Advice for a plating shop

[Maurizio Santini]

I ask for advice, I have original handles with KXXX L/R punching in the USA because Tony is overhauling my locks.
I'd like to have them re-chromed with the lock receiver instead of buying replicas.
Can someone suggest a plating shop who can do a perfect job on the first try?

Thanks

[Mike Wilson]

Pricy but the best I have used is Jose at Christensen's in Vernon, California. Victor Miles uses him.

Mike

[Martin Benade]

One common problem is that the outer edges of the lock receivers are often pitted. Once that is cleaned up the cylinder is no longer flush.
I had mine done by a pretty good place and I had no functional problems but if there is pitting, show car results are impossible. The only special instructions I gave them was not to grind much off the outer edge so I still have a touch of pitting but it looks decent.

[Jim Clement]

why not just get Tony to do them ?
He did my locks, rebult them and rechromed the handles.. Likley a better way to do it, then you know they will work, and the chrome build up on the inside will not be to great as to cause the lock not to work.
they eventually came back looking like new..

[Martin Benade]

But with Tony the timeline is anywhere from three weeks to seven years.

[Mike Wilson]

Comments by Jim and Martin are both valid.

Mike

[Bill Romano]

Interesting article on DIY plating in V30#1 page 48. Problem is surface preparation, correcting the pits and missing chunks isn't really covered and I suspect is the primary labor cost of plating. Plating results will only be a good as the surface being plated. Article references CaswellPlating.com which offers plating kits and how-to materials. In recent conversations with Tony I didn't get the feeling he was still rechroming parts.

[Bruce Smith]

Bill- Caswell chrome will be a lot of effort, followed probably by disappointment. It doesn't use cyanides and has a novel way to control fumes. Preparation is also probably beyond DIY. Caswell DIY zinc can be as good as a plating shop, but setup to get good results requires some planning. I wrote an article in the magazine about it a while back.

For chrome, I've used Paul's Plating in Pennsylvania.

[Rick Albro]

Christensen's scrapped 9 pre-A door handles for me. The handles came back with the tabs broken off and severely over polished. Christensen's had done a number of door handle sets for me with out incident. Jose promised my parts in two weeks for nearly eight months before I told him I would stop by and pick up the parts in person. I understand that the pandemic caused much hardship on many small businesses, and Jose stated that he lost two of his polishers during this time. I have been using Sherm's plating with some success. Keep in mind any time you do plating on door handle parts you will need to re fit all of the parts... edge effects always have build up and taper. The dimensions of the parts usually need anywhere from major to minor adjustments. Re-plating door handles parts is more than just making the parts look good this is a technical plating that must also look good. Find a shop that you can also discussion the needs and criteria of the job. Take before pictures and make sure to show where you want the plating done. Some shops will only plat the area that shows. This would be okay if the plating process did not also begin a potential long term corrosion issue for the base metal that was exposed to the cleaning and plating solutions. Have them plate the whole part with out over plating or over polishing the pieces... pits and other defects will also affect the final outcome. You will need to fully disassemble the part and remove all the small springs and non plated parts. Some shop will plate the parts with the springs still in place but the small springs sometimes do not survive the process and you end up replacing them anyway; do it right the first time. Some times you get lucky but on an original part do you want to roll the dice? I have also used a number of other shops all of which produced a good parts. Prices are over a considerable range, this is where customer service and turn around time weighs in. Two to four months is typical for most shops but some can take a year or more.

[Greg Bryan]

I've had excellent results with Christensen's.

[Rick Albro]

If Tony is doing your locks then let him do your plating that way you know everything will fit together and function properly when done. The locks will have to be disassembled before plating and reassembled afterwards. Let the lock smith do his craft. If some fitting needs to be done after plating the lock smith will likely be the best person to make everything work right. Otherwise you do some steps twice. Tony may be fast or slow but the end product will be good. Old locks are like used cars you don't know what you have until they are dissembled. Some locks just like some cars take more effort to restore. Be patient. Remember good, fast, or cheap take your choice.

[Bob Kittel]

soon we will be looking for chrome shops outside of California as Newsom has legislation now to ban all chrome plating in California.