Letter 4125

HOW TO SET-UP A SIMPLE HOME ELECTROPLATING SYSTEM. 

- HI, MY NAME IS RAY. AS A HOBBY I RECONDITION OLDER MOTORCYCLES. I FREQUENTLY HAVE THE NEED TO CHROME PLATE OR NICKEL PLATE SOME COMPONENTS. I AM WONDERING IF IT IS FEASIBLE TO SET UP A PLATING SYSTEM IN MY GARAGE? I NEED TO KNOW WHAT A SIMPLE START-UP SYSTEM WOULD TAKE. I UNDERSTAND ONLY THE BASIC CONCEPT OF HOW ELECTROPLATING WORKS SO PLEASE BE SIMPLISTIC ON ME. HOPEFULLY WAITING !!! RAYMOND J [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting] HOLYOKE, MA USA - Our Introduction to Chrome Plating will explain those concepts, Raymond, but unfortunately it may not prove practical for you due to OSHA safety regulations and EPA waste disposal regulations. The plating industry was the country's very first EPA regulated industry, and the burden of compliance is heavy even for full time businesses; and chrome plating solution is carcinogenic (think Erin Brokovich and hexavalent chrome). If you are charge a friend a couple of dollars to plate something, suddenly you are in the business and subject to reporting and disposal requirements that would shock you. So please start by investigating the regs before buying anything. Good luck! Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey . Funny, I have seen chrome plating kits in motorcycle mags. One long ago for 25 bucks. Recently for more but I can't remember where or how much. I want to plate the slides in Amal carbs. I am sure that this would improve their reliability. If you have any info on who would do this, please let me know. p.r.k - g'ville, fl us Ed. note: Please include your full name on your followup, p.

PRK,

To answer your question of who would do it for you, plating is a jobshop-oriented industry, and you should be able to find plating shops who will plate your carburetor parts in your yellow pages or right here in our Jobshop Directory.

Yes, you probably saw plating kits for $25 but not chrome plating kits.

If you wish to investigate entry level electroplating (although I think you're low by a factor of about 10 to 100 these days), contact a supplier of brush plating equipment and small systems like the site's supporting advertisers Brooktronics, GoldTouch, LDC, or Sifco. But if you spend some more time at this site, reviewing letters from earlier posters with similar interests to yours, you'll see why we urge caution and investigating the regs before you buy the chemicals. Good luck!

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

Raymond J of Holyoke MA asked about a home plating system. Did any one answer him ? If so what is the answer? I want to chrome plate my auto parts and will be 6' L x18" W

James D [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting]
- Sylacauga, AL, USA

Second of two simultaneous responses +++ I am curious how well these home brush-based chroming kits. In particular, I have an old 1970's bicycle with chrome forks and rear stays, and chrome lugs. The chrome is almost intact, but there are lots of sand-sized rust specs in places. If I can clean off the sand-sized rust specs, what will be the result of chroming using one of these home kits ($30 from JC Whitney, etc.) I am not looking for a perfect job, I'm looking for something that looks good at 5 feet and protects the finish so it doesn't rust anytime soon. Donald G [name deleted for privacy due to age of posting] - San Diego, CA +++ James, brush plating and minimal tank plating is not impossible; we mentioned and linked some suppliers already. But you seem to be speaking of an automobile bumper or some other very big copper-nickel-chrome plated item, and this would be a huge undertaking both in how much you'd need to learn to apply all the layers, and the effort of plating such a large item with a tiny stylus. Donald, I don't think JC Whitney offers one anymore, but there is an under-$70 tin-zinc system available from The Eastwood Company: Click on the graphic to go to Eastwood and look around. They even have a movie of the system. Ours is an industrial site where people typically spend between 5,000 and 50,000 times as much for a plating system. We're not trying to talk you into or out of a $70 investment. But quality plating with a real plating outfit is hard. Quality plating with a toy can be a bad joke. To chrome plate James' bumper with a plating cell like the kits you refer to, would require thousands upon thousands of AA batteries. Your job is smaller, but look up Faraday's Law and figure out how many dozens of batteries you would need. And then you still have the issue of preparing the substrate so that your plating won't peel off, the fact that it's not really chrome and it won't match, etc. Our concern isn't whether you spend $70, but with not tempting you out onto a slippery slope that can pollute the land and possibly beset you with huge fines. Good luck! Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Chromium Plating, Weiner & Walmsley Hard Chromium Plating, Robert K. Guffie Electroplating Engineering Handbook, Lawrence Durney Water and Waste Control for the Plating Shop, Kushner & Kushner

I use a home kit frequently to chrome aluminum pieces. Just have to treat it first - remove the oxide layer and apply a layer of zinc - I use a zincate solution.

