Jennings Governor plating

General vintage slot machine related topics.
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geordy55
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Jennings Governor plating

Post by geordy55 »

Having trouble finding someone to plate or polish my Jennings Governor. One guy has had it for 4 months and now given up on polishing it after not being able to remove the old plating. One plating shop is about to look at it but say that previously they have always had difficulty in getting the plating to run into the grooved front panels. Anyone else heard of this? Indeed anyone got any recommendations for a good chrome plater?
aristomatic
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by aristomatic »

Lots of similar threads on these if you use search facility

Just search with, replating, rechroming, jennings governor
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coppinpr
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by coppinpr »

Jennings well known for not re plating well due to poor base metal, the general feel seems to be polish rather than plate. I use a company that ,for me at least, has always done a good job both plating and polishing,take a look at their add at our www.penny-arcade.info site under "market place" there are some before and after photos !THUMBS!
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badpenny
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by badpenny »

I've never had a successful re-chrome done on a Jennings, some have I hear.
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treefrog
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by treefrog »

You could buy those Jennings plastics on eBay, cut out the groves panels on the front , rechrome the parts left which would be easier and add £500 to the value of your machine, that’s the theory anyway.....
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coppinpr
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by coppinpr »

Those plastics are tempting... do you think there will be two boxes full of NOS ones at the up coming spares fest? !!RAYOF!!

I have a Hi-top casting with cut outs for light up plastics... I guess the Jennings ones wouldn't be the same size... would they? :!?!:
pennymachines
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by pennymachines »

There are five electroplaters listed in Archive/Services. Might be worth talking to some of them. Forum member Polaris had excellent results from Easy Electroplating of Hull in 2016: Chrome plating on aluminium
polaris wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2016 5:19 pm If anyone's looking to have any plating done, I just used a company called Easy Electroplating (based in Hull) for the second time. I can't recommend them highly enough - has on both occasions plated Jennings front bonnet to fantastic standard. Priced £160 which included return postage which I think is very reasonable.
widget2k4
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by widget2k4 »

I ended up with that machine polaris had done and the chrome started peeling off, it was done from the same company coppin has advertised on his website, they use replica chrome plating brushed on, it's terrible and not worth the money in my experience, they have 2 different names also and prices are different from both names lol and they are sent from same email address,
Cost me over £1000 to get my jennings chromed and its amazing quality, there is a special process to do it and its a dying trade, only one guy I know that could do them and now he's refusing to do any more because of the work involved, even at his prices he says it's not worth the hassle
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geordy55
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by geordy55 »

It’ll soon be cheaper to send them to the US to be chromed as it’s a diminishing industry over here. I’d heard some stories about the guys in Hull so didn’t want to risk it. Got one company who are going to look at it. Probably strip and polish as they don’t think they can get the chrome into the grooves. I did wonder about plastic inserts ! Someone even said that there’s grooves on the front plate have been painted in the past, anyone heard of this ?
pennymachines
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by pennymachines »

widget2k4 wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 1:14 pm only one guy I know that could do them and now he's refusing to do any more because of the work involved, even at his prices he says it's not worth the hassle
Similar to my experience. A chap in Stafford did several Jennings front and back bonnets for me over the years - good quality and the plating has lasted, but he said he'd point me somewhere else next time because it wasn't cost effective for him. Originally special jigs were made to throw the chrome into the recessed areas - again cost-prohibitive.
widget2k4
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by widget2k4 »

Same as I was told off him about jigs to throw chrome into the hard to chrome parts
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bugdust
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by bugdust »

I've used Doug Taylor Metal Finishing Co in Weston Super Mare for chroming on several occasions including a full strip and re-chrome on a Jennings Governor. I've always been very pleased with the results. In fairness, they pointed out from the start that they could give no guarantees of either the quality or the longevity of chroming over Mazak alloy used on the Jennings, and indeed, stripped and re-chromed the panels three times (at no extra cost!) before they felt they'd got the best finish they could get! Like any UK chrome plating it wasn't cheap at around £550 but I'm very pleased with the results which show no signs of deterioration two years on.
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badpenny
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by badpenny »

Certainly looks good.
Lot of handbag though, shows pure dedication on your part.
pennymachines
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by pennymachines »

Good to know someone can still do it properly. I've added them to Archive/Services. I've also appended comments from you and Widget re your experience of the two companies, to help others seeking this kind of work.
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treefrog
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by treefrog »

Well after 10 years collecting, finally got around to trying chroming and mixed experience really. The parts were for a Bolands Brooklands machine, so bundled was handle, hub, front window, Brooklands emblem, coin entry, bolts and bits etc. All for £160 shipped from Ashford Chroming......

I have attached picture before and after.....one thing I realised you cannot do is bring back dead metal or badly corroded metal to a good standard and the handle was badly corroded, as such came back potted, although chrome worked well. The hub must have been alloy as it did not chrome at all well with flaking and burn marks.

Fortunately the Brooklands emblem and screen surround came out well, as did the coin entry, with small defects, that were acceptable.

Only other comments were they mislaid the bolt for the handle and still awaiting a response, as well as a few small screws, less of an issue.

In the end I used a genuine Mills 30’s dagger handle, as the Bolands one did not fit past the casting properly anyway, not sure who it was made by, but the Mills was better...

Putting pictures of restored machine on another thread.....

So reasonable price, ok communications, hopefully will get a response. They do have a Platinum service where they will discuss your restoration with you and redo any failed attempts, but costs a lot more...
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widget2k4
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by widget2k4 »

Isn't Ashford chroming just a middle man? They put in what you need and chromers put in their prices, heard loads of bad things about them destroying bits and losing bits all the time and never have any remorse for doing so, I may be thinking of the wrong ones but I'm sure it's them
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treefrog
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by treefrog »

I did actually go to their premises to drop off and wanted to see the place. Seemed friendly enough, but it would have been nice to have had feedback on issues or quality of certain parts and once stripped and polishing the handle, they would have seen there was no point in doing the chrome. It would be good you had feedback before committing to price, eg send your parts, evaluate what is possible then quote. I did read lots of mixed feedback on them 50% good experience, 50% bad......I guess all of them have issues.....

I think you are in the hands of the gods with all of them as they all have small print about no guarantees or responsibility for damaging things.
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coppinpr
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by coppinpr »

Worst thing about Ashford is if you ask for a quote and don't act on it they keep contacting you for weeks (and I do mean weeks) wanting to know why.
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bugdust
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by bugdust »

Paul is right, made the mistake of asking Ashford for a price to chrome a lever once. It was three times the cost of a brand new one so I left it. The emails went on for weeks as to why I hadn't decided to go ahead with the order!
Unsurprisingly, I found that many places really didn't want anything to do with Mazac due to the grief associated with trying to re-chrome it and simply wouldn't bother replying to a quotation request. Others set the price so high that you would inevitably go elsewhere. Douglas Metal Finishing in SE14, for example, quoted me a whopping £1200 to do the same Jennings panels. In fairness, though, they didn't pester me for weeks when I didn't follow up with an order!
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badpenny
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Re: Jennings Governor plating

Post by badpenny »

There's no plate like chrome.
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