Eastwood plater experiences?

[Michael Jones]

Eastwood offers a zinc plating kit for $70. I have only a small number of items, the largest of which are C-1 hood latch mechanisms. What has been the experience with this kit? Does it produce good-looking, durable results? Is it large enough?

Thanks,

Michael

[Mark S.]

Re: Eastwood plater experiences?

I have used this kit and have received results that are okay. Professional plating is better; hoever, for a few parts this system makes some economical sense. I know people that have had bad results with the kit and others that have increased the current to get better results. Some experimentation first was helpful to me, and after trial and error you will get a better feel for plating times.

[Mark S.]

Re: Eastwood plater experiences?

One other thing-you may want to use a tray to plate your latch, because it may not fit in the container supplied.

[Mike Geary]

Re: Eastwood plater experiences?

Recommend you visit Caswell Plating's website. Their "copycad" plating kit gave me decent results, after some experimentation. I did have to go to a larger power supply (about $8 from Radio Shack).

MAG

[Jack H.]

Re: Eastwood plater experiences?

There's nothing wrong with the Eastwood kit. But as your experience grows, you'll find the supplied latern battery as a DC power source is virtually a joke (get a good quality DC power supply from Radio Shack, Etc.). Also, the 'tank' supplied is, at best, marginal. I like using Tuperware-like containers as they have snap-close lids to prevent electrolyte evaporation during dis-use/storage.

Next, the biggest hurdles to overcome are (1) proper surface preparation, and (2) post-plate polish/finishing. If you don't have a high end media blast cabinet to support surface prep, I'd say forget it and hire a professional. On post-plate finish, there are two commonly accepted norms 'dull' and 'bright'.

Dull zinc/cad surfaces are essentially left as they came out of the tank without secondary operation of final polish. Bright finish is polished out and this can be a REAL trick with complex surface geometry (like curvilinear stampings of, say, a gas cap).

Last, the basic chemistry in this system will let you do cad plating too. The trick is finding a source for raw donor cad to use at home.... Bottom line, if you're properly 'tooled' the system can produce EXCELLENT results--all depends on you.

[Michael Jones]

Thanks for the input!

Thanks for the input.

I opted for the Caswell unit because it has a little larger capacity right out of the box and tech support seems a little better although these things are sometimes difficult to judge. I look upon it as an education and experimentation anyway.

BTW, I called my local plater and they didn't want to plate car parts because they said they were "problematic". I didn't press the point because I didn't want to do business with anyone who didnt want my business but I think they'd had difficuties satisfying car owner's' quzlity complaints in the past.

Mike