MW Jansen
- Southern California, USA

This is just a comment, you can ignore it, but I don't think you will be able to based on the NUMEROUS posts in the past.

This site DEFINITELY overstates dangers of home plating, I personally believe the reason is that if everyone found out how EASY it is to plate at home, the commercial shops would lose, LARGE...including yourselves.

I have been plating at home for years now, no problems. I find that there are dangers to EVERYTHING that a do-it-yourselfer must be careful of. Your attitude on this subject is "Don't get into woodworking at home, you could cut your hands of what with all those power tools." or "Don't get into painting at home what with all those fumes"

Honestly, RUBBISH!

How about doing us and yourself a favour and start posting educational responses to peoples questions and drop the 'tude.

Go ahead, blast me too. Oh yeah, I do take my waste to proper waste management facilities. Any "SHOP" can make mistakes as easily as a home do-it-yourselfer.

Jim M
- Kingston, ON, Canada

Jim: you are right that I won't ignore your posting; I'm the site host and my job is to respond to postings not to ignore them. No one is compelling you to take my advice if you don't like it. But I don't own or manage a plating shop, never did, never will; so your claims of ulterior motive just paint you as petulant and childish.

Here on this site is all the space you want, free of charge, to tell people anything you want from what you've learned in your years of plating at home.

This site also includes thousands of pages of information for students, plus plating book reviews, links to plating educational societies and training sessions, a calendar of events of where you can attend free plating lectures, Mil and ASTM plating standards, addresses of free plating libraries, and tens of thousands of highly detailed responses to plating questions and problems. We never censor postings (except ads), so please share your plating experience to help others instead of complaining that I'm not doing enough.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

YES I AGREE PLS POST EDUCATIONAL RESPONSES ABOUT CHROME/GOLD PLATING JUST LIKE ANY THING ITS DANGEROUS..YOU AUTA SAY DONT DRIVE A CAR YOU MIGHT GET IN A ACCIDENT..IF THE MARKET FOUND OUT ABOUT THE PROFITS THEY MAKE THEY WOULD LOOSE $$..IVE BEEN PLATING GOLD FOR OVER 1 YEAR NOW WITH NO PROBLEMS NOW IM EXPANDING INTO GOLD..WITH OR WITHOUT YOUR COMMENTS..FOR ANY ONE INTERESTED IN CHROME OR GOLD PLATING YES YOU CAN DO IT IN HOME THEY ARE MAKING MORE AND MORE SYSTEM FOR THE HOME OWNER..GOOD LUCK CAUSE IVE HAD IT..AND ITS NOT JUST ME..!!

tyrone b
- louisville,kentucky USA

Tyrone: This isn't the Hotel California; any time you've "had it", you can leave. But you, too, are welcome to tell people how to do electroplating at home. We'll give you all the space you want and it won't cost you a dime. So get on it -- or is your posting just vacuous bitching?

Your analogy that our warnings are similar to telling people not to drive because they might get in an accident is a great one, thanks! The government requires that every driver be trained, tested, and licensed; the government requires that every vehicle be registered, inspected, and insured. If you don't comply, you'll be fined or even jailed.

Similarly, the government requires training, testing, and licensing of all plating shops and their employees. Operate without the registrations, the discharge permits, the testing of bath surface tensions, the waste accumulation records, the manifesting, the annual hazwoper certification, or without advising your neighbors of the materials that you have on hand (Community Right-To-Know law), and you are subject to fines or even jail time. I know two plating shop managers who did hard time.

Yes, you can probably get away with driving without a license or insurance. And in my experience as well as your own, you can probably illegally operate a small plating business and stay below the radar. And, if you never sell a plated product or your plating service, and it's 100 percent hobby, some of the regulations do not apply. But if a neighbor child contracts cancer, for any of a thousand natural reasons, and her parents find out that you were chrome plating in your garage (which releases very highly concentrated hexavalent chromium fumes into the air), God help you.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

Chrome plating in your garage!!! Cover ups and conspiracies!!!
I was born into a custom chrome plating business. I worked there as a young teenager. I'm in my mid fifties now. Custom chrome plating is all I have ever done. I run the business. I know every aspect. I have done everything. Metal stripping, polishing, bead blasting, cleaning and activating for plating, cyanide copper plating, acid copper plating, nickel plating, chrome plating, customer relations, reporting to various agencies (EPA, DNR, local sewer districts, Etc.) All accounting and payroll. I know I am missing a few things, but I think Ted will understand.

And now Tyrone says its a big cover up to deny people a chance to make millions in their garage. Oh Lord! Maybe we need a Canadian disposal place that doesn't require permits and testing as inferred in an earlier comment. To think all the years wasted when I could have done it in my garage and made millions!

