One more update... not the one I wanted but nevertheless I find it important to also document when things don’t go as planned. I had set myself the goal to finish the buckles by today. This didn’t work out. Somehow my plating solution went crazy. I have five buckles plated and all came out differently. The first two were matte and grey after which I added some acetic acid to spice things up a bit. This didn’t work out at all, the third one‘s all spotty. I thought evaporation and maybe too much acidity so I added some destilled water after which things looked better but still way off the results I got from a fresh electrolyte.
I might also have contaminated the solution, I don’t really know...
What I‘ll do now is set up a fresh batch of electrolyte and refinish the previously plated buckles. I am really sorry this is taking longer than I anticipated.
I‘ll take some pictures of the bad platings for reference, once I‘m able to stop banging my head into the wall.
Sorry to hear that you've had a problem with the plating process. Never done it so I cannot actually be useful and offer useful advice - so I will shut up now
I hope the next batch works out better. These things happen, but it doesn't make it any less of a PITA.
After having my wife’s family of six over for five days and getting some time off of the subject, I finally found the culprit!
It wasn’t the electrolyte at all... stupid me grabbed the wrong degreaser from the shelf. I unknowingly switched frome acetone to lighter fluid. The latter will degrease nicely but is insoluble in water. This I used to rinse in the ultrasonic which produced an emulsion that stuck to the buckles like mayo to french fries. The stench of the acetic acid covered everything else so I didn’t even smell the difference...
