Hobbyists & Industry luminaries alike learn on every visit
(we earn from 'affiliate link' purchases)

Curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET

finishing.com -- The Home Page of the Finishing Industry

  The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing 1989-2025

-----

Strip Brass Plating from low carbon steel substrate (rivets)?

November 1, 2013

Q. Hello everyone. I had an outside electroplater accidentally put 200 microinch of brass plating on the wrong steel rivet batch. Is there a commodity chemical (acid, ammonia ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , etc?) sufficient to remove the brass from steel? We zinc plate in-house, but we do not plate brass. So I do have the ability to strip this batch on my own. Thank you everyone.

Clay O'Shell
Plating shop - Tyrone, Pennsylvania, USA

November 15, 2013

A. Hi Clay,

Try this.
Ammonia Persulphate 75 g/l
Ammonia 375 ml/l
Temperature 21 ~ 29 deg C

or

Sodium cyanide 90 g/l
sodium hydroxide [affil links] 15 g/l
room temperature
Steel Cathode, the rivets anodic , 2V
( Beware, high voltages may etch the steel )

Good Luck.

SK Cheah
- Penang, Malaysia

A. Clay,

I second persulphate. We've been selling a persulphate-based copper stripper for years. citric acid will strip the zinc also, but it will attack the steel too so be careful if you use it.

Ray Kremer
Stellar Solutions, Inc.

McHenry, Illinois

November 20, 2013

(No "dead threads" here! If this page isn't currently on the Hotline your Q, A, or Comment will restore it)

Q, A, or Comment on THIS thread -or- Start a NEW Thread

Disclaimer: It's not possible to fully diagnose a finishing problem or the hazards of an operation via these pages. All information presented is for general reference and does not represent a professional opinion nor the policy of an author's employer. The internet is largely anonymous & unvetted; some names may be fictitious and some recommendations might be harmful.

If you are seeking a product or service related to metal finishing, please check these Directories: