Air Cleaner Lid Rechrome

[Jody Balch]

This is the air cleaner lid that I sent to Frankford Plating. I was told that the silk screen would be preserved while the top would be rechromed. I was not told that I would spend approximately six hours trying to figure out how to get the welded slag off of the inside lid edge (approximately 1/8" thick and rough all the way around).

I thought I could mount the lid in a lathe and cut out the excess material. After carefully getting the lid on a spindle and stable, I quickly saw that the lathe could be a holding device, but not a cutting option. Next comes the sandpaper with the lathe turned on, not a good idea. Next comes the Dremel tool with sanding disk, not a good idea. Next comes the Dremel tool with a carbide cutter, not a good idea. I'm about to chalk the entire idea up to a $250 lesson on buying and rejuvinating old parts.

The Roto-Zip comes out of the cabinet and I'm trying to figure out how to use a heavier weapon on the welding slag. I keep the lathe mount on the lid and put the lid in a vise. I put a cut-off wheel on the Roto-Zip and set the guide just before it reaches the lid bottom. I'm holding the Roto-Zip in one hand and my thumb and index finger on the guide(to keep it on the lid edge) and cut the material off of the edge. Here are the pictures as of today. I will spend some more time massaging the edge before I call it done.

The ding on the lid bottom (on the left) must be where the conducting device was attached, it does not show on the top. I'll work on figuring out how to properly silkscreen the bottom before I choose this avenue again.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7dd33b3127cce827fdb57931500000016102AZsmTdk0cMY

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7dd33b3127cce827fdb15935700000016102AZsmTdk0cMY

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7dd33b3127cce827fdb67932500000016102AZsmTdk0cMY

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7dd33b3127cce827fdb25936700000016102AZsmTdk0cMY

[Joe R.]

Re: Air Cleaner Lid Rechrome

Hi Jody:

Thanks for posting the photos and describing the process you used. It looks like you managed to clean up the edge pretty well.

Regarding the option of doing a "correct" silk screen, Gary Beaupre and I have been working on the problem as a side project for a while. I think we may have something in a few months (this is a slow moving project).

Clearly, it would be much easier to rechrome the entire lid if there was a way to apply a new silk screen that looks like the original.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Air Cleaner Lid Rechrome

The "welding slag" was probably chrome flash where they masked the lid.

I've seen commercial plating shops apply chrome plating to turbomachinery shaft journals as a way of restoring the journal to standard size. It was done by lowering a rotor assembly maybe 20 feet long into the plating baths while suspended vertically from a bridge crane. The portion of the rotor shaft immediately adjacent to the journal was masked liquid tight with polyethylene and tape...at that interface, there was going to be a little "imprecison" that was later removed in the grinding and machining operations.

Since each journal plating has multiple steps and both ends of the rotor shaft might have to be done, it's a very time consuming process. The chrome build is also slow and can't be rushed. The machinery engineer was usually sitting squarely on the critical path for starting up a half billion dollar process plant.

[John H.]

Re: Air Cleaner Lid Rechrome

Looks wonderful, but none ever left St. Louis with 3-step show-chrome like that.