What's new
What's new

Can I Silver Braze Nickel Plated Hardware?

FTF Engineering

Hot Rolled
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Can I silver braze nickel plated steel hardware or am I going to have to grind the nickel plating off where I want the braze to stick?

The hardware is your typical nickel plated crap from the generic box stores and the braze filler I was planning to use is 56% silver braze with a melting temp of 1205 Deg F.

I can certainly grind off the plating, but it would sure be easier if I didn't have to. The finished parts would also look better too...
 
Thanks Gary. I would guess the same but of course, it's just a guess. I've lead soldered nickel plated electrical bits, but I'm not sure that success would be portable to silver brazing.

Maybe I'll be the first person in the entire history of metalworking who has ever tried this? :rolleyes5:

-Bruce
 
Brazing to nickel is an every day occurrence.

If you braze to plating you will only be as well fastened as the plating is adhered.

If you believe as cheap as you can get "appearance" plating, has a spec that says it sticks when stressed, I have this old bridge . . .

IIRC for real adherence specs, steel was once Cu plated first.

Hth Ag
 
Yeah Ag, that helps. Thanks.

Good point on the joint strength only being as good as the plating adhesion, and yes, this is "appearance" plating. I'm doing this for a low-load non-critical application in which the joint will be always under simple compression in use. I'm sure it would be fine, but if not...

My other thought would be to hit it with the TIG instead. Any ideas if the nickel would burn off harmlessly down to the base steel, or would it pollute the weld and just make everything nasty?
 
Nickel alloys with iron very nicely.

Nickel carbide is ductile, and will add just a touch of toughness to the joint.

Some plating may flake from the HA Zone.

Ag
 
Thanks again for the help. Maybe I'll try to silver braze one and see how it turns out and if that doesn't work out, I'll try the TIG.

I'm thinking about building a foot pedal control for my TIG. This would be a good opportunity to try it out... Only problem is that (like usual) I end up "stacking" projects like this and, in the end, it takes way longer than expected. :)
 








 
Back
Top