My new backrest put on hold...AGAIN.

[Guest human4m]

For those who witnessed one of my last threads unfold, where I thought about selling the bike so my wife could buy herself some...well... surgery-induced-mammorial-swelling, you may already know that we put it on hold until we can afford to do so, WITHOUT selling the scoot.

 

Well, I'm starting to think they're gonna be delayed even MORE... Call me selfish, throw rocks at me, do what you must... But I believe I'm going to set up my garage for electroplating, and anodizing!

 

It's going to cost well over $1,000 to get started, which is 1/5 what she needs towards buying me a 'new backrest' but I can't resist! I have no patience, and can't forsee waiting FOREVER to save $4,850 for some saline bags... I'd rather be able to walk in the garage one day with a plain piece of steel, and next time it sees daylight, it will emerge as a nice triple-plated chrome piece of art! SO- Once I get the hang of it, and my work comes out gorgeous, I'll start chrome plating parts that people send to me. I'll only charge cost of materials & shipping, which I'm sure won't be much. I'm planning to setup tanks large enough to handle fenders & tanks (some people LOVE chrome...) but not much bigger than that.

 

As for my wife... :whistling:She's gonna kill me, so if you'd like to donate to my funeral fund, my paypal payment account is...

 

This all may just be a pipe-dream, but if it works out, I'll be a chrome-plating, and aluminum anodixing fool by Winter!

Edited May 26, 2010 by human4m

[Carbon_One]

If you live that long. Hahahaha

Seriously once you got the hang of the process I think you'd have a ready market amongst these folks here for all of that safety chrome everyone loves to have.

I bet you'd not only recoup your equipment and material investment, the silicone backrests would be forthcoming as well.

Good luck, Larry

[Cougar]

I think your biggest problem is going to be waste treatment managment.

 

anyways , I plated for years in the day. we could not afford getting rid

of the waste after time had pasted. got to costley.. I admire your dreams

and I hope they will work out for you, CUZ I want things plated!

[Chinto]

Isn't waste management and disposal restrictions in the US why mass produced chroming is done in China? How would you get rid of the contaminants and how much would it cost to dispose of it legally?

[YamaDuck]

I wish you all the luck in the world but I know there are a lot and I mean a lot of government rules applying to plating. It got so bad in this state a lot of plating companies either shut down or moved to another state. Good luck and let me know when your operational and I'll send you some business.

[Guest human4m]

The company that I'm looking to order the setup from guarantees that there is ZERO waste material, (unless I decide to completely quit using them, in which case I just take the remaining chemicals to local hazmat disposal. The same place you'd take leftover paint, etc.)

 

They have many different packages, some are legit triple-plated chrome, and some aren't. They have one called cobalt plating which they guarantee is stronger, more durable, and just as shiny as chrome. I might go that route. It's like super-chrome!

 

I've checked out their customer photos, and the stuff looks good! They even have packages to chrome-plate plastic. It's time-intensive, but comes out good!

 

I found a less expensive kit, which will require me to aim smaller than fenders & gas tanks. I can pick it up for about $400. (That'll make the wife happy.)

 

Now, this kit will work fine on all Steels, Irons, Copper, Brass, Bronze, Titanium, Lead Free Solders, and Nickel Alloys. BUT they have to be in good shape. If they're pitted or heavily scratched, then I'd have to order another kit that will fill the imperfections.

 

Hey, if anyone actually DOES want to donate towards me starting this thing, let me know. I'll keep track of who donates and they can be my first pro-bono customers!

[royalstarjac]

For those who witnessed one of my last threads unfold, where I thought about selling the bike so my wife could buy herself some...well... surgery-induced-mammorial-swelling,

 

You know the rules. Pics!

[Snaggletooth]

You been hanging around the Caswells site have ya?

 

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/index.html

[Guest human4m]

You know the rules. Pics!

The wife said she'd be glad to send pics of the new backrest to anyone who sends donations!

[Guest human4m]

You been hanging around the Caswells site have ya?

 

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/index.html

 

Yeah man! Wealth of info there! It started with me wanting to anodize my paintball guns, but now I've decided plating is the way!

[royalstarjac]

The wife said she'd be glad to send pics of the new backrest to anyone who sends donations!

 

You could have a New Backrest Poker Run!

If you do I'm there. Then we could do a before and after.

[Snaggletooth]

Good folks to deal with to. Found the gas tank epoxy there and been playing with the buffing and polishing stuff a bit.

 

Their forums are a great source of info when you get into the stuff.

 

Kinda like this place.......ya need an answer......somebody has got it.

 

Good luck with the project. er....and the backrest deal. LOL!

 

Mike

[LilBeaver]

You could have a New Backrest Poker Run!

...

 

Poker run? I thought she just agreed to pictures? :yikes::duck: :stirthepot:

[Guest human4m]

Poker run? I thought she just agreed to pictures? :yikes::duck: :stirthepot:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

 

Upgrade the Ta-Ta's Poker Run! I'm all for it!

 

Obviously the prize for winning hand would have to be ironed out.

[Freebird]

I was in the plating business for almost 15 years. Not a plater but I sold automated high volume plating equipment for plating circuit boards as well as general chrome plating for auto bumpers, grills, etc. I left that business because the EPA restrictions had all but killed the industry in the USA. Most of my customers had moved to Mexico or South America or to Malaysia, China, etc. I made many trips to those countries before I finally got tired of it.

 

Zero waste is almost impossible if you do any kind of volume and do it correctly. There must be rinse cycles between the various plating steps and there will be heavy metals in the rinse water. There are also various kinds of acids that will be present.

 

I wish you the very best and it's NOT that hard to do but I can't see where waste treatment won't be an issue.

