Ever Get A Non-Chrome Tool Chromed?

[ChevyEFI]

What did it run you and how big was the item?

How were the results versus the typical name brand ratchet, wrench, or extension?

If it's the right price, I might do it vs. buying the tool from the truck.

 

[HMCFab9]

Any chrome plating on anything is crazy expensive.

 

[devoncoolman]

Good quality plating is big money. Individual pieces is expensive.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Chrome plating is expensive on a custom basis, but there is a lot of work in polishing. A LOT. Most people think the item is just dipped in the tank and all is well. I have been a commercial customer of a plating shop for 39 years, having literally tons of parts done in both nickel and nickel/chrome. For my batch production parts, I can get a piece of 3/4" DOM steel tubing 6" long chrome plated for 30 cents, No polishing, but I am having hundreds of pieces done at a time. Nickel barrel plating, which is tumble plating, costs me $1.15 a pound for small washers and such. These parts are simply poured in the barrel plater and tumbled during plating. Nickel has a yellowish tint, relative to the shinier chrome. For rack plating, the normal process is plating with copper, folowed by nickel for depth and luster, followed by chrome. Like most other finishes, the preparation labor is where the costs are. The costs of EPA compliance are rather strong, and you understand when you see a tank labelled as Cyanide.

 

[Packard V8]

Lessee, the manufacturers are set up and automated to do plating on tens of thousands of tools every day and we're going to save money by taking in one tool to joe=local=plating?

jack vines

 

[spacedoutbob]

Years ago before the EPA got involved, I had a old Snap-On Ratchet chrome plated and gave it to my Snap On Man. It cost me $15.00 (1978) It was a ratchet that was made in Milwaukee.. I wonder if he still has it.

Bob

 

[ilovevocs]

As stated above the bulk of the cost is in the polishing. If you can perform the polishing, you will find that more platers will be willing to plate for you. Many don't want to mess with the polishing as small parts are tedious and unless their a custom shop, I have found that most are not setup for it. In my area u have a few commercial places that plate bumpers and such for the oem's. if I polished it I could probably get it played for $10.00. If I took it in with a large qty of items it would be less. I chromed and atv frame a few years back and the charged me $150.00 for just the plating.

Either you love polishing or you hate it; I used to really enjoy it. My love affair with chrome has faded and my projects don't include much any more, so I polish less and less as time goes by.


To the poster making the comment about the cost vs. buying chrome, I'm assuming this wrench has some sort of historical or sentimental significance for the OP that exceeds its replacement value.

 

[Packard V8]

If it's the right price, I might do it vs. buying the tool from the truck.

To the poster making the comment about the cost vs. buying chrome, I'm assuming this wrench has some sort of historical or sentimental significance for the OP that exceeds its replacement value.

Only the OP can definitively state his case, but if it's still available on the truck . . .

Second thought, a young friend had a ratchet he'd been given by his father when he was a teenager. It had gotten rusty and some chrome was peeling. He wanted to have rechromed to show his father how much he appreciated him. Nice sentiment, but removing the remaining chrome was a very time consuming operation. While a few areas had peeled, the rest was stuck tight. How would our experts remove chrome for replating?

jack vines

 

[gary300]

Acme chrome disolver, of course!

 

[SpiderGearsMan]

can't think of anything better to post up ??

 

[kythri]

If this is a tool that wasn't previously chromed, I'd be concerned about the chrome plating altering tolerances - i.e. your 1/2" wrench with an industrial finish that you decided to chrome is now no longer a 1/2" wrench, but a fraction smaller.

Re-chroming something that has failed chrome? Unless there's some kind of provenance, seems far more hassle than it's worth.

What's the polishing process on mass-produced tools? I always thought those got dumped into tumblers with various types of media to get the uber-shiny finish to them...

 

[rusty65]

If this is a tool that wasn't previously chromed, I'd be concerned about the chrome plating altering tolerances - i.e. your 1/2" wrench with an industrial finish that you decided to chrome is now no longer a 1/2" wrench, but a fraction smaller.

Re-chroming something that has failed chrome? Unless there's some kind of provenance, seems far more hassle than it's worth.

What's the polishing process on mass-produced tools? I always thought those got dumped into tumblers with various types of media to get the uber-shiny finish to them...

Your right on the dot the tolerances would be shot. There was a thread from way back discussing where a flea market vender bought up old Mac and snap on tools and rechrome plated the tools and made the tools fit small because of the extra layer added so your 1/2 wrench became like a worn out 7/16. And to add he sold them as new so they will look pretty but not exactly useable.


