Jim Bissonette, #577

I'm redoing the ports and deck hardware on east coast #577. Ive been using kind of a multistep process depending on how bad the item is, but the key (for me) seems to be the first step. Heres what I do:

I use a round fabric abrasive disk that screws into a collet, I use this in a drill or drill press (at highest speed) to remove all of the chrome. These disks can be purchased at Sears. If the chrome is really heavy I use a similar pad (called a Roloc disk from 3M) in a air die grinder. Mechanics use these to clean & buff automobile disk rotors. If you use these, be careful cause they work REALLY fast. They also leave more scratches to clean up. I also use a coarse wire wheel on a bench grinder if the chrome on the piece is ready to flake off, or there just isnt much more chrome left. Then I use a detail sander with 220 grit to get out most of the scratches left by the previous step. One of those scotch-brite pads work well too. Then I buff it on a buffing wheel to remove most of the fine scratches. I dont try to do a perfect job. I figure theyre gonna get scratched again anyway. I enclosed some pics to show what that abrasive disk looks like. By the way, its about 2 2 in diameter. On some pieces, I had to use a Dremel tool with a wire wheel to get into the tight places.

After going through this, I discovered that there are companies that strip chrome from bronze, apparently stripping bronze is the first step in the re-chroming process. You may want to look into this to save yourself a lot of work. I dont know what the cost would be though.

portltrehabportltrehab

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Tools Used

portltrehab After