DIY Spray On Chrome

Ok guys another customer and another How to!!

I dont know what this pieces are for but I am glad I have something to work with..

this is how they started..





I use Krylon Fusion paint, this is my glue to plastic parts, I dont need to do any other prep for the paint to stick to it and only a few dust coats are need it, you can apply one coat if you are worried about it, but I have don lots of practise with my spoons and no paint has come off as of yet..

after dust coats of Krylon Fusion


a video of it
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after 10 minutes I apply my black base coat


video of it
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then I do my clear coat(remember all is in the prep, you want a mirror? then at this step you need to make a mirror out of the thing, if you dont have the shine, no amount of silver will bring that shine again)





this video shows how the piece looked after it was done, sorry I didnt hava a buddy to film my painting skills!

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tomorrow night I´ll post the finished product(leting the piece cure)

hope you guys like it..

 

very nice i have to learn this process

 

I keep reading about the learning curve being pretty steep what can a guy expect on his first few attempts?

how many spoons do you ruin before getting the first one right? amd whats the next size object after you get the spoons right?

 

nothing but headaches ... that´s why I am writing this How To, so you dont have to go the same rout I took, learned the Hard Way because there was nobody doing this and doing how to´s

I dont know 200 maybe more! I went from good spoons to the a bike headlight cover..

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ok here I am, with updates...

Ok I´ll start with a just a few updates on my chemicals,

I ordered another 120ml kit from Angel Gilding and afew other stuff that I deemed need it.

here is the kit


what else? well I fet I need it another silver reducer, because the first one went bad on me.(the 500ml bottle is very cheap)


I also ordered more wetting agents(cheap cheap)


I also ordered more Tin For Silver because the one I had went bad on me(seems it does not like hot weather, this one is not so cheap, 30$ per bottle I think)


updates on the plastic pieces tomorrow guys, I just ran out of time tonight

 

very cool i guess i am gonna break down and start trying it need to wait for a paycheck then I am gonna order some stuff and give it a try. keep posting

 

ok following on this rout...


Spray On Chrome has three stages, each step as important as the rest of them, none of them are easy and if you mess in one you will not achieve your mirror like coating!

stage one is the Prep work on the piece that is about to be spray on chromed(which we already covered here)

stage two is the chemical aspect of it, the cleaning of the piece before, sensitizing of the piece and then the silvering. in this page we will cover that with videos

ok first you need degrease the piece, you can do this by spraying a degreaser or by hand with a soft cloth or something that will not scratch the piece

in this video I degrease the piece with a soft sponge because it was touched with dirty hands(hands and finger prints have oils and this will show up later if not cleaned enough) so I had to do it manualy
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after degreasing comes the wetting agent(not need it in spectra chrome or alsa chrome because their sensitizers already have powerful wetting agents, while the angel gilding tin for silver has weak ones, this gave me tears and headaches in the past, no nomore)

this is how the piece will behave without the wetting agent(and the chemicals will not flow as well)
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after wetting agent
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after you have rinse the wetting agent with Di watter let it dripp for about 5 to 7 seconds(to get excess whater off, but if you wait too long the piece may dry and that not good)

then you apply the Tin For silver(sensitizer)

mixing the sensitizer with di water(3 ml per 100 ml of Di water)
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applying the sensitizer(wait for 20 seconds after the sensitizer has been apply on the entire piece, then rinse)
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then you start you silvering(sorry for the short videos, I was all alone this time) ...(the mixing of chemicals is always before you start the cleaning/degreasing process)

I still have some left(good enough for about another 4 pieces this large)
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mixing the silver chemicals with di water, mix 4 ml of silver concentrate and 4 ml of silver activator on the left side of the bottle with 200 ml of water(pour the water first, then the chemicals, this is a must) add 4 ml of silver reducer on right side of bottle(again after 200ml of Di water first)

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this is how a correct silvering should look(the mixing of chemicals is always before you start the cleaning/degreasing process)

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next page is the third and last step!!

 

the last step is the top coating, is one on the most important parts of this lengthy process..

this is how the piece looks after the silver layer, and after drying it with a hair dryer

Drying with Hair Dryer(sorry I forgot to make a video of it so I am just placing this as a sampler)
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the dryed pieces


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now after one of the pieces has been clear coat it with a normal clear coat(none tinted one, I did it just to show you how it turns the piece to a yellowish tone, you can top coat it directly with a violet tinted coat)

the one on the left is not clear coat it, the one on the right has the none tinted clear

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now both cleared coat it with a none tinted clear coat

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now one of the piece(the one on the right) was clear coated with a violet tinted clear to mask the yellow effect
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now one of the finished piece compared to a triple chrome piece(small piece)
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I hope you guys like it and learn from it

 

this was one of those excellant threads where you learn something as you follow it , good job on showing spray on chrome and the process to make it work ,

 

Wow!

