Galvanizing Chain, How Too?

[sycankiz]

I'm sure all of you know this but it doesn't hurt to write once more.

We reverse the chain every season/year once. Meaning, the next year we use the other end of it in the water (attached to the anchor). The previous years anchor end now stays in the chain locker. This helps to have a longer life on the chain.

Won't be able to help you on where to get it Galvanized in US, but I've done mine last year here in Turkey for 400 TL (abt 250 USD) 40 meters of 10 mm chain (about 120 feet, 3/8 i presume) including the 16 kg anchor.

One thing important about it is to maintain the exact same chain caliber after it is galvanized, so feel free to discuss with your chosen shop on how many microns of coating will be applied and why as this can be controlled during the process of hot dipped galvanizing. Electrode-galvanizing is something else and would be too much costly I suppose.

Also there will be scales of zinc attached/embedded/stuck to the chain links after it is galvanized, some more some less, depending on the capabilities and thoroughness of the workshop, so it is a good idea to take care of those before you install and start using the chain. This can be a pain in the neck during any anchoring-retrieving process as the chain links tend to stuck in the windlass, often when at times when you have to be quick. Each chain link must be free of their neighbors and be able to rotate individually. Lightly hammering the chain links and hand testing along the whole length will do it.

Cheers

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by s/v 'Faith'

On a slightly unrelated, but important note... The picture above showed a CQR in the truck too. Before I bought my Manson Supreme (and never looked. Back) I priced re-galv of my CQR and found it was both expensive, and that the lead weight added to the underside of the plough in a genuine CQR made it difficult to recoat. Not stating as fact, but something anyone might want to look into if considering recoating a CQR.

Correct on the CQR. Replaced with 121# ROCNA 55. CQR is stored spare. The rest of the stuff is the emergency tiller.

I suggest the process I note above is painless, affordable, lower heat. Plater claims longer life than galvanize; harder surface due to alloying the zinc in the powder coat process. Also, as noted by others, hot zinc plating requires special machinery and preparation. The chain needs to come out of the molton zinc and shaken vigorously to prevent the links form fusing while maintaining the integrity of the plating. The process emits vaporized zinc and is extremely toxic. In our search prior to replating, I did find a very few places that could do it properly.

[Andrew Troup]

Couple of points of clarification

Firstly , "Plating" is probably a term best avoided in connection with hot dip processes, because you can cover chain with zinc by plating, much prettier than hot dip, but will not last as it's very thin. Consequently if you're not careful with terminology, you may get something you don't want and can't use.

(Plating is usually but not always an electrical process, ie with an anode and a cathode, and does not involve molten metal, but dissolved metallic salts, not necessarily heated)

Secondly, like many people I used to believe the conventional wisdom that genuine CQR anchors had lead in the tip. I was mystified how they got it in, (and how you would get it out in preparation for regalv, as many sailors claimed to have done), when I bought a genuine CQR and inspected it closely. I was also interested to find that the original Taylor patent makes no mention of a ballasted tip, lead or otherwise, other than the steel shank to which the ploughshares are welded.

It turns out that in the time that Simpson Lawrence, and subsequently Lewmar, have been making them, no lead has been involved.

I think a search on this very forum will reveal the text of the letter from a Simpson Lawrence/Lewmar rep on the subject, of which this is an excerpt:

It is believed that a very limited number of the very early (pre-Simpson-Lawrence, before they purchased CQR) anchors may have had lead for tip ballast. None of the drawings S-L bought when they acquired the manufacturing rights to the CQR (pre-1982 to my knowledge at least) mention the use of lead. Simpson Lawrence has never produced any CQR anchor at any time no matter the size using lead as weight in the ballast. If somebody has a CQR anchor with lead ballast and it says 'CQR' tell them they have a rare CQR anchor that has not been seen by any of the Simpson Lawrence staff and it is an antique that predates our involvement with these anchors.

I too would be interested to hear from anyone who has first hand knowledge of a genuine CQR from which they were able to extract some lead.

[Andrew Troup]

Thanks Nich58 for the info about ArmorGalv.

It looks particularly attractive for recoating High Tensile Chain (for those who use it: I'm not a fan, personally)

I say that because of the lower temperature, which cannot be a bad thing, but especially because they specifically claim "NO hydrogen embrittlement", which if they're correct would be a big peace of mind issue.

They also claim a uniform coating thickness, which is never a strong point for hot-dip, and particularly difficult to ensure when hot-dipping chain in anything less than a continuous production process. They also say they can get up to 0.006", (presumably only on special request) whereas they quote 0.004" for hot dip (the latter I think is a fair assessment)

As for the claimed hardness: 38/42 Rockwell C scale: that's extraordinary. As a rule of thumb, "machinable" steel (at least prior to the widespread use of carbide tooling) was generally expected to be softer than 35 on the same scale.
Native zinc is way too soft to be measured on the HRc scale at all: it's about 30 Brinell in the rolled condition...

It would be great to hear back from you after a few years in the field: it sounds like a very appealing proposition if it's anywhere near as good as the claims.