Calling all metallurgists

[3Phase]

Originally posted by tarzan
hey 3phase was that article talking about the big storage tanks at the gas station?Are they made of the same material as our tanks?

Some of them were the same, yes, but they rusted out a long time ago and I don't know how new underground storage tanks are made.

The ones I've seen sitting on the ground during refits look like polypropylene. I have wondered, but I haven't had the stones to hop over the security fence and see if I can make a scratch with my pocket knife or thump on 'em to hear what kind of sound they make.



Regards,

Scott

[trbig]

I know a company here that I was going to get a set of headers nickle plated from. He did some nuts/bolts/washers for me and I posted here. His electroplating tank is @ 5-6 foot square, so a tank.. and probably even a whole bike frame would be possible. The plating on a tank like this would do the inside and outside.. BUT... the nickle plating is soft. What I would suggest, is to dunk the whole tank for the nickle plating, then sandblast the outside... sand and paint. This would leave the inside coated and rust free from now on.

I'm sure this wouldn't be a cheap process.. but I can check on it if anyone is interested. He acid dips the the tanks first to remove all traces of rust. It also finds small pin holes like it did with the set of headers I tried to have done.. If there were any holes, he wouldn't plate it, but there would still be costs since he did several things to it to get to that point.


Tod

[3Phase]

Originally posted by The Lorax
I only did gold plating on a couple occasions way back when, I remember it kind of scared me as I had an acid cleaning tank about 18" from the gold tank with a water rinse tank between. it just takes a few drops of acid to release cyanide gas....not a good scene, make sure there's plenty of amyl nitrate (at least I think thats the stuff) around to use as an antidote. and you need to plate nickle first I think as gold sticks pretty well to nickle, but not so much to other metals....steel might be ok but at the cost of gold plating solution, I'm thinking one would want to put down a layer of copper then nickle before gold. I think plating would feasibly work, it should lay down an even coat regardless, watch the current density as it could make a mess of things, do a test shot, calculate the square footage of the outside of the tank, the inside should be close to the same, figure 15 to 20 amps per square foot and don't forget the molasses in the bath as a brightener. Plating isn't hard, it's just dirty work, it requires some technique, and if you spill solutions on your jeans, you will end up with a big hole in them. If it's something you want to play with, experiment with a soup can or something that has an inside and an outside to check how evenly the metal in question is deposited, and to make sure your bath is working as designed. any university library will have volumes of stuff on the subject, how to, ingredients etc.

Hi, Lorax, I used to work in the PWB (Printed Wiring Board) industry and you've pretty much nailed it.

Gold won't plate directly to copper so the contacts are plated with several mils of nickel for durability and to make the contact 'stand out' on the cards, then one or two mils of gold is plated to the nickel.

The gold cyanide solution has to be kept hot and well-ventilated. Just skin contact will kill you or make you wish it had killed you. Don't breathe and don't bite your fingernails.


Do NOT try it at home!


I've no experience with electroless gold plating solutions, but I can't imagine they're all that much safer and they're more expensive than electroplating.

that's all I have for now, have a nice day and ride safe

Thanks, you too!

[gareth]

I enjoyed the brainstorming...
But.. seriously...gold plating the inside of a motorcycle gas-tank??

This might just turn a full circle,

Kreem?....Anyone?

[dbeardslee]

Gareth - It already went full circle for me, but I wouldn't use Kreem. Caswell Plating's tank lining kit is the stuff for me. Really good material. I let the excess drip out of the petcock holes into a plastic container. When it cured it popped right out of the container, and I even got a nice little coaster out of the deal

[The Lorax]

3phase, that's also where I got my plating experience. I only did it for approximately 8 months, but that was enough. learned alot about chemistry, (by the way, most plating, acid tanks are polypropylene, pretty resistant to acids) kinda funny, I learned more in 8 months than in the chemistry classes I took later in a half a$$ed attempt to get an EET associates degree. it was a good experience by and large, but not one I would really like to repeat (chemicals ate my jeans for lunch regularly) but was an overall good experience...didn't pay worth a damn though. oh well, nuff said, have a nice day and ride safe

[tarzan]

Hey dbeardslee,
What is that material from caswell?Is it a semihard plastic?Have you talked to people who have used it?If it sticks better than kreem I will probably us it on mine after electrolisis.Oh and do you have pics of the tank your working on?

[ClarkGriswald]

I used the POR-15 kit on mine. Looks like silver paint.. before I threw out the excess I painted the bottom of the tank with it. So far holding up really well. Looks nice and silver in there. Comes with a degreaser stuff ya mix with warm water, then some etching stuff which you can reuse (also deposits zinc phosphate). then the sealer stuff. The kit was 40 bucks. Thats all I got to say about that. (hehe.. so far so good)

[dbeardslee]

Tarzan - The Caswell Plating Tank Sealer is a Phenol Novolac Epoxy - whatever that means. It's supposed to be good. Their webpage has the details.

It gets pretty hard but has a little flexibility to it. I only did one other tank with it, and as stated previously, wound up with troubles tapping out the screw holes, so I didn't get to use it - my own fault, getting in a big hurry. It impressed me with its strength when it broke the tap I was using to clear the fuel meter holes .

I did see how it lined the tank and it looked real good. I also read a bunch of material prior that pointed me to the stuff. They say there's enough material there for two five gallon tanks, but I used it all on one - just to make it easier to flow it around the tank. Gotta stay in the right temperature range, too.