Starting in plating

The cheapest way to chome your wheels is to take them to a local job shop to have them processed.  Although you have the metal plating bible, you are probably not in possession of the EPA regulations that govern the metal finishing industry regarding air and water discharges.  By processing these in your "garage" you may face fines and penalties  of up to $25,000/day and even jail time. 

The process of re-chroming wheels is a mixture of science and art, and should only be performed by an experienced plater.  It is most likely, that you will not get it right the first time, second time or third time.  Our industry has invested time, technology, and money in providing America with the finest finishes, despite the overwhelming regulations and costs of manufacture.

I appreciate your interest in the process, and applaude you if you are willing to invest the time and money to open a shop.  But if this is just for a set of wheels for you or a friend, I would recommend you pony up with the lot charge and let the experts handle your project.

This is one person's opinion.

Sincerely,

Ira Donovan, M.S.F.

Bandit,

I apologize fi I offended.  More often than not, I get inquiries from garage junkies that are looking to get instant results.

If you are serious in starting up a shop, then there are a couple of concerns that I must present to you.  First, setting up a shop, is going to require time as the permitting process, ventilation qualification, and inspection process can take from 6 months to a year to complete.

Second, if you have not had experience in plating, plan on having to invest in proprieary chemistries initially until you have an understanding of the process.

Third,  unless you can purchase a used system, the capital cost of a new processing line, may be overwhelming.  The last "new" system I was involved in for chrome processing was slightly over $2 million.  This is can be prohibitve for many.

If I or anyone else can be of help, please feel free to ask as many questions as you like, and we can try to answer.

Ira Donovan, M.S.F.

Ira, thanks for the info. If I understand right, I should check first with local regulations regarding this type of product. Although I'm located in Canada, I guess we have similar regulations. 
After that, know the plating process....do you have good reference books?  The ''metal plating bible'' I got isn't very clear and hard to understand. Can chemicals suppliers help me with my project?
Finally, you are right, I won't invest that kind of money because I can't. I'll probably go with a used system or make my own. Since motorcycle parts are rather small I figure that 20-25 gallons tanks would be enough and I would immerse the parts manually in plastic tanks.
Just to let you guys know, chrome plating on my parts cost me 2.74 times more than the steel parts alone (average) . I think I really need to do plating myself if I want to be competitive.

SMF
All my parts are made from C.R.S. between 16 ga and 12 ga steel.
Sure I can send you pics of my products, let me take a few pictures and I'll post them.

In your application, you should look at conforming anodes.

Hexavalent chromium plating has about the worst "throw" of any common plating process. "Throw", as you likely know already, is the property of a plating system to get the plating into low current density areas. Conforming anodes, made of the same antimonial lead that make up the standard anodes in a chrome tank could be either purchased, or fabricated. You could have them for each of the parts you manufacture, at least the ones where you do the most volume.

Expenditures in this direction will bear rich fruits, both in decreased plating time, and reduction in the amount of post plate polishing required.

Dedalus Environmental - The On-Site Treatment Specialists

The waste disposal is the easy part.

Copper Strike rinse: Adjust the pH to 10.5 to 11 if necessary. Get some KI/starch test papers. Add bleach until you get a positive reaction. Stir it for one hour, making sure that the paper reaction stays positive for the whole hour. This should take care of the cyanide.

Important! Keep iron and iron bearing stuff (ie, "dragin" from the acid pickle tank that comes before the copper strike) OUT of the copper strike. Iron + cyanide = bad news; waste that can be very hard to treat.

Nickel Tank rinse: Add a little ferrous sulfate...about 1/4 lb per 500 gallons of rinse. Make sure it's dissolved. Add lime to about pH 8, then bring the pH to 10-10.5 with caustic soda.

Chrome rinse: Dip some acid out of your acid pickle tank and bring the pH to under 2. Add some sodium metabisulfite until all the hexchrome is reduced. There are some kits you can buy to check for excess hexchrome. With experience, you get to know when the color is right. Also, it will reek of sulfur dioxide, but I don't recommend sniffing the stuff. In fact, it's a good idea to wear an air purifying respirator while you're doing this.

Important! People have been known to be violently allergic to sulfites. People who have asthma are often sensitive to them. No one fitting this description should come anywhere near this stuff.

Now, add lime to pH 9 - 10.

You can either mix all of the stuff from (a) (b) and (c) together, and add "polymer" (something that makes all the toxic junk you brought out of solution clump together) or you can add it to each, separately. When you do this, all of the regulated stuff should drop to the bottom, leaving clear water up top. You can pump this off using a sump pump suspended in the tank, above the settled sludge layer, and pump it off to a holding tank till it gets tested. When you know it's in spec, off to the sewer!

The metal bearing solids, you have to haul away.

Chrisbyers,
Thanks for your advice, I think the same way. I've seen the Kushner website, it's very interesting but it's very far from here, I'll try to find something closer to where I live.....if it's possible!  Do you think chemical suppliers can be a good source of information and be a complement for books?

Dedalus,
I think you really know your business and I appreciate every information and explanations you give me. If this project becmes a reality, even if I'm in Canada, I would like you to come help me with my setup. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to get informations on regulations abot waste management. For now I being transfered from one place to another!!
Thanks