I have a home zinc plating setup. I built it from internet plans and find it very handy for plating small items that are not suitable for painting.
I like to do it myself instead of farming out to the plating shop. Because I am cheap, or because I just enjoy doing it myself. either reason is applicable.
Since my new D150 arrived I have been steadily deconstructing it back to its unassembled stage.
This is a fault of mine as I tend to go overboard and find it difficult to finish most things I start.
I read on a forum recently that zinc plated parts can suffer from hydrogen embrittlement. This sounds bad as it can weaken high strength fasteners.
I have plated the bolts that hold the upper and lower control arms to the chassis and now I'm wondering if this was a mistake.
Can anyone chime in on this subject, can this home plating process I'm using cause my truck to self destruct at some point in the future when driving down the freeway
pic attached of a recent batch of my plated hardware

 

Hydrogen embrittlement is the process by which hydride-forming metals such as titanium, vanadium, zirconium, tantalum, and niobium become brittle and fracture due to the introduction and subsequent diffusion of hydrogen into the metal.

The hardware is carbon steel so i don't think it will be a problem. Zinc is one of the most common plating's on hardware. Also how was it done? Did it effect the threads? I imagine the hardware was glass beaded before hand. I'd like to hear more about the process.

 

Thanks for that. I'm less concerned now. The process is pretty simple. First I bead blast all the parts, some people recommend also wire brushing to buff the part up for a better finish. I have tried both but doesn't seem to make a lot of difference.
I found the info on how to make the kit here
http://www.southsandia.com/forum/web...ncplating.html
But basically all you need is a tank suitable to dip your parts in. I found an old fish tank at a charity store. You also need Vinigar, epsom salts, and sugar for a brightener. Oh, and a variable power supply is a good thing as you need to adjust voltage up and down according to what you are plating.
Will post a pic of my converted fish tank a bit later

 

Cool thanks!

 

Here are a couple of pics of my setup, as mentioned, I used a small fishtank for the bath, it works well as you can see by looking through the side whats going on, and being longer than it is wide allows you to plate different shaped objects which you may not be able to fit in the plastic bucket as shown in the tutorial.
One downside is glass tends to break when you drop heavy stuff on it. I found out the hard way when I dropped a large bolt in and cracked the bottom. You can see my blunder by the evidence of silicone sealer on the bottom of the tank.
For a zinc anode I got and old anode that bolts to a boats prop shaft. Cut it up into 6 pieces and hung them around the tank, apparently the more anodes you have the better the coverage.
The power supply came from an ebay seller. It was cheap and works well, lets my dial the voltage down low when I am only plating small objects.
For some reason after a while the setup stops working efficiently but since the contents are so cheap I just tip it out and make a new brew. It does take a day or two for the anodes to settle in which is a minor problem.
I think if you buy the commercially available setup it would probably work slightly better but for me this setup is cheap and works fine.

 

Just did a little more plating this weekend, found the bath wasn't working to well so dumped the solution and made a new brew.
This little item turned out well for a home done job, probably needs on more dip in the bath for the final plating