chrome plating buildup?

Does anyone know how much polished chrome plating builds up? I want to make a pair of hiway peg clam shell type clamps for my Harley and have them chromed. I want them to fit as close as possible together when bolted up around the hiway bar.

I was thinking maybe .003-.005 smaller on the ID with plating.

I would suggest asking your plater, just to be sure.

My plating guy only puts on about .001" per side prior to final polish, unless he needs to lay down a nickle base, and that only adds a couple tenths. The thicker you go with plating it tends to grow courser, making final polishing more difficult. Beyond .003" thick you need to worry about crazing also, so you can expect it to be thin.

The few times I have talked with platers on chrome, they talked 'tenths', not thousanths. Chrome builds on sharp edges and corners so care has to be taken on buildup. Crazing is also a problem with 'thousanths' of buildup. My guess is that .0005 per side is excessive.

TMD

I will need to find a good plater here in Houston and ask I guess since it seems to vary. I am sure there will be several platers local to me.

All good quality chrome plating requires a nickel layer underneath. It actually is the nickel layer underneath that keeps the chrome looking bright. Another fact is that all good chrome plating has microcracks; otherwise the nickel could not anodically protect the chrome. Cheap car bumpers don't have the nickel undercoat and that is why you see them turn colors and you see the rust come through cracks before the chrome comes off. A good plater can put on thicker chrome but you don't need it or want to pay for it. Electroless nickel not electrolytic, has a lower reflectivity but it is very durable and a layer of 0.0005" will do the job and be very uniform. I think it looks better than bright chrome and you can polish it if you want. If the plater doesn't want to put down the nickel layer as part of the job go elsewhere.