Chrome plating Plastic ??

[defstartrooper]

Does anyone here have any experience of this ?
I've been reading up on a process for plating plastic and other non conductive materials, basically it involves coating the piece in a conductive paint then soaking it in bath of plating solution,some manufacturers require a heated bath others room temprature, there's no electrical source required other than to heat the bath if the solution you're using requires heat.

I just wondered if anyone here has used this process and if so what are the results like ?

 

[Neon Sentry]

Check out any chrome plated toy on the market for a look at the results. It's gotten better since the '90s, but I think that's just a result of better sculpts and designs than improvements in the process.

 

[dijinn]

Does anyone here have any experience of this ?
I've been reading up on a process for plating plastic and other non conductive materials, basically it involves coating the piece in a conductive paint then soaking it in bath of plating solution,some manufacturers require a heated bath others room temprature, there's no electrical source required other than to heat the bath if the solution you're using requires heat.

I just wondered if anyone here has used this process and if so what are the results like ?

I would just use All-Clad or MirraChrome. What is involved is this: You have to prepare a nice smooth surface, the smoother the better. Then lay down a glossy black basecoat. This gloss black basecoat is what will sell the "chrome" look so, you want it to be flawless. Then you spray the "chrome" paint over this surface and it looks just as good as electro-plated plastic chrome. If done correctly, I honestly doubt you could tell the difference simply by looking at it.

- J.

 

[Fizbin]

Check out any chrome plated toy on the market for a look at the results. It's gotten better since the '90s, but I think that's just a result of better sculpts and designs than improvements in the process.

Actually, I think what you're referring to is called "vac-metalizing" where the piece collects the metal 'chrome' vapor within a vacuum... I'm sure someone has a better explanation.

 

[robn1]

I've never used it, but Caswell has conductive spray for just that purpose.
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/silvaspray.html

Rob

 

[masteryoda]

I wonder how much of the silvaspray you'd have to use to do a Proticol Droid? I also wonder if you could gold tint it?

 

[defstartrooper]

From what i read it's recommended for smaller parts although im unsure if that's simply because of cost.
Obviously something as large as some of the larger parts of a protocol would require a big bath of fluid and if it's the type that requires heating that could be an issue too.
I've not found a company that offers this stuff in gold tints only in zinc or chrome.

I really wondered about this because vacuum metalizing one or two small parts isn't cost effective and the chrome paints available either require specialist equipment or a lot of prep work.

 

[darthgordon]

Electroplating is relatively easy.

 

[Tiki]

Electroplating is relatively easy.

I concur - I've worked with vacu-metalized parts and chrome-plated (electroplated) parts - and was very disappointed in the first and pleasantly surprised by the latter. We vacu-metalized a ton of indy idols for everyone in the shop one year, and it was a total crapshoot on how well your part came out. Not only did the surface have to be perfect, we later learned that the parts position on the metalizing tray can have a great impact on the end result. Also, the process involved high temperatures, which caused some invisible near-surface bubbles on the resin parts to expand and mar the metalized surface. Why did we vacu-metalize? At the time it was the best option for resin parts, as only metal parts (that could conduct electricity) could be electroplated. Later on we learned of a conductive primer coat that allowed you to chrome just about anything (this sounds like what the original poster describes - but I am fairly sure it is an electric process). We were in the process of doing a bunch of gags for (ulp..) Phantasm 3 (or 4? I dunno) and we chrome plated a bunch of plastic spheres for various "Ball attack" scenes. Man, they looked GREAT! I had to saw a few of the spheres in half for some of the gags. Not only was the chrome tough, but when I cut the sphere in half the chrome plating popped off of the plastic - and still held its shape! Like a little metal cup! Now, I suppose this is where I should say I have no idea how much the chrome process cost as I wasn't involved in billing that one, but I do know that the vacu-metalizing was REALLY pricey. So much so we all went in with a big batch to spread the cost, and just about everyone in the end was discouraged with the results. Whew! Big post - sorry!

 

[robn1]

The Silvaspray is a concentrate, they say it'll cover 10-15 sq.ft. Will that
cover a protocol droid? The gold plate solution will probably cost more.

Caswell says you can use any of the plating solutions with Silvaspray.

Rob

 

[defstartrooper]

Yeah you should be able to electroplate on the conductive primer i was curious about this electroless solution though, the stuff caswell does requires a heated bath but i found another that just requires room temp.
I'm always one for going for a simple solution and this stuff you just basically dump the piece in a bath and leave it, no heat, no power source needed.
If you want a gold finish then i reckon you'll have to go down the electroplate route.

this company do the cool bath electroless stuff.
http://www.platingsales.com/electroless.html

And they do a gold electroplate solution but the electroplate kits are really expensive.