chrome plating removal

[moto367]

I have some aluminum pieces that are chrome plated. The plating is starting to flake off, is there a cheap and easy way to remove the remaining? Thanks for the help.

[JRIowa]

Nope!

Removing chrome is neither cheap or easy. Especially when it's flaking. You will have some erossion of the base metal in a stripping solution. That's the easiest, but takes a long time and is fairly costly unless you know somebody in the plating business.
JR

[rons]

Removing the plating from aluminum looks like a hard one. Chrome plating is
usually a 3 layer process. I know copper is one of the under layers. A solution
that might take off the plating on steel might eat up your aluminum. I was
wondering if you could live with a strong bead blast, but your aluminum would
have a mat finish.

[Garwood]

I have a good sized cabinet blaster in my shop and switched from starblast to fine glass bead for a small project awhile back. I was so impressed with the glass bead I've left it in there to stay. I've found glass bead does do the best job of any media at removing loose chrome. If the chrome is on there good it won't take it off, but if it's loose it will take it off pretty fast.

[moto367]

Thanks fellas. I was able to sandblast and get the chrome off. Some of the copper stayed but that's not going to affect me any. Thanks again.