Chroming... Why so expensive??

[lcfc]

WTF is it with chrome platers wanting to charge what they do when i just saw a brand new bmx in a sports shop for £70, the make is not important what is though is that it had the dogs chrome job on it.
I mean ffs. i got a chrome plated broom handle with a head on it as well for a £1!! at wilko's, there has to be at least 1/3 of a frames worth of chrome on it so why dont it cost £3 for a frame??
I know you all must be thinking but you really think about it. Most items in your bathroom/kitchen and many other items in and around our homes are chrome plated and they do not cost fortunes. I even got a free upgrade from orange the other week and got the new motorola razor (shite) btw, and its in fooking black chrome!!

[kirk]

Easy, UK Worker in a plating business needs £6 7 8 9 10+ per hour just to live in this country, raw materials are expensive here due to tax, business rates, I could go on.....

All the goods in wilco are made in China etc by a little bloke who gets paid a bag of beans a day, who lives in a shed and the company just pumps out lots of cr ap and has no hse policy or pays stupid taxes to a greedy government who is skint, because they are paying to keep the immigrants in houses, and teenage mums in flats. so just remember next time your paying the chromer £45 to chrome a bolt your keeping scum bags comfy.

[lcfc]

  It still dont add up though does it? even at £10p/h materials/ transport............ me thinks we are all getting fooked with a big stick!!

[Moose]

How much do you think special waste costs these days?

[munners]

Its because the manufacturer gets huge discount for volumes. They just dont chrome 1 at a time!

Whenever i go into my chromers they always have thousand and thousands of a particular chrome light fitting that they chrome for a manufacturer who probably pays no where near what they would charge us to do just one.

We are the little fiddly jobs that they can charge what they like for really.

Chromers cannot compete with China for chroming though!

[diesel]

Lets remember that new products about to be chrome plated do not need as much if any polishing, but also most of the stuff that you have talked about is 'Bright Zinc plated' not chrome as its much cheaper, but it dulls very quickly. You might also notice that you can see brush marks under the plating on cheaper stuff and this is because it hasn't be polished very well if at all before or between processes.

However the plating we are talking about is triple plated 'Show Chrome'.

Therefore your frame for example has to be:

Stripped - Polished - Copper plated - Polished - Nickel pated - Polished - Chrome plated - finally Polish again. (* Don't forget to advise the Chromer 'not' to polish the welds out)

That's 8 processes...... If its done properly

Do it on the cheap and it won't be polished between processes.

Many people have come here saying that they can get it cheaper, but usually the results are far from perfect. (ie. corners have been cut to reduce the cost)

Conclusion:

You get what you pay for

Hope that helps
Dan

[Mattdub]

Lets remember that new products about to be chrome plated do not need as much if any polishing, but also most of the stuff that you have talked about is 'Bright Zinc plated' not chrome as its much cheaper, but it dulls very quickly. You might also notice that you can see brush marks under the plating on cheaper stuff and this is because it hasn't be polished very well if at all before or between processes.

However the plating we are talking about is triple plated 'Show Chrome'.

Therefore your frame for example has to be:

Stripped - Polished - Copper plated - Polished - Nickel pated - Polished - Chrome plated - finally Polish again. (* Don't forget to advise the Chromer 'not' to polish the welds out)

That's 8 processes...... If its done properly

Do it on the cheap and it won't be polished between processes.

Many people have come here saying that they can get it cheaper, but usually the results are far from perfect. (ie. corners have been cut to reduce the cost)

Conclusion:

You get what you pay for

Hope that helps
Dan

Spot on bro 

I'm happy to pay for good quality chroming , pay peanuts you get monkeys  .

Another thread on here made me smile the other day about peeps wanting cheap powdercoaters , it ain't expensive to have a good job done to start with !  .

Why cheap powdercoaters ? , are you actively searching for a crap job !       

[MartyC]

Lets remember that new products about to be chrome plated do not need as much if any polishing, but also most of the stuff that you have talked about is 'Bright Zinc plated' not chrome as its much cheaper, but it dulls very quickly. You might also notice that you can see brush marks under the plating on cheaper stuff and this is because it hasn't be polished very well if at all before or between processes.

However the plating we are talking about is triple plated 'Show Chrome'.

Therefore your frame for example has to be:

Stripped - Polished - Copper plated - Polished - Nickel pated - Polished - Chrome plated - finally Polish again. (* Don't forget to advise the Chromer 'not' to polish the welds out)

That's 8 processes...... If its done properly

Do it on the cheap and it won't be polished between processes.

Many people have come here saying that they can get it cheaper, but usually the results are far from perfect. (ie. corners have been cut to reduce the cost)

Conclusion:

You get what you pay for

Hope that helps
Dan

Spot on bro 

I'm happy to pay for good quality chroming , pay peanuts you get monkeys  .

Another thread on here made me smile the other day about peeps wanting cheap powdercoaters , it ain't expensive to have a good job done to start with !  .

Why cheap powdercoaters ? , are you actively searching for a crap job !       

Amen 

[Peter J]

Spot on Dan, I used to work with some platers and they work for every penny. Its a dirty job with loads of nasty chemicals if you want cheap "hong kong shmutter" then go for it if you want a good job then pay for it.

[double chevron]

 Agree on above.
Quality has a price, it's quite a nasty and time wasting job, especially one frame at a time.

kirk, would you really prefer to get everything you buy from abroad ?
"Think globally, act locally", mate.

and please no nasty politics, we're talking about chrome....  (well, just my two cents, eh!)

[lcfc]

  I know bright zinc when i see it as opposed to chrome, bath taps are not zinc.

