has any one ever tred doityourself plating. i know this involes poisons, well with chrome. but i dont like having to replace usable nuts,n bolt and having to paint some rare small parts that should be plated. this can get spendy even for a motorcycle esp if its early british witworth (3rd size) bolts. any one ever used a kit?-josh
http://www.riogrande.com here is a link to riogrande jewelry supply...they have fairly inexpensive plating systems.... if your interested in plating...their tools and equipment catalog is well worth the ten bucks.....beware...you'll find lots of things to spend your money on
I bought one of those Caswell kits when I was building motorcycles......LOTS of work. You have to be willing to spend a lot of time experimenting with it to get it right. When I say lots of time, I mean LOTS OF TIME. After screwing around with that thing for a few months, I understand why chrome shops charge so much. On the upside, the people at Caswell are VERY helpful, and are available to answer any questions you have, and help with problems you run into.
Firstly finish is only as good as the prep. Unsealed nickel(unchromed) goes yellow then darker and can get quite ugly. Federal law requires that ALL plating tanks are declared to the state they are in. Plating tanks are required to be kept inside a retaining tank to trap any spill. Top up chemicals are very expensive and required quite regularly. Who will ****yse your chemicals once they get tired? What will you do about waste rinsewater? Discharge of contaminated rinse water is not only illegal but also incredibly expensive if D.E.P. catch you. If they find contaminated soil policy is excavate 15ft in all directions AFTER clean soil is found. Nickel also has to be carbon filtered quite regularly to keep down organic contamination. A pump for circulating the nickel has to be made from ***anium (very expensive) as it will corrode stainless steel. Regular air compressors cannot be used as air is too dirty. Alongside the nickel you will need a metal activator and rinse, damn good alkaline cleaning tank and rinse. Buff machine, Blah... Blah.... I don't know too much about Caswells service but the guy who runs Hobbyplating is now in jail facing something like 30 federal charges, his bond I am told is set at 600,000 dollars.( Thought you had to kill people to get bonds that high) Be careful what you get into and make sure you are fully informed.
As an after thought, I was working things out for another guy the other day. I was told my initial set up would be $18,400 I am now out around $50,000 and still can't do everything I was supposed to be set up for. I reckon it will take another 10 to 15 grand to keep me compliant as I produce more waste. Then I find out the bigger chrome shops are doing stuff so cheap, it's not worth the bother to try and do any production work. I do most of my work customer direct and with the boat builders. Bike and car outlets are getting their chrome stupid cheap and out west it's all coming out of mexico. In the north it's going to Canada. $50,000 not so good an investment. Wish I'd plowed it into marketting my polishes, which have kept me from starvation.
The Jalopy Journal
