I have an old house. All of the door latches are the old Mortise-style with the threaded shaft. They are all brass with about 6,573 coats of paint on them. I stripped several of the plates and knobs. I would simply polish them and re-install but I have chosen chrome or brushed nickel finishes for most of the rooms. Brass just looks like poop with the colors I've chosen.
I can buy new nickel Mortise locksets to replace them all, but that is expensive. I can repaint them but that is ugly. I thought of painting them with some kind of silver paint like a spray chrome, or hammered silver, but that is also a bit cheapy-looking.
Can I set up a couple rubbermaid containers and re-plate them at home? I've done some research and its described as "dangerous" and "caustic." Know of any links or sources for DIY plating?
Chrome plating will put you in contact with some pretty nasty stuff. Hexavalent chromium isn't something I'd really want to play with too often. I've tried a couple of the trivalent chromium plating kits, but it doesn't leave as durable of a coating.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome_plating
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexavalent_chromium
wae
Reader
4/3/13 10:13 p.m.
Not really an answer to your question, but my Dad had something similar at his house and he used a media blaster to take the knobs and plates down to the bare metal and then sprayed them with a clear. They've got a nice finish that has held up for the last 6-8 years.
Didn't you learn your lesson about hexavalent chromium?
Oh yeah, I forgot about the EPA regs for disposal of the waste.
Very generally speaking, diy plating tends to look bad and fail quickly. Especially if you are attempting a chrome like finish.
I doubt you want chrome anyway. You could go with anodizing pretty easily I think. Cadmium plating could be done, but cadmium is a pretty bad hombre too.
There are a lot of new powder coating finishes other than just colors.
fanfoy
Reader
4/4/13 7:55 a.m.
spitfirebill beat me to it. Try your local powder coater. I saw a guy last year who had the bumper powder coated with a "chrome" finish on his 60's something american barge. It looked pretty convincing, like a cheap chrome platting.
Take a look at Caswell Plating. Spend the $30 on their plating manual, then poke around their site to see if setting up all the gear is still cost effective for your project.
I looked into it a while ago, but then found some NOS chrome bits I was looking for that wound up being cheaper.
Good info.... DIY plating looks nasty. I wouldn't mind trying it but I would need some kind of volume to justify the cost.
I think I'll strip a few pieces and try some other coating methods first.
