Zinc Plating - experience anyone?

[AdminJeff]

ok, old guys... Anyone have any experience w/ Zinc Plating?
The guy who owns the laser cutting shop wants me to look into it. He's thinking of offering it as a service.

Jeff

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

ok, old guys... Anyone have any experience w/ Zinc Plating?
The guy who owns the laser cutting shop wants me to look into it. He's thinking of offering it as a service.

Jeff

My first thought is, let plating shops do the plating. They're set up for it, know how to do it, and probably more importantly, they know the EPA regulations on the handling & disposing of the chemicals and have the proper licenses, (I presume), to do so. Depending on where he's located, the environmental rules can be torturous, or so I'm told by platers...

[Steve Jelf]

My only experience with galvanizing was as a customer. In 2012 I had seven Hayes rims and their hardware hot dipped at the Valmont plant in Catoosa, near Tulsa. I believe at that time the minimum charge was $235, and I could have had up to sixty rims done for that if I'd had them. A few years ago one of our members was trying to get some Texas guys together to have a batch of rims done and share the cost. I don't recall how that worked out. I'm having a geriatric brain freeze and can't come up with his name right now, but I'll remember it later.

[Dan McEachern]

Zinc plating is not the same as galvanizing. Galvanizing is the process of dipping parts into a vat of molten zinc. Do not confuse this with electroplating zinc. I'm with Jerry- leave plating to a [plater. Zinc for sure- it's an inexpensive process so just pay for it. Dealing with the hazmat issues related to plating solutions is not something to be taken lightly.

[RajoRacer]

I recently had these TT rims "cadmium" plated - looks similar to Steve's rims ?

[Steve Jelf]

Whether you call electroplating with zinc galvanizing or not, it is inferior to hot dip galvanizing. That's why I have bought cans of old roofing nails at auctions. Modern ones are thinly electroplated and turn to rust spots in a few years. In rebuilding my house I have reused hot dipped shingle nails 80 to 100+ years old. One online source claims that hot dip is good for 50-100 years. My shingle nail experience agrees.

That "cadmium" looks a lot like Oklahoma chrome.

[Scott_Conger]

Steve

what you call it matters not, really, but galvanizing is not electroplating - two entirely different processes for entirely different purposes using entirely different materials. Not trying to nit-pick but mixing terms interchangeably where it is not at all interchangeable may be misleading to readers who don't know the difference, and that is the point Dan was making.

If I ever received a part like Jeff is producing, and it came with galvanized coating, it would be obvious, it would be wrong, and I'd return it no matter how well it worked. Each process has it's place, but with Zinc plating, for anyone in small production, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze and is far better left to the pros who can do it inexpensively (relatively), safely, and legally.

[ModelTWoods]

My only experience with galvanizing was as a customer. In 2012 I had seven Hayes rims and their hardware hot dipped at the Valmont plant in Catoosa, near Tulsa. I believe at that time the minimum charge was $235, and I could have had up to sixty rims done for that if I'd had them. A few years ago one of our members was trying to get some Texas guys together to have a batch of rims done and share the cost. I don't recall how that worked out. I'm having a geriatric brain freeze and can't come up with his name right now, but I'll remember it later.

STEVE, The Texas MTFCA Member who you were referring to is Ignacio Valdez of the Houston Space City T Club. He did get a number of Houston club members together (including me) and have a bunch of clincher and split rims done. I need to get a few more split rims done, now, but probably will just paint them rather than spend a Ton of Dollars on less than a full load.



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[Steve Jelf]

...galvanizing is not electroplating - two entirely different processes for entirely different purposes using entirely different materials.

Yes, as Dan said, entirely different processes. But can't zinc plating be done by both? That was the whole point of my comment about roofing nails. The old ones are galvanized (hot dip zinc coated), while the modern ones are thinly coated with zinc electrically, an inferior process when it comes to preventing rust. Electroplating is done with silver, brass, chromium, nickel, and other metals, including zinc.

Terry, Thanks. I remembered that his name is routinely misspelled by folks who see it right in front of them, like mine, but it would not come to me.

[Scott_Conger]

Steve, galvanized coating is a zinc alloy heated to melting point and the part is dipped in. Resulting coating is 5-10x the thickness of an electroplated part where zinc alloy (formulated for the process) is suspended in solution and electro-chemically deposited on an atomic scale with a resultant very thin coating. They're both zinc.

Galvanize is galvanize and plating is plating. They are exactly the same thing, just like a log and paper are the same, meaning, no, in the end, after processing, they are not really.

Buying cheap plated nails marked "galvanized" on the box, just like "peaceful protests" the advertising doesn't do justice to the facts.

[Kaiser]

Jeff there are three ways to coat metal with zinc, two, electroplating and hot-dipping are already mentioned, but there's a third way and that is metal spraying, i could not find the right english term for it but here in Holland it is called 'Schooperen', it involves a kind of plasma spraying, where molten zinc is sprayed onto the bare steel, it does not give a nice shiny effect like hot dipping but rather a dull matte finish, it is very durable and gives a better (thicker) coating than electro plating. besides that it does not involve chemicals as in electro plating, and it does not involve large vessels filled with molten zinc, and on top of that, the laser cutting guy probably has at least part of the needed apparatus already in his workshop.
It might be the way to go, google it, and have a look, good luck !

[AdminJeff]

here in Holland it is called 'Schooperen',

Interesting - YouTube had lots of videos on this. Very educational.

I'm looking for a commercial company right now. I have 1500 parts to get done, and plenty of other things to do with my time. I'd be at it for weeks with the Caswell type DIY kits.

Jeff

[Dan Hatch]

Here is a link to one I found although it is not close to you. I was looking for a guy I used for rims years ago, but looks like epa got him. No wonder, if you saw his shop.
https://nutecmetalfinishing.com/
They may know someone close to you. Good luck. Dan.

[Steve Hughes]

Check out the company SendCutSend. They do laser cutting and also do zinc plating. For the laser cutting you just upload the .dxf file and get the quote. Pay and get the parts in a few days shipped to your door. VERY inexpensive.
https://sendcutsend.com/services/plating/

[Steve Jelf]

For those looking for a galvanizing service, there may be a Valmont plant near you: https://www.google.com/search?q=valmont ... nt=gws-wiz