Cadmium plating

Hi, I am looking for someone in the Bay Area that does cadmium plating for a restoration that I am working on. I found one place in Sacramento, but they don't really plate small parts since they only use a large tank. The place that I used many years ago, Industrial Plating Company in San Carlos is long gone.

 

Cadmium plating is no longer legal at least in California. The gold chromate conversion is claimed to be hazardous and cancer causing. Most guys yellow zinc plate parts now If they want that appearance

 

Hi David,
Thank you for your response. I have become aware of this. But, I wanted to see if there are any plating companies around in the Bay Area. I know that it is still available in Sacramento, and is used in the airline industry. I have started to look into clear and yellow zinc plating.

 

My experience was, CAD platers will deal with a few known customers (my mechanic on my 356 got things CAD plated,) but otherwise the platers only have larger industrial customers. It doesn't seem like it's illegal, just restricted.

 

I guess banned might be a better word. Exemptions would typically apply to aerospace or military contractors. I used to be a manger at a large commercial products manufacturer in San Francisco and we had our own barrel playing line that was shut down due to regulation changes. We went from chromate conversion to a silicate conversion then to no cadmium and implementation and change over to zinc plating.

 

Industrial Plating was great!
Now I use:
Sanford Metal Plating in MP - > 650.327.5172
EPS Plating in Hayward -> 510.786.1881

EPS did my my Dino calipers 20 years ago, and they still look great and they're still there. Sanford has done many parts for me with great results. They have a nice Mil-spec lubricious coating I've had good luck with. EPS has done some plating which they shipped back to me after I dropped off to save me the drive. Very cool.

 

Thank you very much. I was starting to look into EPS Plating in Hayward. I contacted them recently and they were in the process of restarting back up after they had to close down.

 

After lots of research for a new plater, local place stopped because according to them and a few other places I talked to in aerospace plating.. CA has banned cadmium plating for automotive..go figure.

Using a place up in WA.. they can also do conversion coatings on magnesium.
Queen City plating.
https://queencityplating.com

 

Thank you for the information, I will follow up with them to see what their requirements are for small items.

 

Long time lurker ... first-time poster. I have lots of experience restoring older BMWs, so I've gotten lots of stuff plated, some of it going back far enough that the replating was actually done with cadmium.

First, yellow zinc replating is currently better than cad replating ever was. The yellow zinc batches I've had done in the last few months at EPS are far better than the cad stuff I had done years ago. (Also, to echo what others have said, that I'm aware of, cad is no longer generally available.)

In my experience, EPS in Hayward (http://www.eps-plating.com/) is really, really good. Their zinc plating line is brand new, and the quality is top-notch. I've had them do plenty of yellow zinc parts on the new line, as well as clear zinc brake calipers. Batch minimum is $105 + enviro fees.

Another place to consider is Arrow Plating in Ft. Worth TX (http://arrowplating.com/index.html). You might call ahead to make sure they know your stuff is coming. Their work is also really, really good. They're a bit old-school, so they'll likey ask you to ship your stuff to them, they'll give you a quote and do the plating after they get your check in the mail. COst here is less then EPS, and if they have a batch minimum, it's less than half the minimum at EPS.

 

Have you tried Hy-Tech Plating in San Carlos? They have done all my 328 replating. Great work and reasonably priced.

Craig

 

Hi Criag, thank you. I am going to contact them to determine if they handle small parts.

 

I walked in with ziplock baggies full of nuts, bolts and suspension parts that needed to be redone (all small stuff). Just be sure and tell them if you want things to stay together.

Craig