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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Stripping nickel plating from zinc die casting
adv.
Q. Is there any chemical or electrochemical method that will remove plating from Zinc?
Nickel/chrome is the plate I need to strip off potmetal. Everything I know of eats the zinc before the nickel.
Steve ClarkPlating - Belfast, Maine, U.S.A.
2004
Q. Hello....
How can I strip nickel layer over zinc die cast(base metal)? Could you give me a formula?
Thanks........
engineering - Istanbul, Center, Turkey
2005
A. 1. The chrome can be immersion stripped in HCl or electrolytically stripped in NaOH. Yes, both of these processes attack zinc, so the treatment must be short and with the nickel plating still protecting the substrate.
2a. Nickel can be electrolytically stripped in strong sulfuric acid or a mixture of sulfuric, phosphoric, and chromic acid per the Metal Finishing Guidebook.
2b. It can be chemically stripped with a cyanide-based stripping solution, but that is dangerous and possibly unsound environmentally.
2c. Proprietary nickel stripping solutions are available from suppliers including Metalx (Ronatec.us) [a finishing.com supporting advertiser]. Good luck.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Strip Copper, Nickel and "Gold Plating" from Zinc Alloy
Q. Hi All
Im once again hoping you can help me with a plating related question. This time in fact its more the removing of plating.
Im trying to strip all plating from a replica wrestling belt. This is a mass produced $500 replica made from Zinc Alloy and plated with Copper, Nickel and a fake gold finish there us also paint in places. I first removed the paint using a paint stripper, I managed to remove the fake gold using Chrome Stripper (i tried anodise stripper to no avail) anyway using the chrome stripper I got to the nickel layer but I ran into a problem. There was tiny remaining spots of the fake gold. I put it back into the Chrome stripper but I couldn't remove it. I then tried to see could I could nickel plate over the spots but the nickel wouldn't take. My initial plan was to strip all the fake gold expose the nickel, activate the nickel and plate it in 24k Gold. But with these remaining spots I feel I have to strip the baseplate back to the zinc alloy and start from scratch. Is this a massive job to complete? There is a plating company in the next town that might be able to help me but I need to know if this is possible first. Thanks for your time. I hope all of the above makes sense.
Hobbyist - London, United Kingdom
January 27, 2018
A. Hi Andy. Since you and I are both unsure exactly what this "gold" layer is, it might be best to try to strip the nickel plating, which will cause any remaining spots of "gold" to be undercut and removed. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
A. Hi Andy.
There are dozens of plating shops in the London area. Talk to the professionals. If they can't do it neither can you.
Don't try to save cost by "preparing" the work. They will probably have to do it again before plating anyway.
Geoff Smith
Hampshire, England
Ed. Note: Stripping nickel plating is a very common requirement, so if you didn't find your answer yet, search the site for "Strip nickel plating from diecast" or "Remove nickel plating from zinc".
adv.
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