RoamingGnome wrote: ↑Fri Apr 07, 2023 9:58 am The part of me that always wants to know more - would be interested to see the difference between plated and unplated parts after some exposure to the elements...

also remember seeing a web post about using electrolysis for rust removal.

Thought about it some more. In theory, as I said, the zinc plating should protect the steel fittings, but if that holds true in practice we will see. I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't, but as they say, the proof is in the pudding.


Also, you made me think about rust removal electrolysis so I had to try it again, but differently than I've done it before. Most recipes out there use water and washing soda, or epsom salt, or baking soda, and I tried these. One thing I didn't like was the foaming at the top.

Today I gave it another try using about two gallons of water, half gallon of vinegar, and a fistful of pickling salt. Used the battery charger on 12V and it was drawing about 6-7A and let it run for about 3 hours. Cleaned up nice except for some deeper rust pitting. I'll open up another thread on this and show some pictures.

I've also made changes to the zinc plating. I noticed clumping by the third batch of parts. I have a vague recollection that this happens if the current is too high or if the chemistry isn't right. Both might be true in my case. I think my battery charger isn't really limiting the current to 2A as it should.

Had to dig out my old lab power supply and set it to 6V, 1A. The playing is much much slower, but I think it's better. Changed the bath to 4 parts water, one part vinegar, and for almost two gallons of bath a cup of salt.

@Eugen I'm following your electroplating thread with interest... In a typical production oriented shop there isn't time for this sort of work, If we needed to clean up hardware that was being reused it would be off to the sandblasting cabinet or the wire wheel on the bench grinder. If hardware had to be replaced that was ok, as the cost was marked up and passed on to the customer. Now that I'm doing stuff for myself I have more time to experiment. especially in the future when we are living in the countryside and I have a real garage for experiments...

I'd like to try out this zinc plating process. I've already set myself up to do electrolysis. Here's a gooseneck hitch from my truck that I did. I'm sold on it. Barely any work on my end other than clean up.

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Wow! @Jancoe That is impressive...

@Jancoe what did you use for the bath and power source and for how long? My small part yesterday cleaned to bright metal in about 95% of its area, but the rust wasn't scaled. I left another few parts going overnight outside the shed but haven't checked on them yet.

Power source is an old sears solid state 10 amp charger. Washing Soda bath solution. This particular hitch I ended up running in the tank for 48 hours. It was heavily rusted. I've done a handful of items so far and I've figured out that my anode rebar setup was too small for this particular hitch. Other parts I've done only took 12 hours. I'm sure if I had more anode in the tank the process would have taken less time. The smaller parts I've done did not take as long and was nowhere near the condition this hitch was in. I still have my 4016ps torn into a million pieces to restore. I wanted to try the process on the frame and see how much it would also strip the paint off.

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Thanks! I can tell you that there were parts of the fittings that I did with remnants of paint on them. Electrolysis did nothing to the painted parts. Maybe you'll have a different experience.

One thing I wanted to say about using electrolysis with a vinegar and salt bath like I tried. It's very aggressive very quickly. It eats away at the metal if left too long and unsupervised. I'm going back to washing soda.

@Jancoe how did you deal with the generated foam. When I did this a few years ago I did it at work and had to clean up the foam constantly. Did you perhaps add something to the bath to not foam that much?

@Gordy , sorry, I was not able to reliably measure the thickness of plating. Maybe because it very thin.

I am just following along from an interest standpoint.

Bill Moyer