I found this yesterday,due to pitting,I believe,previos owner,remove some of chrom and paint this snare in black.It is basebal butt tone control,aluminium shell,imperial lugs dont stick too magnet,so I think is brass,very low serial number,4 digits 9698,so I belaive this is from begining of 1964?Any info is apricieted,thanks.I will strip the paint,and rechrome this beauty.What do you think?
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The lugs are zinc-based pot-metal castings, so a magnet won't stick to them. I hope you got this drum cheap, because its going to be expensive to rechrome the shell....most plating companies won't touch it because of the aluminum shell, so keep that in mind too......the mindset is usually: "you can't chrome plate aluminum!"....somebody didn't tell Ludwig that then!
Maybe you could have it bead-blasted to get that paint off and then go with a "buff" finish -like some Acrolites have. Re-chroming might be tricky -as stated, but, hey, maybe you know someone! I have had great success with paint-removal using a product called "Ready Strip" paint remover. It's non-toxic, so you can use it indoors. A little pricey, but a little goes a long way and it does get the job done.
It's a nice drum, but it's not "crazy" valuable, so it would depend on how feasible the project is for you.
I have what I thought was '64. It has no serial number. I bought it 30 years ago for $60. All the chrome fell off of it, so there might be some truth to "you can't chrome aluminum". The truth might be that you can but unless the drum is kept better than the average drummer does that the chrome will likely pit and eventually fall off.
After finding out the rechrome cost I went with spray gold paint. Not my proudest moment but in the big picture it's fine because it's a gigging drum.
Thank you all,guys, I bealive you are allready bored with questions about Supras.I dont intend to sell this snare for some big money,like too kip it with me,because of low serial number and old snare strainer and basball but tone control,and it is from 60-ties.I have one other Spupra,intersting,because it is from 1985,with transision badge when they moved from Chicago to Monroe.I asked around about chrome plating of aluminium,some people tokd me that aluminium should be first put in cooper,thin layer and than with chrome.Anyone heard something about it?
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Every chrome plating process involves first plating the object in copper....then nickel....then chromium. It has to happen in that order. But aluminum has some kind of molecular thing happening that resists the chrome plating process more than other metals.
