On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 19:51:06 -0700, "Roger Shoaf"
wrote:

Here is a DIY kit for this process.

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/zinc.htm

This includes the brightener, and it does a very nice job.

Tip: the brightener is an organic chemical that degrades fairly
quickly (a few weeks) in the soup, making a muddy brown preciptate
that can only partially be filtered out with coffee filters. It
looks grotty, but doesn't seem to hurt anything.

You can tell when the brightener is depleted because it has a very
distinictive sweet odor. If the zinc soup doesn't have that aroma,
it needs another wee shot of brightener.

I've been running my bucket of zinc soup for several years, still get
good results.