stripping chrome.

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plunger
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Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2022 4:27 pm
Location: durban

stripping chrome.

Post by plunger »

Hope someone here has done this. I want to remove the badly damaged chrome off from a shower mixer and have the natural brass look.
I tried this using electrolysis but it damaged and pitted the brass pity bad.

Also I see that some commercially sold shower mixers have a brushed brass look which looks like brass but has brush strokes of darker brass in it which looks quite nice and then has what looks like a clear coat on it. Do you get a clear powder coat paint as it seems much more durable than 2k clearcoat.
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Bill Shields
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Re: stripping chrome.

Post by Bill Shields »

it's tough -> since anything that attacks the chrome is going to ding the brass also.

HCL is the only way of which I am aware to remove it

natural brass...well...it's eventually a polishing nightmare.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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Harold_V
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Location: Onalaska, WA USA

Re: stripping chrome.

Post by Harold_V »

Sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid will each remove chrome, but each of them also have a strong appetite for zinc, which is a part of brass. When you subject the pieces to either of them you can expect the surface to be leached free of zinc, leaving behind a honeycomb of copper which has little strength and is porous. For those reasons, you'd be best served to remove the chrome mechanically---perhaps with a buffing wheel. The parts should lend themselves fairly well to that process, as they have to be buffed to be plated.

H
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