OT: Aluminum chrome plating?

[thylantyr]

I've been sort strugging with this. Perhaps the knowledgable people here can throw a tip... Gonna make a 1/4" thick
aluminum plate (18"W x 65"H) and use it as a faceplate
(attached to the MDF front baffle)
for my tower speaker project. But aluminum looks boring,
so why not chrome it?

I don't know if I need to specify copper/nickel/chrome
or nickel/chrome or should I just make my artwork
Plating: Chrome
and let them figure it out ?

The next part is what thickness for a nice mirror finish
with some stratch resistance. I hear .01 - 0.1 mils is common
for decorative chrome and 1mil and greater is defined
as hard chrome. hmmm.. I don't want it too thin..... Initial
thoughts are to specify 1 mil minimum, 5 mils max and let
the platers figure it out ? Might as well make it "beefy" ?

Gonna have my speaker box painted black with laquer,
trying for the legendary piano black "look".. not as
elegant as the Zoolander "blue steel" look or "magnum",
but chrome will suffice - hehe

[thylantyr]

At least say "Hello", is anyone out there? lol

[haldor]

Hi thylantyr,

Might try posting this in a different forum, this is the solid state forum.

Don't know nothing about metal plating, but I'll bet if you look in your local yellow pages under "chrome plating" you will find people that do this for a living. If all else fails there is always google.

An alternative you might what to consider is getting it nickel plated. This has a less in your face look than chrome, that might be more appealing.

Phil

[pinkmouse]

Hi thylantyr

Probably no one knows the answer, but that's the good thing about these forums, no one will waste your time giving useless advice about things they know nothing about!

[Petter]

How about traditional silver plating .... I know this works since I enquired with local silver platers about this 4 years ago.

For a one-off this is probably not more expensive. It "wears better", but Chrome is harder and less prone to corrosion.

Petter

[Kilowatt]

Uh, I thought I posted here. What happened? Just wondering.

[Brett]

Thylantyr,

Contact a specialist plating firm. It can be done quite easily and yield excellent results. Tell them what you're trying to accomplish and let them decide on the specifics of the process and the thickness of the plating required for your application.

I have had some smallish parts machined and chromed to use in a small remote robot, as reflectors for the lights I used in it. In Australia, there is a place that takes a motorcycle wheel, buffs it to remove the sand casting marks, preps and plates it for $A330 for a 17" x 6.5" wheel, a heck of a lot bigger and more complex project then you want to do. It's as tough as nuts too.

When you get it done, please post a pic, I'd love to see how it looks.

HTH
Cheers
Brett

[jackinnj]

take a gander through a copy of "Hemmings" magazine -- lists hundreds of places which do chroming, metal refab etc.