Nicamarvin you my friend are a legend.

I applaud you with all that you have achieved and shared with all of us.

Thank you.

This is awesome stuff mate, you really have given us all a great understanding of how to do this effectively.

Mate the final result on those last pieces you have done look bloody awesome. Well done.

 

Hi ramtough,
I'm with you mate, can't wait to get started.

 

Mate, the result on these visors are awesome, to have a reflective chrome look on the outside with a see through look from the inside! that is real interesting isn't it!

That continues to give me new ideas, wild!

Keep up the good work man, they look great.

 

Thanks mate!

 

This sounds very interesting. Have you tried this process on metal objects. If so, what kind if results did you have?

 

Can't wait to see how it works

 

this process can work on any surface(Metal,Wood,Plastic,) but you need to prep the piece just as you would any object about to be painted, meaning you cant spray on chrome directly to metal..

you are waiting on what?


hey guys this is Alsa´s ChromeFx Top coat, let me tell you that as soon as I have enough money I will be geting a galon of this clear, it will only add about 20% of the total cost, but the way it turns the piece into a true chrome look its amazing... not even my best efforts are as good, the can come close but not as much.. so my future system will be a hybrid of alsa´s coating and Angel Gilding inexpensive silvering chemicals...

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this is the video showing the difference between the tinted clear(violet tinted on the left and a none tinted clear on the right)
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and a bunch of spray on chrome spoons(and a chrome painted spoon for comparison)
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GReat Stuff... so let me see if I have this right for chrome-coloring plastic

Krylon Fusion any color thats shiny like silver? (for primer)
then the glossy black base coat
then the 2k clear coat (sherwin wiliamns 2k urethene clear)

let cure for normal period???

then clean,
spray with distilled water
wetting agent
then more distilled water spray
then tin
then more distilled water spray
then sliver dual pump spray
then more distilled water spray
then hair dryer

then apply tinted 2k clear coat or the pre-mixed stuff from alsa's

did I get it right?

 

almost.... the krylon fusion can be of any color, I use white or black, the comes the basecoat(mate white or blak or grey it does not matter) then 2k automotive clear coat(I use sherwin williams because I am used to it already) let it cure for 24 hours.....


in the rinsing stages(just before the silvering) you can use tap water, only your very last rinsing before the silvering you have to use Di water because if there are traces of ion on the water(tap water have lots of them chloride is on of them) it will turn your silver nitrate into silver chloride and you just dont want that....I do it that way to save money on Di water but you guys only pay 1 dollar per gallon and I pay about 2.50

 

got an email from Angel Gilding... said they discontinued the sale of their dual spray bottles because "...the silver builds up inside of the spray chamber and blocks it after onl a few uses"...

have you had any problems like that or is that just expected?

I guess they are cheap enough even if that were the case...

I'm planning on casting my part that I'm making for the Mustang and applying the silver (chrome) to it... any plastics I should avoid that you know of?

Ordered some Smooth-on Onyx (slow) for durability and thin wall ability.

I can't wait to see this stuff work first hand...

 

I havent had this issue as of yet, but I clean all of my equipment all the time with water, and after a while I use hydrochloric acid and pump it to remove any silver left.. so far nothing bad has happened

true, you could also buy their drip silver kit, but I have not tested it myself..

all plastics have work just fine with me as of yet, but remember that how you prep the part is the key here..

what´s Smooth on onyx?

 

Check 'em out... I'm gonna try to just "sliver-chrome" the piece as it comes out of mold, then polished, then primed like you suggested to see the difference... If I can get a good chrome finish right out of the mold... yeee hawww!!!

http://www.smooth-on.com/Urethane-Plastic-S/c1120_1325/index.html

 

here is what I'm making and will hopefully get a rapid prototype of

66 Mustang 6-gauge "Pony" Bezel... carved out of existing Pony bezel... set up for 6 gauges... nobody has one that looks like it belongs in the car... only need outer edges and rim chromed... rest is black paint or wood grain... we shall see what transpires..

still a bit rough but i'm taking my time and the lines should be near perfect when I'm finished... hopefully....

