chrome options

You could try Home Depot, Lowe's or some other hardware store for the shiny aluminum tape. It comes in a 2" wide roll, and is somewhat stiff to us, but fairly reflective.

What are the dimensions?

Use Aluminium Composite Panel(ACP).You may select still better shade.

Remember that chrome is used to give extra surface hardness as well as a "shiny finish.

A cheaper coating to give you that "shinny" surface would be ELECTROLESS NICKEL PLATING or just hot dipping in a nickel bath.

There are stainless steel elbows and other ducting parts available through industrial sources like McMaster Carr or Graingers and the cost of stripping and re-chrome plating the parts you have would probably cost you more. Unless you have a lot of them, most job shops have a minimum lot charge and (2) pcs., for instance would amortize out to around 50 to 70 dollars each. Plus gluing to Chrome is iffy at bst... the same characteristics of smooth, polished and shiny make for poor adhesion.

Galvanizing is applying molten Zinc.. Try having the parts Electroplated with Zinc and ask for a clear conversion coating. This will give you a silvery finish that is also a good base coat for glues and paints.

Good Luck

Chrome bad. Very bad.

Stainless steel a good option if you want good mechanical strength.

Reflective mylar will stick on with static. Its cheap, and easily replaceable. No mechanical strength to speak of.

What is your end use? (I should have asked this question first...as should all of the others who have replied!)

Thanks for your response. The end use is a sculpture. I will be gluing glass pieces to it-very small, the size of a dime in diameter and 1/4 inch thick.

Any ideas who can do or where I can have the reflective mylar done?

How about vacuum metallising? It's cheap & produces & shiny surface good enough to be used as a mirror. You might have to spend a bit of time polishing the metal first to give a good substrate but the pre-coat lacquer will smooth out small imperfections.

I looked into that option when I had a small order to do. (four bayonets w. plastic scabbards) I loved the idea, but it is not that cheap! There is a minimum cost for the production run and some in house prep which you have to pay for. Also there are some plastics which do not lend themselves to this process, and if it didn't work, then I was stuck with the cost of the production run regardless of whether they got shiny or not. Plus any damage from outgassing of the plastic which "might" occur.

But I agree, if you have more than a couple of dozen pieces, then vacuum metallising is the way to go! The result is really nice, goes onto any metal and most plastics, and looks great! As far as wear characteristics go, well, it seems to hold up well on my motorcycle! All those "chrome" parts are now plastic!

If there's a local metalliser it's worth talking to them. They will usually quote for jigging etc. but you may find that you could supply the parts ready jigged & they might be able to fit the parts in with another small run rather than charge the minimum production run price. In my experience most companies are willing to help the small guy.

Thanks for your idea! I'll investigate further. Enjoy

Cheapest thing you could do would be to just get some scotch-brite wheels and clean up the surface, then take a buffing wheel and some jeweler's rouge and polish them up. The materials are cheap and can be bought at just about any hardware store, and if you're willing to put in the time they can end up shining quite nicely. Plus, you'll be gluing your glass pieces directly to the metal, so the bond will be much much better. I used to work in aircraft engine parts and we would have to clean/buff the tubing used on jet engines (304 stainless typically) and when we were finished they shined almost as bright as chrome. Really, the question would come down to how much your time is worth.

Is galvanizing ever going to shine up that well? I've never tried it but I feel that it will always be grainy.

Mylar won't work then, it won't provide a nice base for the stuff you want to glue on. The underlying steel (the stuff underneath the galvanizing) will shine up just fine, use buffing wheels with coarse, medium, fine and then white jeweler's rouge. Take off all the galvanizing, and shine up the underlying steel. These materials can all be found easily enough on the internet. Then you will have to glue your mirrors on with crazy glue, mask off the parts you just attached, degrease the whole thing and spray urethane over everything in order to prevent any future rusting.

You cannot plate a coat of bright nickel over the galvanizing....you would have to polish, de-grease, copper plate, polish,degrease, copper plate again, polish and de-grease, and maybe copper plate again before you get a surface that would look nice and shiney. You can watch the process here....

http://southtowerarmouringguild.blogspot.com/

this should give you an idea on what is involved. Personally, I would just polish it until it is shiney, and spray urethane on it. Anything you glue to it would have to be glued before you spray the urethane of course.

(This is one of the very few times I would recommend spray varnish)

Thanks so much for all the info. I'll look into this! Enjoy.

Rustoleum makes a Chrome paint...I am actually going to be experimenting with it this evening...I will let you know how it turns out tomorrow.

I tried out Rustoleum Metal spray paint last night. It actually looked pretty good. The smoother the surface, the better the reflection. Probably worth a shot in your application. Chrome is now quickly becoming my favorite color. Good Luck!

Thank you!

Did you try it? I actually got a cardboard box and a log to look like metal.

Chrome is quickly becoming my favorite color.

Cheers