Zinc Nickel Troubleshooting
Obligatory “This is my first time electroplating.”
Substrate is 14g copper wire.
Electrolyte solution is Caswell Plating Zinc Nickel Plating kit 1.5gal.
I originally set the voltage to 6V like the directions said but my power supply switched over to constant current and wouldn’t go above ~4V and 3A.
That was definitely way too much current for 20min and resulted in coarse crunchy shell. The instructions for the kit were pretty bare bones with nothing to help troubleshoot so I referenced the plating directions in the Caswell handbook for just Nickel plating. In the handbook they recommended .07A per sq in.
For my second attempt I set the current set to .04A (going off of the nickel plating instructions) and let it run for 20min. Results were better but there is some uneveness in the coating. I 3D printed a rotating jig so help with “line of sight” and agitating the bath but I am unsure if it creates enough movement to “stir” the electrolyte.
The nickel plating instructions mention heating the electrolyte but the zinc nickel instructions do not mention this so I did not heat the bath.
Any insight/advice is appreciated. Thank you !