Art & Inspiration How old is chrome plating?

All I really know is that the process predates me. In my Bible, in 2 Chronicles 4:9 it says "He made the court of the priests and the great court with its gates and plated the gates with bronze." Industrial processes amaze me.

 

According to Wikipedia: "Electroplating was invented by Italian chemist Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli in 1805.".

 

Chrome plating on cars started in earnest towards the end of the 1920s prior to that brightwork was usually nickel plate.

Your biblical quote is about attaching sheets of metal to a wooden gate.

 

Hammering sheets of gold or silver and electro plating are 2 different things.

wonder if I can hammer a sheet of chrome?

Could use aluminum foil

 

How did the world work without wikipedia?

 

Like this, someone asked a question, someone else knew the answer.
I know about the gates thing from going to the British museum and seeing the Assyrian gates there.

 

Use to be these books called encyclopedias.

 

Some things were harder, a lot of stuff was the same.
Some people are smarter now, and a lot of people are at least as stupid as they were then.

 

It’s kinda like the tin foil on the chocolate money and Easter bunny’s

 

on a related note, I have always wondered why the change from nickel plated to chrome.

 

Guessing that Chrome is more durable, long term.
Also more shiny, done correctly.

 

I am no expert but I "heard" somewhere that nickel would tarnish over time and chrome did not.

 

I believe the chrome is a sealant

 

I was wondering because I have been doing nickel plating in my garage and so far I can't tell the difference between it and chrome. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong.

 

Quality chrome plating is 'triple plating'. First coat is always copper. Think of copper as hi-build primer. it is plated on quite thick then polished to perfection eliminating any defects in the finish. Nickle is the main finish coat and is next in thickness. As mentioned above, if plated over properly prepared copper, nickel will look nearly as good as chrome but does have a slightly yellowish tint and it does tarnish and dull over time. Enter chrome. Think of chromium plating as the clear coat. It is just flashed over properly bright nickel. Nickel is still the 'color coat' and chrome just adds the pretty blue tint and doesn't oxidize as nickel does. Typical quality triple plating will have layers approximating this; 0.005” of copper, followed by 0.001” of nickel, then 0.00001” of chromium.

 

And then there is "Hard Chrome." This process plates chrome directly to the base metal and is used for a hard finish in high wear areas such as hydraulic rams, plungers, pump shafts, extrusion dies, and other things. It can be build up fairly thick. Just takes time. Where decorative chrome gets a few minutes plating time, a piece getting hard chrome can be in the tank for hours.
My father was a hard chrome plater during WW2 and through the 60s. I worked in his friend's hard chrome shop when I was young, in the 70s and early 80s.
Nasty, nasty stuff.

 

Funny you posted this, I saw these in person at the British Museum on Monday, flew home yesterday.

 

You had to polish nickel to make look as new, chrome not so much.

 

thanks for the explanation, - I never knew there was a difference, but had wondered about it !

 

I love chrome. I told my wife I liked the chrome streaks in her hair. That one cost me a trip to the salon.

 

You're lucky it wasn't a trip to the ER

 

In the end it worked out, she went for a summer blonde look. Feels like I'm cheating!

 

And when they say HARD, they mean it. Not fun to try and machine.

 

You do your own electroplating ?
Or "Electroless Nickle" ?

 

Well stated and explained! The bright work on cars followed the same sequence: first it was brass then it was nickel and finally chrome. Maybe I should add powder coating and wrapping for those who can bear the cost of triple chrome.

 

Yes, electroplating. There are a number of YouTube videos that are helpful. And of course some that aren't.

I did a number of test pieces before trying to ruin a good part. So far I have been limited to small stuff, bolts and brackets mostly.

 

Really can't cut it with conventional cutting tools. Can't drill it. It has virtually no tensile strength of it's own. We had cylindrical grinders for doing shafting and surface grinder for doing flat stuff, which wasn't often. That was my my primary job. Pre-grind prior to plating to get a blemish free surface, build up with hard chrome to over the finish size, then finish grind to size. Even did some crankshafts, but they were difficult to get even plating on. No automotive stuff. BIG cranks.

 

I used Carbide, still not easy. On the lathe, the first cut needs to be heavy enough to get under the Chrome.
On the mill, same idea but still used up a couple Carbide end mills, to make a 3/16" wide slot.

 

Back in 1969/70 when I was working in a plant that made things like TV dinner boxes and head an shoulders boxes there was a shop across the railroad tracks out back that redid and hard chromed railroad locomototive and probably other huge crankshafts that were brought in on rail cars. I ended up having a buddy who worked there who explained to me what hard chroming was.

 

I believe that the Internet gives the illusion that people are dumber today because, if you look at the Internet long enough, you'll eventually see every damned one of them.