Sent directly from the Snap On Kool Aid factory.

 

[gary300]

can't think of anything better to post up ??

Just adding a little humor. Chrome plating would be very difficult to remove other than ginding it off somehow.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Only the OP can definitively state his case, but if it's still available on the truck . . .

Second thought, a young friend had a ratchet he'd been given by his father when he was a teenager. It had gotten rusty and some chrome was peeling. He wanted to have rechromed to show his father how much he appreciated him. Nice sentiment, but removing the remaining chrome was a very time consuming operation. While a few areas had peeled, the rest was stuck tight. How would our experts remove chrome for replating?

jack vines

Not an expert, but with chemical stripping, or reverse polarity electrolysis.

 

[Major Ramifications]

My tightwad dad had some parts chrome plated when he was restoring his '41 Ford. Even as a kid, I was struck at how CHEAP it was to have it done, and he explained that it was only cheap because he had done all of the prep work, stripping, smoothing, sanding, polishing.

I had the front bumper re-chromed on my '66 Charger, and it was not expensive at all. I think they even had to straighten it first.

All this was back before the country became socialist.

 

[ChevyEFI]

Only the OP can definitively state his case

Why would I do that? You guys are having way too much fun with this.

If I don't update this, Jack was right.

 

[zkling]

How would our experts remove chrome for replating?

Depends on how much you value your future health and the environment. Most shops use a electrolysis hot bath w/ NaOH that will electro chemically strip the chrome in no time. Downside is that the waste solution and fumes are considered a very hazardous waste and thus have to be handled properly.

Media blasting or other abrasive works good, but you have to keep in mind what is below the chrome plating that may be effected by the media blasting. Most good chrome jobs are chrome ontop of a copper coat on top of the actual piece.

I've blued (black oxide), parkerized, browned, french grey. Some pieces that were once chrome plated. Pretty easy to do at home. I've thought about setting up a small chrome tank at home, but always concluded that the risk was not worth it. I like to restore old, POS looking rifles. By the time I get them majority of the chrome and original bluing is gone.

 

[Kevin54]

The shop I worked at has their own plating department. Nickel, Cadmium, anodizing, but no chrome. Like Occupant stated, polishing is a very tedious job. Anything missed in polishing will most likely show up in plating.

A few years back, we were going to move from our old plant into the newer plant. To move the plating department was over a million dollars just by itself. They decided to leave manufacturing in the old plant. Now mind you that over the years they went from having some metal tanks to all poly tanks, composite grids in the floors, a wastewater treatment department and other items. They had to put a huge filtered vacuum system in to pull out the fumes from the department but could not release any toxic chemicals in the air. It was close to $500,000 to upgrade more than what had been upgraded. Also, if ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING, chemical wise would make it to the local sewer system, there will be HUGE fines.

A few years back, someone from the cleaning company dumped a mop bucket of water in the sink. The way they found out was fine bits of grit and some metal shavings. In a week we had a complete new cleaning company in with very strict warnings about anything dumped in the sinks. Anything like that now had to be classified as hazardous all for the fact that there may be Beryllium Copper shavings, spilled coolant where parts were taken out of the machines, and a multitude of other things. So any mop water, water trays from a grinder, old coolant being replaced in machines, now go into 55 gallon drums clearly marked HAZARDOUS.

So a plating facility that does nothing but plating have expensive permits, and real hefty fines. Our plating department is relatively small compared to places that plating is their soul business. They have to charge for all of the chemicals, the chemicals have to be routinely switched out now, and depending on the company, the larger the company, the more barrels of hazardous waste they will have. Companies have come a long way with reclaiming a lot of the chemicals, but for the most part a tanker truck comes in and will pump out all of the storage barrels and plating tanks or the chemical recycling department. Most companies don't want the hassle of having to certify their own drivers to carry hazardous waste somewhere, so they hire companies that are specifically designed to do that. And again, at a large cost to the plating company.

 

[OccupantRJ]

My plater brothers have been in business so long that they are granfathered in on hexavalent chrome, and if someone opened a new plating facility that they would only be able to do trivalent chrome, if I understood them correctly. When they die, someone is going to have one hell of a Hazmat area on their hands. They do great plating work, but the place looks like a hoarder's junkyard of cast-off equipment, barrels of chemicals, and who knows what else. EVERYTHING that is not plastic or stainless gets eaten alive by the chemical vapors.