What about Chrome?

[Edd_Roberts]

Rob, the plating won't come off in the kind of setup used to remove surface crud .  Bagsy has reported that a little chrome will come off where  rust has already gotten under the surface, but you'd spot that kind of rust damage before putting a piece in the soup.  I've used zinc plated wire as the conductor lead and it doesn't come off the  leads attached to my cookware, only on the leads attached to the anodes.  'Course, I've only done a dozen or so pieces so far.

 I understand that chrome can be electrolytically stripped.  There's probably a plating service in or near the closest city to you.  Calling them might be a good idea if you're concerned that the plating on your piece might be ruined.

[Jerry Cermack]

 I understand that chrome can be electrolytically stripped.  There's probably a plating service in or near the closest city to you. .

With the advent of high strength plastics in automobiles over the past years, plating shops  are almost extinct in my area.  Ones I have contacted in other towns, want an arm and a leg to simply remove the plating. I've tried electrolysis setup per intructions to remove plating from iron and have not made it work well, as of yet, on iron.  It does a good job of removing chrome from brass tho.

[Thomas_Callaway]

Jerry I cleaned a nickel plated Wagner Ware DO in the soup, but I monitored it very closely. It wasn't too badly crusted, just had enough stains and light crud that I thought it was black iron from the pics on eBay. It came nice and clean except for two small brown spots on the lid that look like the plating was thin and some rust got in there.

I used my small battery charger with only about 4 amps of current. I would think it would take a good deal of current to disloge the plating unless it has rust underneath.

TC

[Edd_Roberts]

I've tried electrolysis setup per intructions to remove plating from iron and have not made it work well, as of yet, on iron.  

 Does it take a different solution , or what is the difference between the simple setup we're using to clean rust &crust?  I know that the one skillet from ebay that turned out to be chrome after looking (to me) like black iron, went  into my rig for about 8 hours.  That thing really cooked, too.  It was in there with a #3 Wagner and the soup was pulling 30 amps and boiling like there was a fire under it.  Crust was floating to the top on the foam in the shapes of parts of letters and circles from the trademarks  of the pans .

 Even with that kind of action, the chome  stayed on.  I'd like to learn how to strip chrome from iron.. I don't really like it as a cookware finish.  BTW, you're right.  I called the nearest plating shop recently and they wanted $150 to strip and rechrome a skillet.  I musta gone into shock because I forgot to ask how much just to strip it.

[Jerry Cermack]

 Does it take a different solution , or what is the difference between the simple setup we're using to clean rust &crust?

Ed,  using Sulphuric Acid (battery acid) instead of soda is suppose to remove plating.  It will remove chrome from brass fast, but I havent been able to get it to work on iron?  Muratic Acid is suppose to work too.

[Edd_Roberts]

Thanks, Jerry.  That's a process I probably won't be trying out.  Sounds as though it could do some major damage to a cast iron piece if I fumble.