ausfire Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 I use a LOT of old shifting spanners (wrenches) in my junk art work, and there comes a time when junk spanners are hard to find. I've just about exhausted my scrap pile supply.So I got onto some new ones - cheap and nasty Chinese made rubbish with loose adjusters and probably pretty poor metal. It goes against the grain to use new stuff for 'junk art' but these are not much good for anything else and are, well, ... junk.Anyway, the problem is they are quite heavily chrome plated and I am not keen on welding chrome - even with my new respirator. And I don't want them shiny. I need them to look like the old wrench in the photo. So the question is, how do you remove chrome? I could chuck them in a very hot fire which anneals them nicely for bending, but is the chrome gone? As I understand it chromium has a higher melting point than steel. They come out looking grey but are they safe to weld?? Maybe the chrome flakes away in the fire I don't know. (I build a big wood fire BTW, not the forge). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Chrome does not get plated directly onto steel. They base plate copper, which has a much lower melting point before the chrome layer on top. more quality also has a nickel layer between the copper and chrome. I bet there is copper melting off an taking the chrome layer with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Do you have a place that chrome plates things? They might unplate them just for the free chrome and they deal with all the toxic waste! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted August 1, 2015 Author Share Posted August 1, 2015 Aha! Thanks Steve - I think you are right. I hit one of those spanners with a flap disc and there was a definite pinkish/coppery sheen under the chrome. So the copper melts and takes the chrome with it. Good. I'll make a big fire and toss them all in.Thomas, I had thought of some way of reclaiming the lost chrome, but there are no plating works within a reasonable distance of us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 You can unplate with a dilute sulfuric acid bath and electrolysis. negative ground the wrench and positive ground a piece of stainless or something you want a hodge podge plating job on. Of course you end up with the haz mat disposal issue.Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumbatron Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Not had much experience in the area, but chrome is particularly nasty stuff. It'll give you, or your loved ones cancer and won't go away. If you chuck them in a fire, the chrome will be in the ash and/or sent up with some of the smoke and will contaminate the area. I'd definitely recommend talking to a chrome plater or similar, they should have the facilities to deal with the chrome safely and might even do it for you for free. Stay safe. Gumbatron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Furrer Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Three things,one---if you buy in bulk you may be able to get unplated tools direct from the manufacturer...i.e. Chinatwo---If you buy in bulk you may be able to have them drop shipped to a plating company in OZ and then shipped to you after de-plating.three---one or two in your back yard may be fine, but as a product line I urge you to find a better way to deal with the plating. the above two may allow for other tool styles in addition to the wrench to be purchased cheaper than you do now...........alibaba is a good place to start. Find the Chinese characters for "plain metal" "bare metal" " no electro-plating" and include that in your messages. Ric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Good suggestion Ric, really good.I'm betting they'd be more than happy to skip a couple processes in tool manufacture for near regular price and it'd save you the costs of removal and disposal to boot. More profit for them and less expensive for you. Sounds like a win win in the wind. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted August 5, 2015 Author Share Posted August 5, 2015 Thanks Richard for your suggestions and Gum for your concern.I imagine those junk wrenches are mass produced and the process is fixed for the sake of economy, but I will find out. It would be great to get unplated ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Furrer Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 As to "integrated production":I needed several thousand (like 25,000) small bits sheared from sheet metal and did not want to do it myself. I took a ride through town to the four shops with shears and the two with CNC shearing machines were proud to show me the line and each explained........in slow small words....that they had an integrated production line where raw enters one way and completed work exits the other. I saw a man standing between the manual shear and the cnc feeding stock from one to the other (manual to cnc). I asked the manager after the fine tour if the man handling the sheets could ...at the end of the production run....feed my sheet into the cnc with a slight change to the cut pattern and run my stock at the end of the month. He smiled and said..."no we have an integrated production line" and explained again the raw material entering one end.....SO........apparently integrated production either means "leave my shop" or "I am incapable of thinking".Ric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 SO........apparently integrated production either means "leave my shop" or "I am incapable of thinking". Makes me glad to be retired for the last 7 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 You were talking to a "manager" not someone who knew how to run the machinery. It's rare to run into a management type who doesn't think the Machinery does the work and the people are "just laborers." The whole basis of the "Management" theory is something like this. You don't need to know how to do the work to manage the business.I'll bet if you talked to the guy running the shear he'd sneak your job in after work or on his lunch break.Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmoothBore Posted August 16, 2015 Share Posted August 16, 2015 Sounds like "scrap" wrenches would work OK, ... and are probably NOT plated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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