Eurowise

For the honing and plating?

The pre-chrome honing was €20
Chrome plating was €145
Post chrome honing €75

Boiler/heating element etc nickel plating € ?? Havent received the invoice yet, but I think €120.

Thank you for sharing this, Niels.
I would have thought, that these procedures could be more expensive
I'll keep it in mind...

What is "hard chroming" ? I had taken my prestina parts to local chrome shop last year, and was concerned about the exterior chrome getting on the inside of the cylinder, and failing/flaking. I asked if there was a better, strong, type of plating that was food safe, and they looked at e as if I had carrots growing out of my ears.

That said.. I now have a group that's chromed pretty on the outside, but the inside has the plating on the inside, too... should I go elsewhere? If so, can someone recommend a place to go in the USA for this?

From wikipedia:
Hard chrome, also known as industrial chrome or engineered chrome, is used to reduce friction, improve durability through abrasion tolerance and wear resistance in general, minimize galling or seizing of parts, expand chemical inertness to include a broader set of conditions (especially oxidation resistance, arguably its most famous quality), and bulking material for worn parts to restore their original dimensions.[5] It is very hard, measuring between 65 to 69 HRC. Hard chrome tends to be thicker than decorative chrome, with standard thicknesses in nonsalvage applications ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 mm (200 to 600 µm), but it can be an order of magnitude thicker for extreme wear resistance requirements, in such cases 1 mm (1,000 µm) or thicker provides optimal results. Unfortunately, such thicknesses emphasize the limitations of the process, which are overcome by plating extra thickness then grinding down and lapping to meet requirements or to improve the overall aesthetics of the "chromed" piece. [2] Increasing plating thickness amplifies surface defects and roughness in proportional severity, because hard chrome does not have a leveling effect.[6] Pieces that are not ideally shaped in reference to electric field geometries (nearly every piece sent in for plating, except spheres and egg shaped objects) require even thicker plating to compensate for non-uniform deposition, and much of it is wasted when grinding the piece back to desired dimensions.

My Lambro NEEDS this kind of treatment. Wow! I don't think I can stand to look at the copper boiler anymore now I have seen this. And the cost seems quite reasonable too for the end result. Love to hear how that group works with all plated smooth chrome... wowee- it gonna run like a dream... Is it all back together yet?

No, not yet. Still waiting for the tubes and some other parts I am replacing. I think end of the month.

NelisB wrote:For the honing and plating?

The pre-chrome honing was €20
Chrome plating was €145
Post chrome honing €75

Boiler/heating element etc nickel plating € ?? Havent received the invoice yet, but I think €120.

Just received the invoices. Prices are correct.
http://www.czltilburg.nl/nl/processen/hardverchromen

A minor point but interested if you'd researched nickel vs tin plating for your boiler ?

I recently had a couple of Faema lid plates tin plated partly as a way to arrest the dezincification/selective leaching. It wasn't as successful as I'd hoped. While the tin plating was fine and chemical clean attacked the dezincified areas making them worse.

dmccallum wrote:A minor point but interested if you'd researched nickel vs tin plating for your boiler ?

I was advised to have the boiler electroless nickel plated by several plating shops. So I never considered tin.
Because the process is electroless it will reach all parts off the boiler, also the inside of the tube. This can't be done with a galvanic process. Also the sealing is the best available. Better than chrome. So there was no need to consider tin.