Part size and shape limits

Your barrel platable parts are limited.

While some of these examples were "staged" to illustrate the potential problem, all of these situation DID occur either during testing, or actual plating operations.

Length

Length

Max length is limited by the size of the tub.  Anything longer than the axle-to-tub wall will get hung up at some time.  It will eventually break loose, but in the meantime, a hung part can carry the rest of the parts around with it, causing loss of electrical contact.  A narrower axle would allow longer parts.

Mixed sizes

Mixed sizes

Size mismatches can cause some problems.

Nuts and washers larger than bolts WILL eventually find their way on to a bolt.  They may or may not eventually fall off again.

Incompatibilities

Incompatibilities

Obviously, you don't want to run parts like these all together!

I didn't stage this photo.  It's from an actual dry-run test during prototyping!  These parts got jammed together tight w/in the first few minutes, and did NOT come apart again.

tooth_washers

tooth_washers

External tooth washers like these, WILL hang up often.  Specially if you throw them in with a bunch of other type parts.

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