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New chrome legs only a year old rusting

David_Vi

David_Vi

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5Years
Joined
Sep 3, 2019
Messages
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Location
Sudbury
Got these legs in Feb last year for Centaur. Brand new.

It's lived in our pinball room and kitchen, been to Pinfest and NERG.

It went away on loan at the weekend, while packing it down I noticed rust.

I tried to clean a bit of it up before putting them in the van which is probably why it looks worse.
There's spots of rust on the levellers too.

I've not found any rust on any of our other legs yet but still have to check Diner which has always lived next to Centaur when in the kitchen

Should new legs rust this quickly? I thought chrome protected metal from rusting like this?

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new forest pinball said:
Reason is obvious. Those legs are wpc!
Ain’t no Centaurs got time for that kind of nonsense!……..
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Yeah wrong legs, I got what I could at the time and was misinformed 😄

I'm thinking of getting new legs and using the rusty ones to get powder coated for another game.
 
I'm guessing chroming thinner on the back, either way that looks like corrosive liquid spilt down it, salty drinks?, iron bru?
 
I had some guitar parts re-chromed 4 years ago.
They already need doing again.
I also have other guitar parts re-chromed 25 years ago.
They are still as good as the day they were done.

Spoke to my platers about it - and they blamed the quality of modern chrome compared to what they got a couple of decades ago.

Was having the same conversation with a jukebox restorer. He also said modern chroming is no where near as good now.
 
Jagspete said:
I'm guessing chroming thinner on the back, either way that looks like corrosive liquid spilt down it, salty drinks?, iron bru?
Click to expand...

That running is from me trying to clean it then not drying it properly before putting it in the van 🙈
 
They've barely seen the chroming tank! Bin and get the correct bally legs. Very hard to get real quality chromed legs now.
 
s000m said:
You sir need a dehumidifier
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If it was the environment wouldn't my other items rust, like the lockdown bar on centaur and diner?
Diners legs have rust but they were always in bad condition, not brand new.
 
David_Vi said:
If it was the environment wouldn't my other items rust, like the lockdown bar on centaur and diner?
Diners legs have rust but they were always in bad condition, not brand new.
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If the lockdown bars are stainless steel, then that would be the reason why there’s no rust on them.

Due to the shape of the legs, the backs get far less prep work before plating so the plating will be thinner which is probably why they rusting in those areas.

I think there’s a few factors why rust has appeared so quickly. As others have said, the change in the chemicals used in modern chrome plating is more environmental friendly and definitely not as good. Some platers I spoke with don’t even offer the service anymore.

Personally I think it’s the quality of the chrome. A decent plating company will chemically strip the metal then polish it prior to dipping.
They would also use the triple plate method. So it would get a layer of copper followed by nickel and then finally the chrome.

Im not sure which country the legs are manufactured but they are mass produced, so preparation will be minimal as will be the thickness of the chrome.
 
Thanks Ant,

At least it might not be me😂 I did make it worse in the rush when packing it down.

I'm considering getting them powder coated and getting the correct legs for centaur. When we work out which game could use powder coated legs😄
 
Mine were from Pinball Mania, about a year ago.

I assume they're all from the same source?
 
David_Vi said:
Thanks Ant,

At least it might not be me😂 I did make it worse in the rush when packing it down.

I'm considering getting them powder coated and getting the correct legs for centaur. When we work out which game could use powder coated legs😄
Click to expand...
If you want to avoid rust, powder coating will definitely sort that out
 
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