DIY - Chroming set ups?

[TorqueWrench]

So I did a search here and did not come up with much. I am not sure if this belongs here or on the tools section either.

But anyway, Have any of you guys done your own plating? I have seen the stuff on Casewells site and I do my own share of DIY - Powdercoating. I know I can buy their kit and book and have a go at it, but from the pics most of the stuff is readily availble to me, I just am not sure how to put it all together. So, if any of you guys have tried or have experience, please share.
I am looking at doing small vintage parts, so the Caswell copy chrome is what I was considering.

Thanks,

 

[rsanter]

the cost in cromeing is in the prep and polish. there is a shop I have used that will cad plate a 5 gal bucket of stuff for between $50 and $100
the crome will be a bit more but not too bad. they only do the plating, other shops do all the other work and send the plating work to them.

bob

 

[Cyberbear]

My first job was working in the family plating business. One thing I learned early was that kind of work is difficult and very dirty.
To properly chrome plate your own parts and have it really last is to use commercial equipment and supplies, which are costly. The metal polishing is pretty straight forward, but learning the chemical aspects takes some real training, especially if you have never been exposed to it before, and some of these chemicals can be very toxic.
Make plenty sure you really want to do this before getting set-up.

 

[Bigplum]

You can set up a nickel plating kit quite cheaply, works ok , gives a nice warm finish
chrome plating at home is a lot harder ,nasty chemicals and the like

 

[JoeFin]

hydrochloric, hydrofluoric, Ferric chloride and sulfuric acids.

tough list of chemicals to manage especially Hydrofluoric acid - it goes through your skin and eats your bones

 

[machineshop]

Hello Torquewrench,
a friend of mine does nickle plating of gunparts for several gunsmiths. When i first saw his work i thought the parts were chrome plated.
I remember that he had a DC transformator, two wires, a tank with a special liquid and this is it. You can get these parts cheaply, the liquid will be the most expensive of all those parts but he told me that it lasts very very long.
So if you want a chrome like finish, you can achieve this with nickle plating too, you only have to polish the metal before you plate it. If you want a satin finish you have to sandblast the metal before plating. You even can get a yellow or black surface with nickle plating when you use more ampere or leave it longer in the bath or something like that.
The polishing is a very dirty job but when you have the metal surface polished the rest is absolutely easy. Then there comes the plating process. For chrome plating you need more baths and so on, therefore i think its much more expensive.

As Bigplum said, think about nickel plating, its much cheaper and you wont see a difference. I remember a site, i think it was finishing.com, if you have difficult questions the guys in the forum there have a lot of knowledge in plating and surely will help you.

 

[ilovevocs]

I have chromed allot if parts and perform all the polishing myself. Once the parts are polished i take then to a local shop to chrome. If you want to save money on chrome this is the way to go. The investment for polishing equipment is minimal. If your looking for a hobby, then maybe try to setup at home. Major issue for me was size limitations of a home shop setup. Small equipment can be made to work to polish large parts, no so much with plating.


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