amperage question

[padstack]

I am very interested in the chrome plating kit, but am unsure in regards to amperage. I seem to have reap that it was 1 amp per square inch. that would indicate that I would need something fairly powerful to do something as simple as a headlight bezel, etc. How many amps would it take to plate a chrome bumper for an old truck, etc?

Thanks!

[sswee]

The decorative chrome kit like the triple chrome kit need 1 amp per square inch of part to be chromed. Depending on the kind of parts you want to do, you may want to look into a copy chrome kit. Copy chrome needs 1 amp per 16 square inches of part. As far as bumpers go, you would have to figure the SA(surface Area) in square inches of the bumper to be plated. The current requirements are such that it is cheaper to have them done if you are just doing 1 or 2. Besides current demands, you would have large containers with large amounts of chemicals to contend with.

[dadkar2]

Agreed.

Most bumpers would require setups that are hundreds of gallons in capacity. This is in no way practical for the occasional hobbyist. Set up with Caswell to do the small parts that you wouldn't trust a plater to handle. The large parts like bumpers--there are competent people that can readily handle that level of task for you.

For example, local plater here actually welds over pits at the base metal stage, grinds the welds flat, then goes from there. However, they aren't really able to handle the small detail parts with their technology.

Alternatively with the small parts you can do all of the surface prep and repair eg rust removal, fill, and copper, then work with the plater to do the final nickel and chrome. That will probably save quite a bit.

Ken