  Dealing with nasty chems.... thats the job it is, unavoidable whoever, wherever it done.

  Waste products and the disposal of them............ they all got the same problem.

  Cheap nasty chrome job only fit for the lucky bag........nah! this bike was the nuts looking with a deep looking sunglasses inducing shine.

   Yes there is the bulk contract bread and butter stuff that keeps them going, and i understand why that is done for a fraction of the cost for a one off part like a bike frame, but that dont seem to me to be able to justify the extreme cost that they charge.........in my opinion, but i am often wrong.

[MartyC]

Well, my local chrome platers are a family run business and I went to school with both of the older boys and tbh I have asked about bike frames and the simple answer is that unless you have the tubes and fiddly bits (brake bridges, bottom brackets, headtube gussets) properly cleaned up and highly polished they cannot guarantee a high quality finish.  They also find BMX frames difficult because they are small, tubing is close together (seat stays, bb, etc) and makes it hard work to get an even chrome finish at a cost that punters find acceptable.  20 years ago they were chroming heaps of bike frames but today and maybe thanks to China the work isn't there so the cost increases as these are one-off jobs for them and they are time consuming.

Most of the cheap stuff you have seen chromed is polished tubing which has been polished before any welding, etc has been done.  There was a good thread posted by Ed at ColoredTuffs when he was asked if Skyway are going to chrome any of the 25th Anniversary TA's; he responded saying unlikely as the tubing was not polished enough for a good base to chrome over, says it all really.

[brass monkey!]

I with the guys on this one, you get what ya pay for;

Also you need to consider; Quality, Economies of Scale, helath & safety etc.., we're only going to get one-off's done and they need to be best quality for show. Don't expect your local chromer to do a show chrome job for chinese prices…..it ain't gonna happen ! The cost of shgipping the bulk far east stuff is cheap, all transported by boats owned by Chinese conglomorates - they can do everything cheaper. Blieve me ! I work in the Automotive manufacuring industry, we're moving all of our sites from Western Europe to the likes of China, India, and even Slovakia and Turkey - labours costs, BOM's etc are all so much cheaper !

I did still manage to get a pair of Landing Gear Forks show chromed for £20 (But that was a favour from a mate), inc all the process that Dan described above.

[meticulous]

some people always want a perfect job done cheaply, expecting some self employed man, with all his insurance and rates to pay, to work for £100 a day, maybe the same as what they get employed. a plumber or a joiner wants £200 a day, and generaly wants £50 to knock on your front door,  but us refinishing guys, whatever it may be, car bodywork or chroming,most people dont realise how much skill and time it takes to do a near perfect job.

[Bob_Acid]

bloke who gets paid a bag of beans a day, who lives in a shed

These people just don't know when thay have it good 

[Peter J]

Plumber or Joiner for £200 a day, let me know who they are and I'll find then loads of work for that rate of pay   

My mate is a QS and he pays out £300 - £350 per day for a plumber and about the same for chippies

[lcfc]

  Think you all are not getting my point, i to am self employed, i am nowadays a cabbie, and would not start my engine if i knew before my shift started that i would not take at least £120 a night.

  I will cut to the chase and then see if someone, anyone can explain why so much money.

  I got quotes from 4 platers in and around leicester and the cheapest to copper/zinc/chrome with polishing in between all stages for ONE MONGOOSE set of FORKS ONLY was £178.45 inc.!! with the most expensive being £223......... Get the fook out of here and get real, its prices like that that has drove the work to other cheaper regions of the planet.

[Dingobmxer]

  Think you all are not getting my point, i to am self employed, i am nowadays a cabbie, and would not start my engine if i knew before my shift started that i would not take at least £120 a night.

  I will cut to the chase and then see if someone, anyone can explain why so much money.

  I got quotes from 4 platers in and around leicester and the cheapest to copper/zinc/chrome with polishing in between all stages for ONE MONGOOSE set of FORKS ONLY was £178.45 inc.!! with the most expensive being £223......... Get the fook out of here and get real, its prices like that that has drove the work to other cheaper regions of the planet.

Thats well expensive!!!!

I got a set of SE bars done, stripped/polished and "show chromed" (well it must be show chrome because the bike won at MK07) for £25

  DINGO

p.s I wont tell anyone where I got it done cos its my little secret and he takes long enough as it is without being bombarded with work from this site 

[Mattdub]

  Think you all are not getting my point, i to am self employed, i am nowadays a cabbie, and would not start my engine if i knew before my shift started that i would not take at least £120 a night.

  I will cut to the chase and then see if someone, anyone can explain why so much money.

  I got quotes from 4 platers in and around leicester and the cheapest to copper/zinc/chrome with polishing in between all stages for ONE MONGOOSE set of FORKS ONLY was £178.45 inc.!! with the most expensive being £223......... Get the fook out of here and get real, its prices like that that has drove the work to other cheaper regions of the planet.

Have a look in Tech & Resto stickies area at Good/Bad Chrome platers thread , should be a few chromers recommended in there  .

[turky642003]

my jobs quite dangerous i risk being burned by acid and fried by several hundred volts each day but im still not earning the same as these guys,   in fact i earn a pi*S pore wage but its my choice,    i do in my opinion think they overchage  (and seem to cover themselves with the danger of the job story)  and its difficult.   but then i dont see why they cant prep and chrome it along with the other items they are doing?  rather than make it another boring fiddily job for themselves and dip it individualy,    i know how much prep needs to go into them as well as i have helped my uncle  (a builder of show wining hotrods) prep alot of items for his cars, and i have also worked in the motortrade prepping vehicles for paint,  prep is difficult and time consuming,   but still dont justify the extortion!!  lol   i am an