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Sat Aug 04, 2018 10:22 am

I was pestering my machinist yesterday when I noticed he had just picked up a load of pieces he had had cad plated. "How much did you guy charge?", I asked. "500" he answered. Given that this plater works on Porsche's and Ferrari's, and he's in the SF bay area, I wasn't that surprised by the price. What did surprise me is that the plater hung every single piece (bolts, carb parts), individually. Is this normal, or just a Porsche/Ferrari thing?

Cheers,

Paul

Sat Aug 04, 2018 10:51 am

Hello,
Yes, on hanging each piece individually. If the parts are touching each other(on one wire), you're not going to get good results....

Sat Aug 04, 2018 11:23 am

I was actually wondering about barrel plating. I always assumed that the big/delicate stuff goes on wires, and all the misc bolts, washers, etc. go in a rotating barrel. Here's typical quote from another company's site:

"Hohman Plating offers both rack and barrel plating with and without brighteners."

Cheers,

Paul

Sat Aug 04, 2018 5:03 pm

gimmesomeshelter wrote: I was actually wondering about barrel plating. I always assumed that the big/delicate stuff goes on wires, and all the misc bolts, washers, etc. go in a rotating barrel. Here's typical quote from another company's site:

"Hohman Plating offers both rack and barrel plating with and without brighteners."

Cheers,

Paul

Yes, the small stuff gets barrel plated. I save old hardware from breaking down parts cars and engines, and send it out to get bright zinc plated every time I have a bucket full. Totally worth it.

Sun Aug 05, 2018 10:45 am

I also collect original hardware and have it refinished, typically with clear zinc or black oxide. I use the ST Parts lists section from the Type 14 and Type 34 Parts lists as a guide for how the parts should be refinished. Sometimes the refinishing needs to happen more than once because attention to detail for some of these companies is just not there.

I can't find anyone local who does cadmium, anymore. I'm not really sure which parts were cad plated to begin with.

Sun Aug 05, 2018 12:02 pm

When I have my parts Cadium plated (White/Clear) I bring about 1/2 to a gallon bucket of hardware, usually enough for 3-5 cars. I usually do the prep work of media blasting or tumbling to get all the scale, rust, grease etc off the part(s)

My plater will wire about 80% of the hardware. Cost is about $60-$90 with a 2-3 day turn around.

$500 seems ridiculous

Sun Aug 05, 2018 1:08 pm

"$500 seems ridiculous"

I suspect the price is a reflection of living in one of the most expensive areas in United States. When my wife's family moved here (early 1070's), many of the neighborhoods around here were populated by blue-collar families. There were professionals, like my father-in-law, but they were the exception. Fast forward 45 years, and a ho hum 1500 sq ft 3/2 can sell for close to 2,000,000 USD. I suspect that this is a simple case of charging what the market will bear.

BTW, it's interesting to hear that most of the pieces were hung on wires. I'll make sure to ask about that.

Cheers,

Paul

Fri Aug 10, 2018 7:00 pm

Eastwood’s sells plating kits, you could DIY for much less. I’ve seen home kits and finish was good. If you like cad plate you’d like nickel even better.

Sat Sep 29, 2018 8:35 am

Zundfolge1432 wrote: nickel

Or zinc. Have the Caswell setup. In either case they are far preferable to cad which is deadly stuff.

Mon Nov 19, 2018 4:27 pm

$500 is not only paying for the labor of cleaning/plating the parts, but also contributes to the cost of running the business. Especially in California.... Quantities, and cleanliness also contribute. The shop I work at that reuses factory hardware has easily lost 60% of the vendors used for plating due to EPA mandates, and costs of upgrading equipment to meet those mandates. Buy one of the kits from Eastwood/Caswell, and see how long it takes you to produce the finish you desire, and find out what types of chemicals/fluids you now have store/dispose of. If you’re charging a customer $80-$120 an hour labor, $500 isn’t bad if plating 250+ fasteners.