Zinc Plating Hardware and Parts at Home Using Readily Available Materials Part 1 of Plating Videos

This video covers how to zinc electroplate at home using common materials. This is useful for restorations of cars, motorcycles and other items.
You will need the following items for a 2 gallon plating tank.
A 2 gallon white polyethylene bucket with lid
3" Wide Zinc Roof Flashing (Rotometals part number AM0280
3.4 Lb Zinc Ingot with Copper Drain Wire (optional, Rotometals part number AM0174)
1000 grams of Epsom Salts
100 grams of Zinc Sulfate
480 grams of Karo Syrup
4-5 quarts of White Vinegar
1 gallon of distilled water
12 gauge copper ground wire
A copper bar or piece of copper pipe flattened as a hanging bar
A DC power supply, about 400mA minimum
Soft brass bristle brushes Allway #AMB 13710, Workforce 330 857 or equivalent
Acetone or Lacquer thinner for cleaning parts
Flitz, MAAS or Simichrome metal polish (optional)
This video provides the steps involved to set up your plating tank, cleaning of parts, and steps involved to zinc plate components. If you wish to upsize or downsize your tank, you can alter the amount of materials accordingly.

[@bobg9873]

Great video. Pushed me over the hump, and got me started.

[@playzwithcars562]

Always glad to help!

[@chrome72]

This is great. if you wanted to do a black chromate conversion to turn the zinc black do you have to polish prior to conversion

[@hiseminencetheholymacdiarmada]

You’re running such low amps, you can use a much smaller diameter wire to connect to the part being plated, so you don’t get such big “shadows”

[@bob2161]

Could you provide some info about the settings on your power supply? You mentioned .4 amps, but no voltage info. You indicated adjust based on the bubbles. How do you determine that you've achieved the proper level of bubblage?

[@playzwithcars562]

It is a 24 volt power supply. The amps will be determined on the size of the part being plated, and your tank/zinc configuration. When plating the parts, you will see small bubbles near the surface of your part. That is a visual indication that the plating is going on. You want to crank the amperage up until you start to see some bubbles. Not too many, or you are plating too quickly. When you do a part or two you will get the hang of it.

[@WilliamVG]

I'm having a hard time tracking white distilled vinegar however I'm able to find regulator 5% white vinegar, will that be fine?

[@playzwithcars562]

That should work.

[@erikfonne5174]

Super; thx for sharing an environmentally safe alternative to the zinc plating process! :)

[@stevegriffin2626]

I don’t know what the hell my problem is but I’ve followed your instructions and others on UT and all I get is parts covered with a small amount of black ???? Something on it that I have to buff off. Also after plating I dip them in distilled water and after a day or two I have rust on the surface! WTH ?

[@johnnycash4034]

Do you have a video on copper same setup?
Also what does the Epsom salt do?
Can I replace caro syrup with glycerine?

[@playzwithcars562]

The Epsom salt acts as an electroylite in the solution. I've used Karo syrup. If you want to experiment, try it out! No videos on copper. Never had a need for copper in a restoration.

[@hiseminencetheholymacdiarmada]

Miralax, which is POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL is a good brightener

[@trollforge]

Karo Syrup is about equivalent to Corn Syrup.

[@bryco32]

Where did you get the zinc sulfate?

[@playzwithcars562]

I bought it on Ebay.