TIN PLATING CONCENTRATE - Makes 1.75 Gallons

I've had the tin plate kit for 8 years and never set it up because the project got cancelled. Started a new project that needed tin plating so I opened up the kit and mixed up the baths to run my first parts: It was VERY easy to set up using battery acid (Sulfuric acid) from the car parts store and distilled water from the grocery store in one of the 2 gallon buckets included in the kit. Into the second 2 gallon bucket went the degreasing detergent powder with another gallon of distilled water (Only used half the bag). The plating power source was my CC/CV bench power supply from my lab. The parts I plated were a stack of 6" x 3" copper bus bars with about 28sq-in of total surface area each. The tin anode was one of the 4"x8" plates included in the kit, bent over the side of the bucket so that it was about 50% immersed and hung the bus bars, one at a time on copper wire hooked to a 1/2" pipe on the bucket rim. The wash and plate buckets were heated to about 160F using the included 300W glass heaters. I ran the bus bars one at a time at 3A, or about 0.1A/sq-in after adjusting the current between 1 and 6 amps until I got a good looking surface. Plating time was about 3 minutes and resulted in a VERY good looking surface. I also did a test plate of some scrap PCB material of about the same surface area and plating time and measured a plating thickness of 0.0015". Solderability testing of the plated surface with a 500C iron and 60/40 tin/lead solder was exceptional without the burn off that you get with low deposition rate electoless plating baths. Very excited to plate the rest of my parts.