SMC Discussion Areas

Thanks to everyone, who took me up on my "practice" offer. This is the result,
and has turned out very nice. This is "hard" chrome and not the "spray" chrome,
which is a good thing, one hit from the sun light and it's toast. So again, thank
you...and yes, we are now taking orders!

Looks good, would you chrome gumball machine parts, like the face plate where the coin is placed and the knob that turns the coin?

The face plate is 4" x 4" x 1/2" for example

Man,

I wish my chrome looked that nice.    Oh wait...It does!!   :biggrin:   Pieces look great Eric.  For those with any interest, I have attached a before picture for comparison.  Looking forward to the day I can change my avatar to show the completed machines.  Slowly getting there - one more piece of the puzzle down.

looks great

 Sweet,  really nice Job Eric!  It's your process copper, nickel and then chrome, just wondered.

It's copper, nickel, and a product called Kopy chrome.
Chrome has some problems with the EPA and many
"chrome shops" have closed down because of disposal
issues. The Kopy chrome, is an Eco Friendly product,
with the same benefits as chrome.

Verry interesting.. so is the price comparable to Chroming?,and does it hold up just as well?
Thanks for sharing.

John

It's exactly like chrome... but harder.

Cool,
I'll send you some stuff...

Sounds great...

let me know what you would like to have done. Maybe
send an emai alond with a photo, of the items. I'll take
care of the rest!

Count me in I'll send you a few things . :smile:.

Likewise, I'll send my next jukebox chrome your way.

I can attest that Eric does amazing work with this stuff.  He's done two batches of stuff for me and they both looked great.

All finished with Brian's (ilikecoinop) order. This was a good sized job, 24 pieces in all. Polished all trim pieces, cap and coin return bezels, refrigeration line covers, plated handels, bottle openers, bent coin levers, glass door handels, and main bezels. It was great practice and I enjoyed doing it, equally as well. Thanks again Brian...I'll be sending it out on Monday!

       Sure looks nice Eric.

       Did you plate those crank handles without having to remove the shafts and springs?

no Sir...took the handles apart. I cleaned the spring, shaft, etc. a little emery cloth,
and a couple of drops of 3 in 1 oil...good as new!

Next week will be like Xmas in April.  Looking forward to showing off your work!  Just got my order from SodaJerkWorks as well.  This gets more addicting every day.  After working with people like Eric and Sharon and all the input the people on this board share so freely its easy to see why people consider this more of a community than just a forum.

Eric Sending stuff off monday , it not much  but it a start :smile:
Like what I see from the picture ,do you have any more photos to share  :smile.:

FYI...Just a note, if you plate your own pieces ( with a small home type plating system) you must remove any springs, as when they are electroplated with any type of metal, the process will cause something called hydrogen embrittlment, the electric current used to deposit the plating metal will also put hydrogen ions into the pores of the metal, which on spring steel & such will make it prone to cracking & breaking, the plating industry will heat treat such pieces in an oven to drive out the hydrogen & de-stress the metal object.

and of course you must disassemble things like the crank handle, hinges, etc. or you will end up with the metal equivalent of a fossil ( it will all be fused together by the plating & wont rotate.)

Home plating or tank plating...disimilar metals will plate at different amps and rates. Once the pieces have been copper plated, pot metal, steel, etc. then all will nickel and chrome plate the same, taking into account the size of the pieces of course. Everything must be taken apart and plated seperately.