Facts
Pot Metal
Pot metal is a very unstable, unpredictable, and difficult metal to deal with and restore. During the casting process, air bubbles are formed throughout the entire piece. That is in part why pot metal is almost always pitted.
Not all pot metal can be restored to show quality. If there are pits between ribs or pits in corners where vertical and horizontal planes meet or any other place on the piece that is not accessible, there will be some imperfections. If there are cracks, holes, or broken areas, these add to the complexity and cost of the repair.
In order for chrome plating to “stick” on pot metal, the entire piece must be pristine with no oxidation, corrosion, or imperfections AT ALL. Some times, the piece can look clean to the naked eye and may even take to plating, but within a day or two a bubble or bubbles can form under the plating. If this happens it will do so in a short period of time. Because pot metal is full of holes like a sponge, the clean surface can be on the verge of opening up a pit just beneath. As soon as the plating chemicals hit the surface, it can open it up causing a bubble to appear. In such cases, the piece must be completely stripped of all plating and the process started again.
Often, the true extent of the damage does not reveal itself until the chrome is stripped off. Much like the rust under paint, you don’t know the real story until you get down to the base metal. On large areas of repair, the heat necessary to flow the silver solder can and usually does open up additional pits. Heat expands trapped air bubbles and you can sometimes hear these bursting.
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