 

its possible that if the piece comes out shiny you are good to go right from the mold, I have done it before, but the coated piece have shinier look to it, the only drawback is that with the coating you will see faint orange peel(even if you dont see it on my videos, they all do have some minor orange peel) silvering directly over the shiny plastic takes care of this..

oh I thought another reason my hand triggers aren´t getting pluged is because I dilute the chemicals more, to spray on chrome you will have to use 2ml of concentrate(2ml of silver concentrate, silver activator and reducer) per 100ml of Di water, how do I know what works best? I´ve been playing around with their chemicals sinse way back 2009, what was messing my outcomes and giving me lots of heartaches was the lack of wetting agent, not untill now that I was able to silver without any issues... the wetting agent is "the" key here, unless you use alsa´s Fx or other spray on chrome chemicals, they already come with a wetting agent, wich angel gilding lacks(because they are made to silver glass not a coated surface)

 

I will give it a try, the mold and resin just arrived yesterday... I'll see how shiny it is then I'll do another and buff it as well.

when my silvering stuff arrives, i will just follow your measurments rather than messing with theirs... no time to reinvent the wheel so to speak...

 

well here check this link, goes back to 2009 at the time I was experimenting with different coatings(lacquer, wood polyurethanes, oil enamels..) at the time I bought the 500ml kit, and I wasted ALL of the chemicals, half of that was using their measurements, then I started to dilute them and gave me better results but I was still getting poor results due to bad coating choice(need it to do it, thats how I found out how good the automotive coatings can be) at the time they did not offered any wetting agent and I thought their sensitizer could come already mixed with some form of wetting agent.. but I was wrong and I wasted the entire 500ml kit... but I didnt gave up, I just dont know how to....

here is the old link
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15200628&postcount=18

 

subscribed

 

well guys Alsa Chrome Fx pump system just went up to $399 ouch..! thats $100 more than I paid on january...
http://www.alsacorp.com/products/chromefx/

I am back to spoons.. but only to show how good they look to my future customers...



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my own tinted chrome cleared spoon vs real chrome
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looks good... been busy with taxes this week.... esh..... should be done tonight... then back on the chrome thing....

 

I have been off work since febuary just doing odd jobs to make the bills but I am still working on coming up with the extra funds to get started.

If I got this right my color sanding and buffing skills are pretty good

with the wetting agent and the super slick highly buffed painted surface tinted clear topcoat the angel guilding supplies diluted I should get good results?

obviously after wasting a lot of product to perfect the silvering?

i have been obsessing over getting started to the point that with money being so tight right now I have to really limit my mistakes to a minimum

I do a few custom paint jobs (Motorcycles) here and there i think if I can get this down pretty quick it can help me generate the extra cash and services I need to

make painting and chroming my lifes work.

where I live there are guys custom painting motorcycles on every corner but no one has even heard of this system or if they have they dont understand it

the guys that do understand it look at the spectra chrome dvd and see 8000.00 for the machine or 1500.00-2000.00 in equipment and the training so they dont persue it any further

or do you think order the alsa setup 1st and then experiment with the angel guilding supplies?

Which process would you recommend starting out

but the angelguilding supplies with wetting agent my own double sprayer or

399 for alsa's set up then supplies from them or
Alsa set up and angelguilding supplies

my fear is spending 399 waste all the product learning then buying more supplies at a higher price before i make my 1st dollar if that makes sense

 

where are you located? in the USA? cause you only need like $200 to get started.. thats alot of money here in Nicaragua

you dont need to buff the glossy basecoat or the clear coat at all if you do it right, 2 coats, one light coat, after 5 minute one wet coat.

you dont need to waste or go thru the same issues I did if you just read this thread, my tears will not be your tears if you read this thread

yeah I know, I still make some mistakes but I try not to, but they will happen from time to time, this is the nature of the beast, this process has 3 stages(prep/basecoat, chemicals/silvering, protective coating/tinted clear) if any of these stages goes bad, you need to start over again(unless is the basecoat, in that case just sand and recoat), I have cases where I ruin the entire piece on the last stage(clear) and its heart breaking, but I learn from it..

if you are going to do this as a business as I do, dont sell it as spray on chrome, people tend to believe is real chrome been spray over it(as if was that easy), what I tell them now is, its a special chrome paint that comes from the U.S.A there is nothing like it here in Nicaragua, but its paint and as such is subject to the same durability standards as automotive grade 2k paints are. they get the point, so far so good

that´s what I want also, its kinda of slow at this moment, but I am going to hold to it till the end of the year, I hope that by that time I will be doing 3 to 4 medium pieces a week

same here, but so far I am the Only Nicaraguan doing this, and they dont get it also,

but now anybody could build a pro system for about 2k with chemicals and all, the kit I show here is for little guy that can do small to medium pieces as a hobby or make some cash, or to start small and grow as you go like I did

people on a tight budget like us have only one road and that´s the Angel Gilding road, their least expencive chemicals will give you enough to practice

dont waste your money just yet at this stage, maybe when your business start to grow