Webster, NY
anyone know the type of finish on the truss head screws that shines up so nice in the tumbler? is it stainless, zinc, nickel? visualize old ballys like centaur etc. Thanks!
RB
(Topic ID: 181526)
Older hardware may have been Cadmium plated. It polishes up beautifully, looks like chrome with a slight blue cast to it. Cad plating produces nasty toxic waste (Cadmium is a poisonous heavy metal) so you cannot get it anymore.
Chrome was not generally used on small hardware, but it shines up like...chrome. Proper chrome is done with a copper flash layer, then nickel plating, then chrome. Chrome is porous and the nickel layer is critical to getting chrome plating that lasts. That's why chrome plated legs rust.
Stainless needs to be a very smooth finish and then electropolished to get a shiny surface, otherwise SS parts will be a matte silver.
Nickel plating is a more matte and dull silver color.
All the commonly available hardware you get now is zinc plated. It will polish up nicely, but relatively quickly gets dull. Excellent rust protection if there is a thick enough layer.
My guess is cad plating is what Bally and others were using. For 1960's stuff, that is definitely all cad plate.
Don C.
Quoted from Don_C:Older hardware may have been Cadmium plated. It polishes up beautifully, looks like chrome with a slight blue cast to it. Cad plating produces nasty toxic waste (Cadmium is a poisonous heavy metal) so you cannot get it anymore.
Chrome was not generally used on small hardware, but it shines up like...chrome. Proper chrome is done with a copper flash layer, then nickel plating, then chrome. Chrome is porous and the nickel layer is critical to getting chrome plating that lasts. That's why chrome plated legs rust.
Stainless needs to be a very smooth finish and then electropolished to get a shiny surface, otherwise SS parts will be a matte silver.
Nickel plating is a more matte and dull silver color.
All the commonly available hardware you get now is zinc plated. It will polish up nicely, but relatively quickly gets dull. Excellent rust protection if there is a thick enough layer.
My guess is cad plating is what Bally and others were using. For 1960's stuff, that is definitely all cad plate.
Don C.
I was going say exactly that, but he beat me to it. 
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