Re chroming of cheap spanners

[zardoz]

I have noticed over the last few years a large influx of old spanners that have been re chromed, then sold off as cheap & cheerfull in packs of 8 or so (17mm 16mm 15mm 14mm 13mm 12mm 11mm 10mm ) or thereabouts, sometimes smaller.On examining these spanners, which I, at first presumed to be just el cheapo mild steel then an attempt at hardening. I found them to be all sorts of difdferent makes. A few i had heard of, the very few and far between Gedore or Britool, or a Draper, or more likely an unheard of Allied or Toolex Some have made in India stamped on them. I was wondering, do they buy these old spanners by the kilo and pick out and good ones to sell as sets, then re chrome then all en masse Then to sell them at £1, they must buy them for pennies? Anyone know how much it would cost to re chrome, say 1000 medium size spanners? Or maybe it is done in India or somewhere, labour is cheaper, then shipped by the container load ?

 

[piman]

Hello Zardoz,

I have no idea of the cost of plating but I do know that a big factor of the cost is in how much finishing is done prior to the immersion in the tank.

If you look at re- plating say a car bumper then after stripping the old plate (electrolytically) any corrosion is then ground out and finer and finer polishing is done to a mirror finish. The best chromium plating then involves a copper, nickel then chromium plating stages. This is obviously very expensive largely due to the manual work required.

I would guess in the case of these spanners, a quick clean then maybe a nickel then chromium plating process, so relatively cheap. What really matters is that the jaws have not been stretched and the quality of the metal itself. Plating doesn't make a good tool, it merely prevents or reduces corrosion.

Alec

 

[zardoz]

Hello Zardoz,

I have no idea of the cost of plating but I do know that a big factor of the cost is in how much finishing is done prior to the immersion in the tank.

If you look at re- plating say a car bumper then after stripping the old plate (electrolytically) any corrosion is then ground out and finer and finer polishing is done to a mirror finish. The best chromium plating then involves a copper, nickel then chromium plating stages. This is obviously very expensive largely due to the manual work required.

I would guess in the case of these spanners, a quick clean then maybe a nickel then chromium plating process, so relatively cheap. What really matters is that the jaws have not been stretched and the quality of the metal itself. Plating doesn't make a good tool, it merely prevents or reduces corrosion.

Alec

Yes as you say, each spanner needs to be at the very least a real good polishing. then several stages before the top chrome coating. Though How this is done to each individual tool, and all kept into such a tiny budget that they can be wholesaled to shops which retail them at £1 for a pack of eight ?!

Well we shall see, what we shall see. I will keep an eye out for corrosion spots and watch how things develop.

 

[Weldingartisan]

Are you sure these are re-chromed second hand and not just cheap poor quality spanners? W/A

 

[zardoz]

Are you sure these are re-chromed second hand and not just cheap poor quality spanners? W/A

Definitely. thats what i thought at first before I looked at them closely. You can even see where some few of them have had letters (names ?) ground off with something before they were (badly) re chromed.

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

could they just have been hot dip painted?

I recall some years ago buying a book about making £500 a week from car-booting written by a guy who'd been doing it for years and was looking to make even more money by selling his book to the gullible (you can only make around £100 a week!).

Anyhow, he was a bit of a dodgy character and one of his tricks was to get only old saucepans or frying pans from auctions, house clearance, etc, and have them sandblasted clean. Then he had this concoction of oil and a couple of other things that escape me...

the pan was heated on a blow-torch and the 'goo' was sprayed on and left to dry...

it produced a 'non-stick' pan that looked pretty good in sets and sold for lots of money.

I've brush painted hot paint onto cars and got a really good finish too.

Maybe these guys have come up with a similar wheeze for spanners?

Regards
Peter