Restoring Milk Cans

[Cloverbud]

Can it be done? How? Who? Where? How much?

I have 5 of my grandfather's milk cans, 3 still have his name plate on them. They have varying degrees of rust. I would like to have them re-tinned or re-galvanized or whatever process it is. Back to the original silver tone. I don't plan on using them other than for decor and 'member when-ing, but I don't want to ugly paint them ala 70's.

Thanks!

Oh, yeah--when big brother & I where cleaning out the milk house, I found 4 Dairy Farm Inspection Reports from the Board of Health, City of Chicago, the last one dated 1960. They'd always been there, I just finally got tall enough to read them! I'm going to frame them and put them on the barn wall near my milk stand.

[boonieman]

If there's a location near you, you might give these folks a call. There are others, this company is just one of them that does it.

http://www.thomasnet.com/branches.ht...5&cid=20076905

[Windy in Kansas]

Originally Posted by boonieman

If there's a location near you, you might give these folks a call. There are others, this company is just one of them that does it.

http://www.thomasnet.com/branches.ht...5&cid=20076905

That company is listed under galvanizing. Can I assume they do tinning also?

[boonieman]

I doubt they do re-tinning, thats a different process. My aunt shipped an item once to these people and had good luck with them. I guess it depends what you need re-tinned.

http://www.retinning.com/index.html

[farminghandyman]

here is another location http://www.retinners.com/

there link on milk cans http://www.retinners.com/hotdiptin/hmcans.htm

there price list for milk cans, http://www.retinners.com/plist/mcplist.htm

[Spinner]

I'm so happy to find out they can be refinished! I have one in the rafters of the barn and was wondering what to do with it.

[Cloverbud]

I guess I never knew what the actual process was. For all I knew, it was a layer of silver Rustoleum Thanks so much for the links! Off to go larn maself sumfin!

[Windy in Kansas]

You might have heart failure when you find out the cost of the retinning.

As I recall from former year threads it is pretty well cost prohibitive. Because of your grandfathers name plates on them it still might be worth the expense.

[Randy Rooster]

$65 for a 10 gallon can and lid sounds reasonable to me.

[Cloverbud]

My dad thought so. He said it was about $40 for retinning back when they were dairying. I'm sure shipping will be a bundle, but it's not like the cans are going anywhere while I save up.