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Chorming galvanized steel saw horses

I am a designer in Chicago and wanted to know what your expert advice would be on chroming galvanized steel sawhorses? Will the chroming adhere to the medium? The sawhorses will have light use in a studio rather than for sawing or the like. I am interested in doing this, but have no experience with the plating process and the longevity of it on this surface. Also, will the chroming process fuse any moveable joints on a sawhorse (the sawhorse has horizontal braces that fold out like a ladder would)? Should the sawhorse be disassembled before chroming?

Gabrielle Steinbach
Steinbach Design - Chicago, Illinois, USA
2005

2005

"Galvanized" means the item (which is usually steel) has been hot dipped in zinc. The plating shop will strip this zinc coating before they do the nickel-chrome plating. Yes, the parts should be disassembled before plating.

Nickel plating would be easier than nickel plus chrome plating and might be satisfactory, although not quite as shiny. One issue is that chrome plating has very poor "throwing power" or coverage and it takes a great deal of custom work to get full coverage if there are any recesses, etc.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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