How to: Chrome Plating
- 1). Place the aluminum parts on your workstation and use your polisher to clean the parts to prepare them for plating. Remove any hint of impurities or grease on the aluminum parts using your vapor degreaser.
- 2). Bring out your sodium hydroxide and lightly dip the aluminum part to corrode the aluminum surface. The corrosion of the surface of your aluminum parts will make its texture rougher as preparation for chrome plating.
- 3). Place the corroded aluminum parts in a bowl of dioxide solution, and use your etching solution to roughen its surface a little more.
- 4). Rinse all parts with clean water, before bathing the parts with sulphuric acid. Attach the charging plates your 12-volt charger and put the plates in the acid bath. Raise the solution temperature to 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 5). Run the AC current for at least 10 minutes, and rinse the aluminum parts with water once done.
- 6). Dip the aluminum in liquid copper strike bath, and submerge it in your liquid nickel strike solution afterward.
- 7). Rinse the parts with water then soak them in your hex chromate solution using your actuator. Wait for a few hours to complete the plating process.