SuzukiSavage.com - Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome

philthymike

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Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome
05/06/19 at 18:47:15

This project escaped me a few years back so here's the revisit.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 lb. Package powdered Anhydrous Ferric Chloride (PCB Etchant).
1 pt. water, 150 degrees.
Heavy kitchen gloves.
Pyrex container.
Wooden Dowel 8+ inches long.
Fine Steel Wool

Scuff up part with steel wool for two minutes or more.
Put on gloves. Eye protection and a rubber apron are a good idea if you have them.
Mix hot water and acid in pyrex, stir with dowel - slowly!
Place part in pyrex.
Stir, stir stir.....

For this particular part it was down to the copper plating in 2 hours. After 3 hours the copper was gone too. Little specs of chrome survive here and there in gouges and scratches in the metal. But 99.995% of the chrome is gone.

Before picture...

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philthymike Serious Thumper Offline Wallowing in my own crapulence Posts: 1413 Philadelphia Area Gender:	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #1 - 05/06/19 at 18:48:05 During picture...
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philthymike Serious Thumper Offline Wallowing in my own crapulence Posts: 1413 Philadelphia Area Gender:	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #2 - 05/06/19 at 18:48:49 After picture 1...
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philthymike

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Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome
Reply #3 - 05/06/19 at 18:50:58

Ideally you'd want to rinse and soak the part with deionized water afterwards. I didn't have any so I used lots of tap water.

Once done soaking I will sand it nicely and it will be ready to be sent for powder coating.

Also the time this took would be cut in half if I had the means to keep the solution hot. Maybe I'll go to the thrift shop and get a 2nd hand crockpot next time.

After picture 2....

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07 S40 (Thumpy): 666cc big bore, stage 2 webcam, dyna muffler, 412 shocks, Barnett clutch, Kawasaki ZL900 FE

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batman Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 3806 osceola new york Gender:	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #4 - 05/06/19 at 22:51:45 Can't remember ,do you pour water into acid or acid into water?
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #5 - 05/06/19 at 23:11:28 Never add water to a concentrated chemical.
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philthymike Serious Thumper Offline Wallowing in my own crapulence Posts: 1413 Philadelphia Area Gender:	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #6 - 05/07/19 at 04:44:30 With powdered acid slowly mix into the water . Less chance of powder becoming airborne and inhaled accidentally As this morning my part is still making bubbles in soak water. I may have to go pick up deionized water still to get the reaction to stop.
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Dave

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Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome
Reply #7 - 05/07/19 at 07:12:07

Good to know....I have a chrome steel fender I want to paint.

I would think that boiling water would help to get the acid out.....or maybe water in an ultrasonic cleaner.

A local powder coating place sandblasts the chrome and has good luck making the powder stick onto chrome.....the rough surface provides adequate adhesion.

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ohiomoto Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 2772	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #8 - 05/07/19 at 07:20:10 Dave wrote on 05/07/19 at 07:12:07: Good to know....I have a chrome steel fender I want to paint. ------------------------------- For the cafe or are you holding out on us??
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Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome
Reply #9 - 05/07/19 at 07:40:09

ohiomoto wrote on 05/07/19 at 07:20:10:

Dave wrote on 05/07/19 at 07:12:07:

Good to know....I have a chrome steel fender I want to paint.

-------------------------------

For the cafe or are you holding out on us??

Yea....the front fender I have on it now was a good match for the 100/90-18 tire - but the fender has too larger of a radius for the 90/90-18 tire I am using now. I got a chrome fender from an early Honda that is a better match - but it needs to be cut down and reworked a bit.

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philthymike

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Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome
Reply #10 - 05/07/19 at 12:23:24

The PCB house I used to work at used an ammonia based etching solution so I don’t have much experience with this Ferric Chloride stuff. After etching we would hang the work in a deionized water bath for awhile and then rinse with tap water. Once dry it went into the reflow oven. So I’m not sure the best procedure for getting this acid off the work. I changed the soak water this morning so I’ll see how it’s doing after work.

A whole fender might be a bit big for this. I can’t say how much acid it would take. I think that this method is fine for small intricate shaped parts like the header clamp but something big like a fender is another story.

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philthymike Serious Thumper Offline Wallowing in my own crapulence Posts: 1413 Philadelphia Area Gender:	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #11 - 05/07/19 at 14:52:07 Water bubbly and cloudy. Still some out gassing yet. Time to try deionized water....
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philthymike Serious Thumper Offline Wallowing in my own crapulence Posts: 1413 Philadelphia Area Gender:	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #12 - 05/08/19 at 07:50:21 Didn’t get deionized water. The part stopped bubbling after the last tap water change. Time for some sanding....
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome Reply #13 - 05/08/19 at 08:01:21 What would be wrong with a baking soda and water rinse? When I grenaded a battery with a grinder spark I rinsed everything with that and never had a problem.
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philthymike

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Re: Adventures in Acid Stripping Chrome
Reply #14 - 05/08/19 at 09:48:50

It would probably be ok. The problem with the tap (hard) water is the minerals in it. They react with the acid instead of displacing it. Or something along those lines, I’m not a scientist. The deionized water has no minerals or charged particles so it doesn’t have any reaction with acid. In the end though it seems with enough tap water eventually the acid dissipates.

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