Question: engraving and plating

[Beladran]

first time poster here... been reading on here alot past few months and have a question that i cant seem to find a answer to.

if your engraving an object that has been hard chromed do you need to sand blast the coating off befor you start? how much will the re chroming effect your work? I guess that goes for any plating.

 

[tim halloran]

Beladran: You will have to have the plating stripped off the part by a chrome plating shop, if they can strip it off.

 

[Tira]

Here is a link to the Tips section where this article on chrome resides. Her Favorite Color is Chrome

I don't speak about the stripping too much there, but the plating shop can strip the plating for you. Sand blasting may also work but you may round the edges or otherwise alter the part. The stripping process only takes off the 3 layers of plating leaving the part underneath basically the same. The article also goes on to talk about having the part re-polished before engraving.

 

[DDick]

Hi,
To begin with I don't think your part is hard chromed. You have what is called decorative chrome plating which is based on nickel plating with a very thin layer of chrome
plating over the nickel. You should have the both the Nickel and the Chrome removed chemically by a plating shop to get to the base metal to be engraved. If your part
is Hard Chrome Plated it would be very rare, Hard Chrome plating is solid chrome plating in very thick deposits with no under coats. It is very expensive and used mostly
for heavy industrial wear. I would not sand blast the coating---you may cause a lot of surface damage which would require a lot of work to clean up. I was in the plating
business for a long time.

ddick

 

[BrianPowley]

Tira's right about blasting. It could cause unwanted roundness and can even change the piece dimensionally.
I agree with getting a plating shop to remove the finish. They use electrolysis (reverse plating) with sulfuric acid. Not something you should attempt on your own.