We use a display cooler to sell strawberries and apple cider. Looks about
like what you'd see for a small milk cooler in a store.

The shelves are made of small rods or heavy wire. They are beginning to show
their age with slight rusting and the original chrome wearing off.

Would these be a good candidate for nickel chroming at home? How should I
prep (remove the rust)them?

Karl

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 20:00:24 GMT, "Karl Townsend"
remove .NOT wrote:

We use a display cooler to sell strawberries and apple cider. Looks about
like what you'd see for a small milk cooler in a store.

The shelves are made of small rods or heavy wire. They are beginning to show
their age with slight rusting and the original chrome wearing off.

Would these be a good candidate for nickel chroming at home? How should I
prep (remove the rust)them?

Karl

Could be done, but probably more trouble than it's worth. You must
strip the chrome, which will also probably remove any rust. Then you
must neutralize, rinse, and polish if you want a mirror finish. Then
clean again and plate with copper, then nickle-plate.

Could be done, but probably more trouble than it's worth. You must
strip the chrome, which will also probably remove any rust. Then you
must neutralize, rinse, and polish if you want a mirror finish. Then
clean again and plate with copper, then nickle-plate.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying. I thought the electroless nickel went on as the
only layer. Not after shiny here, just rust prevention. The SO wants to just
paint them. I'm afraid the paint will just come right off as product is slid
in/out.

Any other suggestions?

Karl

You are right, electroless nickel does go on in one layer.
However, I think you need to strip them down to bare steel for the nickel to
work right. The chrome can be stripped at home or at a plating shop. The
cost of the chemicals and equipment to strip and replate with nickel in a
home shop probably exceeds the cost of just letting a chrome shop replate
them. If you decide to try it at home, Brownells(www.brownells.com) sells
all the stuff you need to strip and replate them.

Randy

"Karl Townsend" remove .NOT wrote in
message ink.net...

Could be done, but probably more trouble than it's worth. You must
strip the chrome, which will also probably remove any rust. Then you
must neutralize, rinse, and polish if you want a mirror finish. Then
clean again and plate with copper, then nickle-plate.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying. I thought the electroless nickel went on as the
only layer. Not after shiny here, just rust prevention. The SO wants to
just paint them. I'm afraid the paint will just come right off as product
is slid in/out.

Any other suggestions?

Karl

--Probably cheaper to get new ones at Costco; saw some on sale the
last time I was there..

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Concave, convex, con
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : carne: all is Zen..
www.nmpproducts.com
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 16:24:05 GMT, "Karl Townsend"
remove .NOT wrote:


Could be done, but probably more trouble than it's worth. You must
strip the chrome, which will also probably remove any rust. Then you
must neutralize, rinse, and polish if you want a mirror finish. Then
clean again and plate with copper, then nickle-plate.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying. I thought the electroless nickel went on as the
only layer. Not after shiny here, just rust prevention. The SO wants to just
paint them. I'm afraid the paint will just come right off as product is slid
in/out.

Any other suggestions?

Karl

Greetings Karl,
I have used products from Caswell in the past and have had good
results. They will answer all your questions. They have always
answered mine with helpful answers. They are geared towards the small
user and the novice. If you paint the racks I wonder how well the
paint will stick to the chrome? It would be pretty hard to sand all
those small diameters. Some epoxy paints are very durable and if epoxy
paint sticks it will probably last a long time.
Cheers,
eric

They are probably cadmium plated.
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/b1042-w.html
Not sure how that effects the job you want to do.
Karl

"Karl Townsend" remove .NOT wrote in
message ink.net...
We use a display cooler to sell strawberries and apple cider. Looks about
like what you'd see for a small milk cooler in a store.

The shelves are made of small rods or heavy wire. They are beginning to
show
their age with slight rusting and the original chrome wearing off.

Would these be a good candidate for nickel chroming at home? How should I
prep (remove the rust)them?

Karl

In article ,
says...
They are probably cadmium plated.

Why would you assume that? It's pretty easy to see the difference
between chrome and cadmium plate, and unless this cooler is very old
there's very little chance the racks are cad plated.

If this is just a few small shelves, I'd be inclined to make new ones
from SS rod and wire. A proper spot welder would be nice, but for a
reasonable number of shelves TIGing the joints wouldn't take long. I've
got some 1/8" wire set aside to make a new cooking grill for our fire
pit, and the lack of a real mud season here in NE this year means I need
to get on it soon.

Ned Simmons

If it's old enough the plating's coming off it could be cadmium plated. What
year did they stop using it?
Karl

"Ned Simmons" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
They are probably cadmium plated.

Why would you assume that? It's pretty easy to see the difference
between chrome and cadmium plate, and unless this cooler is very old
there's very little chance the racks are cad plated.

If this is just a few small shelves, I'd be inclined to make new ones
from SS rod and wire. A proper spot welder would be nice, but for a
reasonable number of shelves TIGing the joints wouldn't take long. I've
got some 1/8" wire set aside to make a new cooking grill for our fire
pit, and the lack of a real mud season here in NE this year means I need
to get on it soon.

Ned Simmons

On Sun, 02 Apr 2006 11:49:15 GMT, "Karl Vorwerk"
wrote:

If it's old enough the plating's coming off it could be cadmium plated. What
year did they stop using it?
Karl

Not if it was for food service. Aside from cadmium being toxic, both
cadmium and zinc are readily attacked by even mild food acids -- like
those found in fruit juice, soft drinks or catsup. It was
undoubtedly chrome.

Didn't really think of food service. Our coolers are for beer and soda. They
look to be zinc plated to me. A lot of our products sit on plastic racks on
the wire racks. The cooler was used when we got it.
Karl

"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 02 Apr 2006 11:49:15 GMT, "Karl Vorwerk"
wrote:

If it's old enough the plating's coming off it could be cadmium plated.
What
year did they stop using it?
Karl

Not if it was for food service. Aside from cadmium being toxic, both
cadmium and zinc are readily attacked by even mild food acids -- like
those found in fruit juice, soft drinks or catsup. It was
undoubtedly chrome.