So here is what I've got so far. I filtered my plaiting tank with a bunch of coffee filters stacked onto of each other on some metal window screen. Sort of hard to do efficiently. I had some brown particles that had settled out on the bottom of the tank but they are fine enough to go through the coffee filters. I spoke to Caswell tech and they said that was ok and when the bath was running it should be cloudy. So that is ok.
The Ph on the plating tank at 4 is too low and can cause the starter chemical to be removed from solution. Too high and the Zinc can precipitate out. You use Ammonium Hydroxide (plain household ammonia) to raise the Ph. I added about 40+ tablespoons to raise my 3 1/2 gallon plating tank about 1 - 1.5 points. Initially, I was concerned I had raised it too high but once I got it mixing and heated up it settled in at about 5.5. I assume my plating tank has been lowered because of the pickle tank I use before the plating tank. Evidently I am not getting all the acid rinsed off the parts and it had lowered the tank Ph. Caswell said I should use a baking soda neutralization after the pickle. I would then have to rinse that. I may just come up with a better rinse method after the pickle tank...
I have some new strut caps that came with the new struts but they didn't look very good. They may even be raw metal, so I decided to use them as test subjects.
I bead blasted both and put them in SP degreaser, thanks Rich for that. I was able to clean the hard crystal out of the crock pot eventually...
I didn't pickle the first part and I checked it for being clean with a water test. Plated it at 1.2A for about 30 minutes. Rotating it about every ten minutes. I also added a tablespoon of brightener to the tank as Caswell thought this was why the plate was dull.
Much better results except for one spot on the first part. I did them one at a time and I strung them on a loop of wire through the center. The mark is a dark stain almost like an oil spot but it was right under where the loop was contacting the part...
Even after I rotated the part away from the wire and plated it some more it didn't go away. I wrote this is off to the overly quick prep work
I did a 60 second blue dip and a 60 second yellow dip. Dried it on low with the heat gun. Did good overall except for the spot which didn't take any color...
I ran the second part but I pickled it for a minute or too with no real bubbling. Then plated it the same way. I got a similar spot under where the wire was sitting on the part???? Has anyone seen this happen before ?? @motorman7 @Namerow
This is the finished part after color
So Here are my guesses:
1. Contaminate on the wires I am using
2. Burned the part where the wire met it
3. Didn't plate where the wire met it
4. Contaminate on both parts and coincidentally lined up with both plating wires
5: Plating wire is too small for the amperage
My gut instinct is #1,2 or 4. It seemed like the wire made a secondary mark on the first part where the wire was hanging the second time (The dark stain at 2 O'clock by the weld in the first picture)
Anyone else have any thoughts or solutions?
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