Brazing over chrome plating, can it be done?

[Crazy Ed]

I have a bike that I want to braze something to, and it has chrome plating underneath the paint!! What do I need to do? Remove it somehow? or just braze away??

[Rotate]

If it's structural or has to bear weight, you should definitely grind it down to bare metal. Frankly, I'm not even sure if brazing rod will stick to chrome.

Albert

[kgarver]

Can't be done ----- PERIOD. You must take off ALL of the chrome plating, grease, oil, old paint, rust, corrosion, decals, whatever in order to get the brazing rod to adhere to the base metal. Get as close a fit as you possibly can (.003" MAX.) before you braze things together.
FYI if you decide later that you want to weld these two same items together, after you have brazed them, you must get all, and I mean ALL, of the brazing material off of both pieces of metal before a succesful weld.

[Thrud]

Ken has a good point. For a bike you want a tight fitting joint - just loose enough for the silver solder/braze to properly wick.

A stainless steel braze can be used, the joint will fail if the chrome plating does not adhere to the tubing.

So buff it off with SiC paper as Ken suggests if you want a solid joint

[CCWKen]

Pu-Paw... I've silver-brazed lots of chrome pipes, tubes and rods and never had a problem. Makes a pretty fix too. Polish it and you'll never know. Make sure you use just enough heat to melt the brazing and let it wick into the joint. Keep the main heat on the "attachment" until it's heated, then move to the chrome. Chrome will heat very fast (copper under).

Why would someone paint over chrome?

[Thrud]

CCWKen:
Yeah, you can braze it, but like I said if it is not properly plated to the tube, the joint will fail. I have seen it before. Not everyone does high quality plating you know.