 

As for the "backrest" issue...I'm not one to turn my back on a good investment but I'm not one to jump into anything site unseen and I'm also a hands on type partner.

[Cougar]

Don, then we have met in person a long time ago then..

 

Did you ever go to any shops in Calif? (Circuit Boards)?

 

I did that biz for over 25 years in my younger days.

 

We started out with out liquid waste going into 55 gal

drums. that got to be around $800.00 a barrel so then we

did our own inside waste management to remove the water out

of the sludge. and turn it into Cubes and then filled the drums.

got more waste in that way.. we dealt with a lot of tin/copper/

sulfuric acid, nitric acids,,,,yadda, yadda. you know the rest.

treated the water and then it could go down the drain.

Just wondering.

Jeff

[SteveW]

Hope it goes well for you in the chrome bizz.

A good friend of mine set up a plating room 9 years ago and the cost is really high for setting up real plating. He was talked into using a environmentally friendly chrome. Not the acid chrome. However the product was not what it was built up to be. Not a durable finish. His copper and nickle tanks are fine but the chrome has been nothing but a disappointment.

You kind of get what you pay for and for under 1000.00 doesn't sound like it will do a great job. He has well over 250 K in his equipment and it still doesn't come close to using Acid chrome.

EPA also does inspections ( drop in any time )

 

I don't want to be a downer but try the small kit first and see how it turns out.

[Freebird]

Don, then we have met in person a long time ago then..

 

Did you ever go to any shops in Calif? (Circuit Boards)?

 

I did that biz for over 25 years in my younger days.

 

We started out with out liquid waste going into 55 gal

drums. that got to be around $800.00 a barrel so then we

did our own inside waste management to remove the water out

of the sludge. and turn it into Cubes and then filled the drums.

got more waste in that way.. we dealt with a lot of tin/copper/

sulfuric acid, nitric acids,,,,yadda, yadda. you know the rest.

treated the water and then it could go down the drain.

Just wondering.

Jeff

 

Jeff,

I was western regional manner for a company name Process Automation Int'l Limited. We manufactured automated plating lines, electroless copper lines, black oxide lines and gold tab platers as well as some waste treatment equipment.

 

I even moved to San Diego for a few years to establish relationships with manufacturers reps and continued making trips out there even after moving back to Dallas. There probably aren't a lot of plating shops that I wasn't in at one time or another. I had a lot of customers in CA, AZ, WA, UT and OR. I don't know who you worked for as there were a LOT of small shops also but some of my larger customers were Industrial Curcuits, Herco Technology, Tyco, Southbay Circuits, Multek, Continental Circuits and some in house platers like IBM, Hitachi, Motorola, Zerox, etc.

[eusa1]

As for the "backrest" issue...I'm not one to turn my back on a good investment but I'm not one to jump into anything site unseen and I'm also a hands on type partner.

"HANDS ON TYPE PARTNER"

 

I already tried to explain this before, we have to have a look at the realestate in it's present condition, before we will be able to convince future investors to fund an improvement project, and even then, we will have to have some color blueprints of the finished project and see if it will look appropriate in the neighborhood, with landscapes and bushes and such...hmmmph??

mike:innocent:

[YamaDuck]

You tell me where and when you want the parts to play with and I'll tell you where to send the pictures. Deal?

[Cougar]

Yep, worked for Southbay Circuits and many more, mainly

in the San Jose , Santa Clara, Fremont area. LOTS.

Was a production Manger on 3 of them. then the last ten years

was full on prototype business. even helped set-up/build a couple of

prototype shops as well. one of that last shops was in Grass

Valley Ca. up in the foothills in Nevada County. for The Grass Valley Group.

was there for 13 years.

[Freebird]

So...you worked for Roland Satterlee at Southbay. Glad it was you and not me. That was one of the very few meetings that I stood up and nearly walked out of after we had installed a plating line for him. He insisted that the tin bath anode baskets be stainless steel. I told him that stainless steel baskets would be complete eaten up by the bath but he insisted that the Shipley chemistry they were using was compatible with SS baskets and wouldn't listen to my recommendation for titanium baskets. A few days after the line was put into service, they called me in from Dallas, TX for a meeting and when I got there, he wanted to know if we were going to pay for all his tin baths that had to be dumped because the baskets were eaten up. uh....no....we were NOT. He got a bit ugly about that.

 

There was also a big customer in San Jose....I'm trying to remember the name but for the life of me I can't right now. I remember the guy that I negotiated with ... Jerry Bauer was chief purchaser and he was BRUTAL but a good guy and we got the deals done.

 

I think we hijacked this thread...sorry about that...you will not be returned to your regularly scheduled program.... though I think that this discussion is safer than where the other one was headed.

[YamaDuck]

[Cougar]

Yeah *LMAO* we better stop now..

 

And yes, we worked together when we were young, was not a bad guy then,

He was fun to be around. THEN,,,,,,,,,

 

Later in life he turned into a ----------- and a ---------- His parents were killed and he ran into lots of $$$$$ that is how he started Southbay. the other places might be Precision Circuit Masters and they always changed the name of the one right next to the San Jose Airport. that is the one you most likely dealt with.

 

Anyways I used shilpley products lots. now back to what this thread is all about.

I will email you when I think of the names of the other shops. WOW a long long time Bro.

Jeff

[sgn]

You are going to have waste if you do any at all ...

 

My statement is backed by 7 years as an Anodizing foreman for an extrusion plant.

 

We spent $$$$$$ for in house treatment of waste. And the EPA was around whenever they wanted to be.

 

Also watch your electric meter spin fast than a Vmax ...

 

Steve