Can you identify these anomalies?

[mmcmdl]

my two cents, probably only worth a 1/2 cent..

.06 with inflation ! FWIW Maplehead , my brother has been in the guitar business for 55 years . Making and repairing and playing still today . You two would get along great .

 

[Maplehead]

So this puts a whole new damper on things for me now.
When I make a part, let's say my bridge with it's 48 plus threaded holes, I have cutting and tap oil all over it, plus metal dust from all the sanding stages getting it to a reasonable finish. Now, once the part is ready for the plating stage I first give it a good washing with dish soap and water and then I give it an ultrasonic bath. The next step is the SP Degreaser and then a good rinsing with distilled water. After all of that cleaning I am finally ready for a flash copper coating, then I nickel plate. How the heck am I to prevent this instant corrosion with all these wet stages?

 

[woodchucker]

can you just use acetone or alcohol?

 

[Maplehead]

can you just use acetone or alcohol?

I doubt I can for the sonic bath. Is a bit weird for the dish soap stage but I'm thinking I'm losing my alternatives.

 

[RJSakowski]

I prefer acetone over alcohol. Water combines with acetone and will evaporate, leaving a dry surface.

However, you shouldn't have any issues if you quickly move from one bath to another. Don't try drying in between baths as it is the combination of exposure to air and a damp surface that causes the rusting.

 

[Maplehead]

This may be a dumb question but once I have a flash copper coating on, let's say it's been in the bath for 30 minutes and has received a .0005" plate, should I worry about corrosion if I take the piece out and wait for the nickel bath to heat up before nickel plating? Or will the copper plate protect the piece?

 

[woodchucker]

the copper plate should protect the piece. copper doesn't rust.
give it a try.

 

[homebrewed]

Under some circumstances iron can rust/oxidize very quickly. I remember as a kid I got a coffee can full of iron filings from a guy running a machine shop. IIRC, for some chemical experiment I had in mind. The filings were covered with cutting oil so I washed them with a solution of dish soap, rinsed thoroughly, drained off as much water as I could and put the clean filings in a plastic bag. I was messing around with the bag trying to squeeze more water out and soon noticed the filings were getting hot. They eventually became too hot to hold. The combination of oxygen and water ate those filings up so fast they generated heat, and a LOT of it. It eventually turned into a solid lump of black iron oxide. Not the chemical experiment I had in mind. Probably something to do with potassium nitrate and a match but the actual result was interesting nonetheless

 

[rabler]

Sometimes just using near boiling temperature rinse bath will be effective at preventing flash rust, let the metal warm up in the rinse bath a bit, then remove and wipe dry. The residual heat in the metal will finish the drying hopefully fast enough to prevent flash rust.

I have used the product Master stages clean 2030, which has a bit of a rust inhibitor, in my ultrasonic cleaner quite successfully. I'm sure there are others.

 

[Cadillac]

Sometimes just using near boiling temperature rinse bath will be effective at preventing flash rust, let the metal warm up in the rinse bath a bit, then remove and wipe dry. The residual heat in the metal will finish the drying hopefully fast enough to prevent flash rust.

I have used the product Master stages clean 2030, which has a bit of a rust inhibitor, in my ultrasonic cleaner quite successfully. I'm sure there are others.

I stopped using hot water to rinse because it would instantly flash. I use cold water leave submerged. Once copper plated your good.