Safely Removing Chrome Plating from larger objects?

[Hefty]

Hi all,

I've been given an old broken trolley made out of some form of thick wire mesh, kind of like an old shopping trolley but with two shallower baskets and much cheaper joining methods. Judging by appearance it is most likely chrome plated.

The baskets would be useful for many projects I have started/want to start, but I know that for safety reasons don't want to do any heating, cutting or abrading of chrome plating.

Is there a safe way to remove chrome from larger objects easily without spreading chrome fumes or dust everywhere? For smaller applications I would use hydrochloric/muriatic but I'm not sure I can handle enough volume to cover any decent amount of either of the baskets at once.

Or, is there an effective way to remove it in a localised area to allow for cutting or small welds that won't spread much heat?

I'm just trying to figure out if this will be useful stock or a white elephant.

Cheers,

Jono.

 

[George N. M.]

I'm going to have to speculate that any plating on the wires may be galvanizing rather than chrome.  For something as utilitarian as a shopping trolley/cart I would think that the cheaper galvanizing would be more likely than the more expensive chrome plating.  I believe that it may be easier to remove than chrome plating.

If you can snip off a small piece, try putting it in household vinegar for a day or two and see what happens.  Vinegar is a lot cheaper than other acidic media.  You can then neutralize the vinegar with baking soda or something similar.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Hefty]

Thanks, George. Being so particularly shiny I thought first of chrome. Do gal coatings get that shiny? I guess I should do some more research before asking forum members to be my research!

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning,

Chrome Plating is Electro-Plating which will attach the hard chrome to the target, which generally is a form of steel/iron.

Galvanising is a function of dipping the iron/steel target, into a heated vat of molten Zinc.

Who would have thought that the Chemistry in High School, would be useful.

Neil

 

[Hefty]

Yep, I did physics but not chemistry!

I just did a little further reading and discovered that I had incorrect knowledge of the difference between galvanising and zinc plating (or "electro-galvanising", hence my confusion!).

I also did some searching for this type of trolley and everything I've found online so far suggests that it probably is actually chrome plated.

I'll cross my fingers for galvanised or zinc plated, do the vinegar test and see how it goes.

If nothing else, at least I get some nice lockable castor wheels out of it!

[ThomasPowers]

Probably chrome and probably useless as removing chrome ends up with highly toxic waste material---HIGHLY TOXIC---makes zinc look like a walk in the park on a nice sunny day with people throwing 20 dollar bills at you. 

If you had a piece you really really needed to be dechromed; you would go talk with a place that does chrome plating and see how much they would charge to de-plate it for you.  So in general: use it as it stands or discard it.

[Hefty]

Fair enough. I may have a use for one of the baskets as is but otherwise I'll scrap it and make use of the castors.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Cheers,

Jono.