electronics related

Post by **mhyde71** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:55 pm

on a 12.5v power supply
i would like to bring down the voltage to say like 5 /6/7volts.

what type of circuit would i need to put together or is there something already on market i can simply grab and apply and get the voltage down to 5 or so?

matt

Post by **ttocs** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 5:56 am

is this a little power supply or a big one and what are you running? Ford amplifiers use a 6v turn on so to take a 12v signal down to 6v we would use a voltage regulator or just throw a 1.5k ohm resistor inline... It could be this simple or you might need to make a voltage divider depending on how much current is being used.

Post by **mhyde71** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 6:17 am

my intentions are to use the power supply as the power source for plating.
past weekend i used a reg ac/dc converter adapter like on a kids toy, or something like that- and did some zinc plating -
but the more amps you have the larger the piece you can do (of course there are other aspects involved- but this is one of them)
i have a 50A astron PS and a 100A mobile authority PS-
i was thinking if i could get the voltage down to 5/6v off the astron and throw 50a into the mix- VERSUS the 600mA i used i would be able to do larger pieces. at least this is what I have read/learned- of course like i said there are other things that need to also be in place but i have those all set and in order- NOW just working on the reducing the voltage- keeping the amps up around whatever that supply puts out. and wanted to try a larger piece.

I will show pic's of the results thus far- BUT i tell you- I am pumped!
with this set up, up and running, i will be able to gold plate, copper plate, zinc plate, all that shit-
Baby step though- and will only be working with zinc for the begining stages- as it is the least caustic, and BS with it- you can do it with vinegar in fact-

so that is the application- I zinc plated some copper bar this past weekend just fooling around and worked so well, that it has me thinking/wanting to get into the gold plating so i can get screws in steel or SS and plate them in gold and poof! have gold plated OEM PG screws.

Post by **ttocs** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:16 am

ah, yea I don't think the 1.5k resistor will work then

.........

I guess I should have known you were not doing something simple like turning on a ford amp.

For a high current demand like you are wanting I think you would need to look into the voltage divider circuit which is not too big of a deal.

Now that I think about it, don't some car battery chargers have a 6v section on them for golf carts? It would be easier to locate one of those I would think, probably not cheaper but......

todd217 · Post by **todd217** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 5:42 pm

gold plating

davewaibel · Post by **davewaibel** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:41 pm

I dare not speak, but here goes- I know a lot about metal finishing- there are ghetto gold plating set ups that can be had cheap, but the final effect is short lived and not what I think you would ultimately be happy with- for example to operate a real chrome plating line, the powersupply itself is somewhere around 2000 amps to throw chrome, you can throw nickel with around 200 amps, and then there is electrolys nickel which requires litte or no current- a nickel tank big enough to do a ms1000 heat sink would cost you 1000.00 in nickel alone, plus chemistry, that would rot everything in your garage- now if you just want to do a cheezy gold setup to do mercedes emblems, and crap like that, you can do one for about 150.00- if it could be done with a train transformer, everyone would have done it- if you find a local source you should be able to strike a deal with them, if you do the prep/polish work, thats the biggest expense in metal finishing anyway- also the other thing to consider, is steel and aluminum require two entirely different chemical lines, and they cannot share anything but 3 steps in a 10 step process

andy600rr · Post by **andy600rr** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:30 pm

Gold plating

Next thing you're gonna change your name to JOMA or Andy

Only j/k Matt.... he he he...

Post by **mhyde71** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:47 am

nah i just wanted to do screws
so i could get screws looking oem gold plated-

i'll take some pics of my "plating" work i did this past weekend-
BUT just to do screws - i didnt think dont think it would be all that much of a headache-
I AM NOT looking to be able to do sinks and shit-
friend of mine introduced me to this be cause he does the zinc plating for his gig. he refurbishes old stand up video games and he re-plates the screws that he is unable to source so they will be new again...

thats all- i just want screws.
no spray on, no ghetto set up- I have 50 and 100a power supplies and thought that perhaps one of those would/could be viable to do just screws.

I like the powder coating more so- because of the fact that it doesn't show up on OSHA's radar - powder being environmentally friendly and all.

SO yeah- just wanting to get into the gold plating for the screws...and small stuff- nothing to make a big splash with- My primary focus is and will continue to be the coatings...
BUT if i find that it is not feasible or viable- then i will consider just getting a fist full of screws and bringing it to a pro-plater and have them do it- just thought it would be cheaper if i did it myself if possible.

so yeah thats about it.

Artwork on coated amps is my next big thing- BUT i also need/want to source gold plated OEM PG screws