Chrome plating an enclosure

[Ed G.]

There's a company around here that does chrome plating, a lot of his work is on motorcycle parts.
Now let's say I wanted to get a hammond box chromed. What would be my options on labeling and decorating the thing afterwards?
I always thought chrome would look so tuff.

[MartyB]

That would be awesome!  Could you mask and sandblast, or use etchant to label?   Maybe epoxy enamel the roughened areas in black or another dark color?

[Fret Wire]

You can do it yourself easily. I've been thinking about nickel, brass, and gold plating some boxes, but can't decide which ckt's are worthy. The box prep is more work than usual, but the plating is easy. Just one more step for plating aluminum than steel. I've been doing that for years with firearm parts, either for decorative purposes, hardness, or lubricity.

[guitarhacknoise]

hey edg, i'm not sure that it is possible to crome plate aluminum, you could buff the hell out of it and then polish it with say, mother's alum. polish, and then apply a heavy duty clear coat. but as far as croming it, you would probably have to use a steel enclosure.
i could be wrong (most always am!), so ask the guy and post the answer.
edit: see! freetwire posted the info as i was writing! i guess you can crome alum! :shock:

[Fret Wire]

Yes, you have to zinc coat the aluminum first. Nothing to hard to do. There are home electro plating kits that work nicely.

[Paul Marossy]

I've seen chrome plated aluminum before. It's just not as simple to do as say, steel. Anyhow, that would be cool. White silkcreened graphics on it might look kinda cool, too. I also like the "black chrome" look a lot.

[Fret Wire]

Nickel, gold, brass, and copper are easy to do. Only one more step in the process for aluminum. It's the surface prep that's more work. Primer and paint hide imperfections in the surface that the plating won't. The bottom's of boxes can be plated (sort of a waste), painted, or polished, then clear coated. Good quality clear decals for labeling. All platings would have be clear coated anyways to prevent tarnish. Like I said, been doing it for years.

Tomorrow I'll post some tips and suppliers for the kits.

[John Catto]

I get custom guitar parts plated fairly often and can say that Aluminium is definitely an issue, not just on the home plating level but also on the pro shop level. It seems to be more of an issue with cast ali than things fabricated from sheet. The issue as it has been explained to me by a number of different platers is that Aluminium is an "oxidiser", it becomes inhospitable to being plated too fast after being cleaned. Now, there are people who CAN do it, but we're probably talking about no more than 20% of the commercial platers out there, and of course as a rule they are by far the most expensive since it requires a far more expensive process. BTW all plating is multilayer, the usual routine is a light caustic bath to remove oils followed by an acid dip to flip the PH balance, next up is copper, then nickel then finally chrome. One thing that occurs to me is I'm not sure those boxes are actually Aluminium, rather I think they are some sort of Zinc alloy and as such pretty easy to plate. One thing to remember is that with plating the finished surface is essentually what you started with, it needs to be buffed out to a high polish before you plate, if it's matte with scratches then that's what it will look like after plating.

Another thing to remember about platers (other than Jewellry platers) is they mostly work on a minimum charge basis ie. it costs the same to get 10 objects plated as it does to get just one, it's all in the setup.

[Nasse]

They used to use polished aluminium in car body parts in 60´s, looks quite similar to chromed

I believe you need to protect it with laqcuer

[Fret Wire]

The basic steps are suface prep and polish, degreasing, base plate (copper), then the desired plate finish. Gold usually requires nickel plating first. Aluminum oxidizes so rapidly that plating will not adhere. Zinc (Zincate) coating first provides a base for the plating on Aluminum.

The small home kits all work the same. They contain a plating gel that has the actual plating metal in it. They usually include a metal plating brush, and some include a wall wart for power.

After the surface is prepped and degreased, you hook your current to the brush (+) and work to be finished (-). then you apply the gel with the brush. The current flows thru the gel and applies the plating metal to the surface. It takes less time than multiple coats of paint.

Usually 3 to 6 volts is all that's needed. Sometimes you increase the voltage for larger areas, less for gold plating (too much voltage for gold can burn the plating finish).

