Uploaded July 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The video shows that finding out the throwing power of your electrolyte solution is essential for successful electroplating. Current versus voltage settings are discussed and the cleaning and pickling of the part is shown. Hydrochloric acid / muriatic acid and alkaline sodium hydroxide is used to clean and prepare the fishing hooks used to estimate the best temperature setting for a given current setting. The fishing hooks were selected as useful for the study since they provide a complex shape where the electrical field in the solution will vary in the vicinity of the hooks surfaces. Zinc was used as anodes for the electroplating and a boric acid solution was used as the electrolyte. Three temperatures were investigated 20, 40 and 60 degrees Celsius (68, 104 and 140 Fahrenheit), and the results reveal the difference in throwing power for the same electrolyte at the same current. The video is useful for the amateur hobbyists that wish to electroplate metal but wonder why the coverage of the part varies. Electroplating of iron surfaces is a method to prevent rust from forming on iron objects, by applying a thin layer of zinc. The method is referred to as galvanization, a widely adopted industrial way to rust protect cars. In this video the fishing hooks are rust protected because the rust doesn’t form as long as the zinc on the surface can oxidize instead of the iron. Once all the zinc metal has been oxidized, the hooks will start to rust again. Approximately 1 micron of zinc is consumed as being oxidized per year on a galvanized car part when a car is driven under the worst conditions of weather. This means that a galvanized car part with about 20 micron thick galvanization will be rust protected for about 20 years.
The video shows that finding out the throwing power of your electrolyte solution is essential for successful electroplating. Current versus voltage settings are discussed and the cleaning and pickling of the part is shown. Hydrochloric acid / muriatic acid and alkaline sodium hydroxide is used to clean and prepare the fishing hooks used to estimate the best temperature setting for a given current setting. The fishing hooks were selected as useful for the study since they provide a complex shape where the electrical field in the solution will vary in the vicinity of the hooks surfaces. Zinc was used as anodes for the electroplating and a boric acid solution was used as the electrolyte. Three temperatures were investigated 20, 40 and 60 degrees Celsius (68, 104 and 140 Fahrenheit), and the results reveal the difference in throwing power for the same electrolyte at the same current. The video is useful for the amateur hobbyists that wish to electroplate metal but wonder why the coverage of the part varies. Electroplating of iron surfaces is a method to prevent rust from forming on iron objects, by applying a thin layer of zinc. The method is referred to as galvanization, a widely adopted industrial way to rust protect cars. In this video the fishing hooks are rust protected because the rust doesn’t form as long as the zinc on the surface can oxidize instead of the iron. Once all the zinc metal has been oxidized, the hooks will start to rust again. Approximately 1 micron of zinc is consumed as being oxidized per year on a galvanized car part when a car is driven under the worst conditions of weather. This means that a galvanized car part with about 20 micron thick galvanization will be rust protected for about 20 years.
