Hey there, first I gotta say that I really like this place and figured this is good place to ask this question I got for y'all. I've gotten into this case modding stuff and I really want to do something interesting on mine that would really make it my own. Anyway my mom has this Cuisinart coffee maker and it has a black chrome finish (it's a little hard to tell from the link but its shinier looking). Anyway I think its a pretty cool looking machine with the finish that it has. It's not black paint with a glossy finish or a highly polished black painted case, at least as far as I can tell. I've tried looking into black chroming but I've only found a few sites on the internet that explain what it is but nothing really that could help me out here. So I want to do a black chrome finish on my case if I could; if any of you guys have any suggestions on what I could do I'd appreciate it a lot. I figured if there was one place I could get a good response it'd be here. Thanks very much!
Short answer is you can't do this at home. To plate steel, you start with a thin cyanide copper layer, then a thick nickel layer, then a very thin black chrome layer. All highly poisonous solutions. If you're rich, find a commercial electroplater who'll do one-offs.
yah can't even buy the copper cyanide without a liscence in the US I believe. best bet would be to call up custom motorcycle or chrome shops
This Link might give you a similar result to what you're looking for, but it looks like there's a lot of work involved.
Thanks guys for the quick responses Yeah I did some searching of my own for a chrome plating shop, unfortunately I don't think this will be an option, for me anyway. Darn shame though, black chrome would look quite excellent I think. Has anybody made or modded a case in such fashion? That would be something I'd like to see. Oh well... But the link that Zurechial provided looks really interesting; lots of work but the results are very nice, think I might try that. Thanks again very much guys!
No problem, that's what we're for! Be sure to post back here or in a log with details and photos of your results
As stated above... find your local Harley dealer, and ask them who does there chroming... I've got a friend that has had a lot of his bike "Black Chromed". He had it all done through the Harley dealership... Lee
Well for sure in my situation I can't get my case black chromed. I live in Honolulu, Hawaii and there's only one full service center for chrome plating and the like, and they don't do black chrome plating. I called the local Harley Davidson dealership and they don't do that either (they're not really a dealership just a distribution center for Harley's and Kawasaki's). Ahh well, but on the other hand it would be cheaper (and a lot more work) to paint black then polish a mirror shine on to the case panels like in Zurechial's link (thanks by the way); plus the results shown in the tutorial really does look like black chrome, hopefully I can manage that. I think this is route I'll be taking.... Well hopefully one of the many highly talented and highly skilled individuals over here will see this thread and think, "hmmm.... black chrome..." It'd be really beautiful to see not just the outer panels but the entire case black chrome plated. Just a thought.... Well thanks again guys!