I use a plating kit made by:

Texas Plater's Supply
2453 Five Mile Pkwy
Dallas, Texas  75233
(214) 330-7168

Believe it or not, they have no website. They don't carry the zinc coating supplies. They carry the plating materials, the plating brush, and combo kits of different plating materials.

For power I've always used the Radio Shack (273-1662) Universal 1.5v-12v 300ma walwart. Works perfectly.

Caswell Inc. also sells many types of home kits. I don't like their brush, or the wallwart they include in some kits though. It should be adjustable. They have a great selection of plating materials.
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/plugnplate.htm (home kits)

Now, for aluminum boxes, Caswell carries the home Zincate solution. It's done right on the stove or hot plate. Just a simple heat and dip. No boiling temperatures, low heat required, less than baking paint. 75-125F.
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/zincate.htm

The box bottoms can be polished, painted, or plated. Plating is kind of a waste for the bottom, though.

For labeling, a good clear decal works nice. You should always lacquer the project to prevent tarnishing anyways. Another option is to use letter stamp punches to label the box. You would stamp the box first, prep and polish, plate, then fill in the stamps with paint sticks, then clearcoat over. You can get gold-leaf and silver-leaf paint sticks also.

If you farm out the plating, you also have the option of doing the prep work and zinc coatings yourself. The polishing and prep is where the labor is highest.

[Fret Wire]

There is another lettering option I forgot to mention. With the creative use of tape (electrical or masking), you can create designs with different plating metals. For instance, with chrome or nickel, you must copper plate first. You can use tape to creat designs, then nickel plate. After, you would have a chrome or nickel box with contrasting copper designs. You can also use tape to create contrasting finishes. Tape and sandblasting can create alternate gloss and matte finishes. Same with lettering. You can use store bought number and letter decals to label your box with contrasting plating metals. It's one of those "use your imagination" things. The possibilities are endless.

[J. Luja]

a nice example...
http://www.redwitchanalogpedals.com/pedals.html

[Fret Wire]

That is nice. Chrome is probably the only plating that wouldn't need to be clearcoated. Gold, nickel, copper, and brass would have to be. You could keep buffing them when they tarnish, but you would end up going through the plate eventually. The trick would be to take advantage of the chrome plated jacks, switches, LED betzels, and different style knobs to make a tastefull contrast.

[Marcus Dahl]

You could get your letters laser etched either bedfore plateing or after. It would create a different effect either way. Also you don't have to do the plating thing to get a chrome look. Auto parts stores have chrome aznd gold paints that could do a good job as well as anodized paints that are very durable. That way you can do some other things to prep your surface if you get a nasty looking Hammond box.

[BILLYL]

Micromark sells a plating system
http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Department&ID=98

Could this be used?

BILL

[Fret Wire]

Sure, it appears they're selling Caswell's Plug N' Plate kits. You'd still need the Zincate coat first.

BTW, the knurled chrome and brass knobs (Telecaster style) are perfect for plated boxes.

[Fret Wire]

That's my kit: pretty low tech, eh? Special brush and plating metal are from Texas Plater's Supply. I use different clips for different sized projects. The lead is an old ps lead that plugs right into the Radio Shack wall wart.

[WermooZ]

yeah - there are plenty things what you can do to aluminium surfaces - you can -

-polish them (many methods - mechanical, chemical and ELECTROLYTICALLY ) [from good to better method]

- you can cover the surface with chrom, nickel and so on - but the surface must be clean ( no fat and other stuff ), you must do it in specified temperature - and you will get high quality, shining surface

if you like playing in 'small chemist' i can give you some formulas for defatter and so on ( i must translate it :/ )

- and you should oxide the aluminium if you want to paint it - the paint will have better cohesion

- there are also many chemical formulas for coloration the aluminium surfaces

[Hal]

Fretwire - but how does satch's guitar get chrome plated...

I _really_ wanna do that.  Its too cool.

[brett]

Hi. Another cool finish would be anodising.  Like chroming, it's an electro-conductive process.  Anybody tried it?  I remeber those milkshake containers from the 1960s with fond memories.  (milkshake = malted milk ? in the US?).  Groovy blues, reds, greens.