I made a motorized basket with a blasting nozzle rest to go inside my blast cabinet. Set the PSI to about 35-40 psi, put a few pounds of nuts, bolts, misc into the basket and walk away for an hour or so. Blasting is important to make sure the zinc sticks properly.
Then, there are lots of zinc platers out there. You would be surprised. I have to drive about 30 miles but the last batch I did was 60 cents a pound. Since they are clean already, they dont go thru the entire process, so its cheaper. Also, I had about 100 pounds so I may have gotten a discount. But even if you did 10 pounds at 5$ a pound, its still reasonable. It wont be that much. Then you dont have to worry about EPA regs.
Then, to top it off, they didnt use Zinc plating in the 50s, they used a much less politically correct CAD plating which would have the EPA spinning in their ergonomic office chairs! There are a few CAD platers left, but none in our area. Way more expensive these days.
Last edited by Deve; 10/27/2014 2:18 AM. Reason: last paragraph