Frank DeGuire Triangle Plating Co. St. Louis, Missouri, USA

To MW Jansen: how about some details. I want to touch up a couple spots of chrome sheet metal.

volts, amps, source of solution what are anode and cath materials temp? etc

GF Kron
- Novato, CA, USA

Hi to those of you who will answer questions and not whine. I was wanting to replate the pot metal parts from my 68 El Camino what's the best way to prep the parts with moderate pitting and should they be treated as an aluminum part in the plating process? Last but not least if your not willing to eat it or drink it then treat it as a nasty substance be responsible. Dumping it down the drain goes right back into your drinking water. Thanks

Michael Walters
novice - Gap, PA, USA

Hi, Michael. I am not confident when someone says "potmetal" that the parts are actually zinc diecastings as opposed to aluminum diecastings (they look just about identical although aluminum is significantly lighter). But a 1968 car probably used zinc diecastings rather than aluminum, so zincating probably isn't necessary.

It isn't easy to fix those pits because the porosity absorbs water and plating solutions, thus causing contamination; plus the absorbed water or gases can come back as steam when the parts are heated and that cause holes and blisters. But the usual way to deal with pitted diecastings for restoration is to copper plate them in cyanide copper plating solution and "mush buff"; this means basically to "mush" the soft copper plating into the pits by/while buffing. After the pits are pretty much filled with copper you can go on to more copper plating, then nickel plating, then chrome plating. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

Could I electroplate with a AAA (1.5 volts)?

Joe Wilson
hobbyist - Virginia Beach

For the purposes of a grammar school or early high school science project, yes you certainly can, Joe. Beyond that we'd need details of what you hope to do, though. Look into Faraday's Law because plating is energy intensive and that AAA battery is only going to be able to electroplate a barely visible layer of metal on an item the size of a quarter before it's exhausted.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

I have no experience with plating, but I have a great deal of experience with OSHA and EPA. The thing that would scare me the most about plating in my garage and diposing of the hazardous waste is this. Even if I did all the paperwork it requires to order, store and use the materials, then to dispose of the materials as hazardous waste, the thing that would not let me sleep another night I lived is the "Cradle to Grave" rule by EPA. Once you dispose of the material, the paperwork has to be maintained forever! And should the container you dispose of this material in should leak, then you the disposer are responsible and legally liable. The cost of a cleanup could be millions, and the fine is $25K per day until it is cleaned up. And you have to pay to reseal the junk, restore the junk and that means everyone else's junk stored with it. I just want to know, since I am just starting, what a fair price to pay for plating. I am restoring an old car and I want to plate the bumpers etc. What would be a fair price?

Gus Weaver
hobbyist - Harrodsburg, KY, USA

Hi, Gus. The biggest cost of plating, especially replating old stuff, is labor cost. It would be fair for a plating shop to charge you about the same amount for their time as a plumber or mechanic would -- maybe just a little more because of the cost of material and because a plating shop's equipment costs more than a plumber's equipment.

So the real issue is how long will it take, and this will depend on the condition (how much buffing and polishing is required) and on how high quality the job is. Reworking a single old bumper involves more labor than manufacturing from scratch a new mass-produced one. So, unfortunately, it will cost about the same as a new bumper.

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

Ted is on the money with everything he has said. I began looking around for a home based chrome plating kit...thinking it was that easy. It costs about $500 here to strip, repair and rechrome a vehicle bumper. In my wisdom, I thought I could do it for next to nothing. I came up against ALL the hurdles Ted has mentioned. I paid the $500 and have a fantastic bumper and no headaches. I am impressed with your site and knowledge Ted...keep up the good work mate....Peter

Peter Carey
- Perth, Western Australia

Hi I can give you a good answer to this. I purchased some paint called Mirrorchrome from the company ALSA Paints. I have never in my life seen a chrome paint that actually shines like chrome until now. It took me several tries but finally after the fifth one I figured it out.

You prep your item just as you would for any paint job then spray on a Black gloss, I used an over the counter Base clear black. Clear coat it, then comes the tough part, wet sand it all the way to 4000 grit then polish it to a mirror shine then just spray on the chrome it takes about 15-20 min to flash over then polish it with a lint free cloth then let it cure for an hour then spray a coat of the clear over it. I did find you have to use a base clear clearcoat all others put a haze over the chrome. Anyway check out Alsa and see their videos; it does work.

Scott Lancaster
- Norridgewock, Maine United States

Hi, Scott. We normally discuss things in generic terms here rather than bringing specific company names into it because, with the anonymity of the internet, there is often a race to the bottom when people compare brands. Plus, we really can't ask the site's supporting advertisers to pay for our publishing of testimonials to their competitors.

But Alsa helps make this site possible, and chrome-like paint is, for the amateur, a great alternative to real chrome plating. We thank you for providing so much exact detail on what worked!

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. 
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey