Black phosphate

[Gerard F.]

Re: Black phosphate

Tom,

If you are doing dichromate, it is pretty important to keep the temperature around 80d to get consistent results. I use the ceramic heater in a HDPE jug to preheat, then use a fancy aquarium heater to maintain.

With zinc, a little cooler than 110d might give you a brighter finish. I use the caswell ceramic heater with the thermostat in a HDPE jug to avoid contamination of the mix.

For the higher temperature stuff, I think you can take a little more variance.

As a connoisseur of crock pots from the local dump store and Salvation Army, I notice that the one's with the removable crock seem to heat up slower, the unibody one's heat up faster and maintain better
Still I pre-heat with the ceramic heater, and then use the crock pot to maintain. Keep the lid on until you are ready to dunk.

You are somewhat limited in size with a crock pot, and if I really needed to go to high temperature in an HDPE 2 or 3 gallon jug, I think I'd go to one of Jeff's heater's. But I'd make sure that there were no building or OSHA inspectors around

Jeff, if you want to see some 73 male hood latches done, take a look at the third post down in the archived threads at the bottom of this page, "Phosphate Stew Revisited" My mistake there was to not disassemble the hood latch (remove the spring retainers). I found that the spring retainers were not black phosphated, but zinc plated. What do I know, I'm a C2 guy

[Henry S.]

Re: Black phosphate

Jeff, Jerry and Patrick,
I've been following this thread and very impressed with some of the techniques and successes you have had with restoring your parts.

Jerry, I've followed some of your articles (and printed them off) about some of the restorations you have done with your midyear. I've checked some of the archives for procedures on refinishing and was wondering: Consider a "Refinish your fasteners for Dummies" or "Black Phosphate 101" thread for those of us "chemically" challenged or not sure what our first step should be. What finishes can we do at home and what finishes should be left to the professionals?

Again, I find the thread very interesting and believe it has quite a following.

Shooter

[Randy R.]

Re: Black phosphate

I put the solution in a plastic tub, heat it in a microwave, take it out, drop the parts in the hot solution and let them soak until the reaction slows down. A lid placed on the tub but not fastened tightly seems to help the solution heat faster. In my opinion, this is more convenient than dealing with immersion elements or crock pots.
Randy

[Henry S.]

Re: Black phosphate

I put the solution in a plastic tub, heat it in a microwave, take it out, drop the parts in the hot solution and let them soak until the reaction slows down. A lid placed on the tub but not fastened tightly seems to help the solution heat faster. In my opinion, this is more convenient than dealing with immersion elements or crock pots.
Randy

Randy,
Does this work for just the black phosphate or other finishes as well?

[Tom R.]

Re: Black phosphate

Tom:
What are you plating at 80 degrees?
Jeff

Gray/Black Phosphate

[Randy R.]

Re: Black phosphate

I have used this for heating the solution for zinc plating, chromating, and gray phosphate. If I have only a few items, I use a margarine tub.

Randy

[Henry S.]

Re: Black phosphate

I have used this for heating the solution for zinc plating, chromating, and gray phosphate. If I have only a few items, I use a margarine tub.

Randy

Thanks Randy.

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: Black phosphate

I have also used the microwave for heating small amounts of solution but when larger or multiple parts are being plated and I need to heat the 2 gallon pails, the microwave is not convenient since the pails are too large to fit in the small microwave I have at work and have metal handles.
Jeff