Colin,
Yikes!! Glad I don't know any platers like either of those guys; but really good and conscientious platers are difficult to find. There are several things that can go wrong. It's a pity that platers and polishers are no longer artists. I'm REALLY glad I found this new outfit, they are really first class; and no one there smokes as far as I can tell.
I almost never put chrome on my own frames, but in restoration work it is frequently required. I do however have a frame underway that is going to be a Tour de Force of various finishing techniques that center around chrome plating. I'm very excited about it and very glad I feel 100% confident in my new plating firm. They genuinely are artists of the plating trade and are the featured plater for world famous car customizer Chip Foose. Enough said, these guys RULE!
I don't mind the 4 hour round trip drive if I can get what I need for a fair price and in a timely manner. It's really important in my business.
BTW Colin, we'd love to have you come to the San Diego Custom Bicycle Show in April 2010. We've never met in person, and we should. Come join the festival of framebuilding comrades as we show our work, trade stories and information, and generally party down in San Diego. Check out http://www.SanDiegoCustomBicycleShow.com.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
USA
Following on from Brian's experience, on the bicycle frame plating,,,
When back in Britain, the Chromers could do an excellent job and could do partial plating, i.e Head-lugs, forks, rear-stays etc and not get anywhere near the rest of the frame.
Over here Stateside, the platers seem to only know the art of plating Truck bumper bars and the like. From the off-go it is always a losing situation, breathing in the toxic fumes in the reception area ( and that is merely cigarette smoke) then dealing with insensitive morons who should of been stangled at birth.
The most recent time I had such work done in the Phoenix area was the most unpleasant ever, It was a very nice Columbus Max frame with all hand cut and designed lugwork of which I was proud....The plater took about 6 weeks longer than estimated and was most annoyed when I enquired about the work,,,Subsequently it was finished and I went to collect it,,,It was by far the worst job that anyone could imagine...but I paid the guy and left the pall of blue cigarette smoke behind..
I drove straight over to his competitor and asked if they could please put the job right at whatever price and he aqreed that it was a mess,,,,but the blue smoke still hovered..A couple of weeks later, a phone-call told me to come and see the frame, they had left it in the strip-tank too long and the tubes were like Edam Cheese ( no kidding ) before he let me have the frame back I had to pay for his time...
I went back to my workshop and replaced three of the tubes effected...I thought this would be the end..Took it back to the plater and paid him again ( this was the second guy) and he promised expedient work...and he did and it looked like a wonderful job...I then masked off what was needed and painted the rest...all done and ready for collection, it hung in the showroom looking very elegant,,,,,then I noticed a sort of dust piling up under the frame so I took it down and shook it...more rust and crap came out and I soon had the idea that all that was holding the frame together was the chrome,,,,the steel had all but gone,
Sorry to say, I gave the customer ( who was now irate ) his money back and gave the piece of junk to a university Student for an art project,
O.K that's it,,,I will NEVER go through all this again, and sorry to bore you all.
COLIN LAING, CHANDLER ARIZONA, U.S.A