How To: Zinc electro plating at home

[Jordan Baker]

Lastly you also need zinc. Some of the online articles say to use large batteries to get your zinc. However it is usually contaminated and you have to cut up batteries. Easier in my mind is to just buy some. I found a 10pack on Amazon.

As for tank setup. I’m using a 4L distilled water container with the top cut off. The copper tube is what I’ll suspend my parts from. The zinc plates are bolted to the sides. Using alligator clips, I connected the two zinc plates together. These will the be connected to the positive on the power supply. The negative goes to the copper tube.

Parts need to be very clean, no rust of oils from your fingers. So spend your time getting them as best look as possible. The plating is very thin and does not fill in pitting. Once ready I dip the parts in phosphoric acid then quickly rinse in distilled water then into the plating bath. I adjust the Amp supply depending on how many parts I’m doing. Most parts should take between 2-15 minutes. You want some bubbles but not crazy.

I used a steel wire brush ever so lightly to polish them up.