Shiny Chrome To Hard (Dull Chrome)

[skalomax]

Hi, In route Is a special light that Is all Chrome (Shiny).
I was wondering If it was possible to convert It to Dull Chrome for a more durable finish.

Like this

Thanks, Also who Is capable of doing such feat?




(Photo by ErinO919

 

[Illum]

I'm not sure how a chroming process works but I think a matte finish might be possible on a heavily knurled surface:candle:

if you wanted dull chrome you might as well go for anodizing for durability

 

[Leadfoot2]

Just set up my beadblast cabinet over the weekend.

Doing some blasting on an aluminum engine intake and there was a hi gloss crome water inlet with some damage. Just to see what would happen I blasted half of it. It came out very nice, smooth even finish with no signs of having gone compleatly through the crome. This was with glass bead media at 80psi. I would suggest starting at 30psi. Most other blast media's would be far too agressive. IMHO


Leadfoot

 

[skalomax]

Thanks for the info guys.
But do you think It's possible?

The "shiny" chrome looks great, but I would like something more durable.

 

[highorder]

shiny chrome and matte hard chrome are vastly different coatings.

as the name implies, hard chrome is a durable finish, where as shiny chrome is more cosmetic. consult your local plating and finishing shop. they may be able to do a small piece for you cheaper than you think.

 

[SCEMan]

Having had a number of handguns hard chromed I can say from experience that it is very rare to find a shop that will hard chrome aluminum. At best electrolyess nickel is doable in a matte finish, otherwise anodizing is the usual treatment. Decorative chrome is a surface plating and cannot be converted to a durable matte finish.

 

[Trashman]

It is my understanding that the item needs to be highly polished before the chroming process, in order for it to come out shiny (like a mirror). This was told to me by Fivemega (who, as you know, does a lot of chroming). Hearing this made sense to me, too, because when I was younger,I had a bicycle chromed and the insides of the split frame were not shiny and I was told that they couldn't get the polisher between the two parts of the frame (it was a Jimmy Wynert (Winert?), later bought by the Torker company. If you've seen a Torker, you know what I mean by the split frame (split top bar...actually, there are other brands of bikes that have had this design, but they are mostly ten-speeds)

So, maybe, if an item is stripped, but not polished, the chroming process will leave it with a dull finish. Nothing solid here, just what I think. I may be right, I may be wrong, but either way, I'd like to know the truth and see some examples of a non polished piece being chromed.

 

[greg_in_canada]

Here's a thread about hard chrome (on guns). Aluminum is mentioned. http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-4185.html

And here's a plating company page on hard chrome. Again aluminum is mentioned. http://www.trippresearch.com/tech/hardchrome/hardchrome.htm

Greg