Thread: Chrome Plating

I have looked into this before, and my final conclusion was that I didn't want the chemicals used in chroming in my house... even in my garage. Hydrochloric and sulfuric acids are used in the cleaning process of chroming as the item you are going to chrome plate. In fact, most good chrome work goes through a multi-stage process:

1. Stripping (removing paint/rust)
2. Polishing (sanding)
3. Cleaning (acid bath)
4. Copper Plating
5. Nickel Plating
6. Chrome Plating

I believe an acid bath is required after the copper plating before you move to nickel, but I am not sure.

Basically, not only is the process pretty difficult, but it involves too many different chemicals, is quite hazardous to your health, and requires a proper disposal at a haz mat dump, I found it was much more convenient to take the parts to a local motorcycle shop and have them do the coating.

Another option for you would be powder coating them, which would probably be cheaper than chroming and just as durable. I have powder coated many parts for my guitars, amps, and yes, even for my PC. Like the chroming, I have a friend at a custom bike shop that has connections with a good powder coating place.

You would want to disassemble everything as the part have to be coated and put into the oven individually, and when you get them back, you might be surprised at the thickness of the coating. Some things don't fit back together as closely as they did before the process, but in most cases, I was able to reassemble everything again without any major problems.

Powder coating is almost always preferred on hardware as unlike paint, it wont chip and peel. It isn't perfect, but you can try to scratch the hell out of it with tools and nothing will happen as it is bonded to the metal.