...and I've been doing some zinc plating in my garage. More on that later.
Yes please! 
Electroplate at Home (one piece at a time):
I realize it might have been easier and more cost effective to send a bucket full of parts to the plater, but I really wanted to do my own plating.
To get started I bought one of these kits from Caswell
http://www.caswellplating.com/electroplating-anodizing/brush-plating-products/plug-n-plate-kits/plug-n-plater-zinc-plating-kit.htmlVery simple to use and I got good results. Good for small parts only though. But when I read the warning label on the bottle, I got concerned about what I was breathing in. Yes I wore a mask and protective gear, but you never know.
My online search for a safe and friendly way to electroplate at home resulted in this instruction below.
http://www.ehow.com/how_8074590_electroplate-home.htmlThere is not one item in the ingredient list that I would worry about. Heck if I can zinc plate the rustiest bolt I can find on my bike using these ingredients, how cool would that be?
This is also good only for small parts. Instead of using the “D” cell battery, I used the power supply that came with the Caswell kit. I also read somewhere that molasses instead of sugar produced a better shine.
So the basic steps I follow are:
1) wash/dry the part to remove oil and dirt
2) wire-brush the part you want to plate to remove caked in dirt or rust (especially threaded parts)
3) Submerge the part in muriatic acid (same stuff used to control pH in swimming pools). This dissolves the old plating. Take precautions and I try to use small amounts only. Use only enough to submerge the part. This is the chemical that you have to really take precautions with. Do not breathe it in; do not get it on your skin. If you find a better way to strip the old plating or rust, I would be interested to hear it.
4) Rinse thoroughly. I leave it in a bucket of water while I prepare to put it in the plating solution (slows down flash rust).
5) Attach the part to the alligator clip and submerge in the solution. Duration depends on your power supply and how thick you want it to be plated.
6) Remove from the solution, dry it and use a brass wire brush to get the shiny zinc appearance.
Problems I've come across:
1) I didn't leave the part in the solution long enough. Therefore plating is not thick enough and even after polishing the part still looks dark not silver and shiny. If you let it sit long enough rust will start to appear.
2) The solution eventually corrodes or eats away the alligator clip.
3) I ran out of pennies (source of zinc).
I just recently found this in ‘K Two’ build thread. It looks much more efficient than my method. I think I will try this out in the future.
http://home.comcast.net/~rt66tbird/website/zincplating.htmlHere are some more parts that I plated.
