Removing chrome /nickle
 

Hi all been a voyer for a while now to this wonder forum. I'd like to say that I really enjoy ease dropping on all the positive commentary from all of you. The question I have is in regards to a m&p? J & G special that I ordered I thought would be a fun project for me and the children and maybe a good chance to have some daddy time with them before they get smarter than me. I am not certain as to what the finish is on the gun but there is some flaking on the cylinder and other small areas. If someone would care to start me in the right direction I would be greatful. I would like to remove this finish and do the reblueing myself. I am not able to post pictures of the gun. but when I finish it I will do my best to post. the outcome. thx Doeboy

I found this here in the 1896-1961 section, http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-han...-9-8-09-a.html

I suppose you could soak the gun in ammonia as this would remove the plating in time. However, I never tried this and I'd don't know what damage would be done to the bare steel.

Smarter folks on plating will chime in I'm sure.;)

THX for the reply. I read the post, but not quite the detail that I'm looking for. This is going to be learning project of the chemical processes involved in removal of the finish and applying a blueing finish. I've got to do my reseach because I will be bombarded with questions from my little deep thinkers. If you could have only seen the mash distiller they made in the basement my 8 year old built...

Brownell's sell a special chemical stripper to remove plated finishes. This would probably be less damaging to the metal than most of the "home brew" type stripper.

BROWNELLS : BROWNELLS : ROOM TEMPERATURE NICKEL STRIPPER - World's Largest Supplier of Firearm Accessories, Gun Parts and Gunsmithing Tools

The best way to strip nickel is to have it DE-plated by a place that does gun plating.
They basically reverse the plating process and this removes the plating.
Note that you probably DON'T want to trust this to a motorcycle shop that does chrome plating. Guns are "different" and have different problems.

The "watch outs" here are several.
First, that some home made strippers can and often will do damage to the steel, which can be difficult to correct before refinishing.

Second, you have to get ALL the plating off, including out of the pores and all tiny crack and crevices. If you fail to get it all, when the gun is blued the remaining tiny specs will make the gun look like it has white freckles.
This is the remaining plating which won't blue.

^^^^^^ What he said.

I'd be rather hesitant to use anything other then a good plating shop to strip a handgun.

I don't understand how an ammonia mix could even touch nickle plated right on the steel.

How do you determine what is chrome or nickle? And would the process be the same?

Chances are its nickel, the only real way to tell is by the color. Nickel is yellow, chrome is white. Properly polished and plated, the two finishes are otherwise indistinguishable.

The removal process would be the same..reverse electrolysis

[QUOTE=shovelwrench;1103154
I don't understand how an ammonia mix could even touch nickle plated right on the steel.[/QUOTE]

From what I understand about plating the ammonia will attack underneth the plating allowing it to peel away.

Ammonia will dissolve both nickel and copper. In dilute solutions this is a very slow process, but in hot, concentrated solutions, it is rapid and aggressive. Hot ammonia solutions are even corrosive to most stainless steel alloys.

In the old days (the first half of the 20th century) 28% ammonia solutions were commonly used to clean rifle bores fouled with cupro-nickel bullet jackets. This was in the days before guilding metal alloys were developed for bullet jackets. Excessive exposure to this aggressive bore cleaning solvent was also known to pit the bore.

The more readily available copper and nickel strippers include ammonium persulphate and ferric oxide. Both materials are commonly used to etch electronic circuit boards. Radio Shack did (or used to) sell home printed circuit board etching kits that included packets of ammonium persulphate crystals (white color) or ferric oxide crystals (rusty red color) with a plastic tray and instructions. A word of caution: excessive immersion is likely to pit the gun steel.

The best process, and the one least likely to damage the gun steel, is to use reverse electroplating to remove the nickel plating. This is relatively easy to do at home if you have a battery charger or variable dc power supply, a plastic or glass container, and access to enough nickel plating solution to immerse the gun. Plating shops often have friendly workers on the night shift and will give you a couple quarts of plating solution for the asking. The reverse plating is done by connecting the object to be plated (a scrap sheet of copper) to the negative terminal, and the object to be stripped (the gun frame) to the positive terminal. Low current densities (0.25 to 0.5 ampere) is best. Higher current density will strip faster, but tends to bubble the solution, and can make the stripping uneven. This is exactly what the gun refinishing shops do to strip nickel finish.

Thanks folks I have reseached the reverse electrolysis looks to be very easy I need a battery charger anyway. Anyone with a link on how to build one looked last night and only found the principles and written procedures.

Any ideas on stripping anodizing? I have used drain cleaner in the past but it is very slow. I have heard pro and con about leaving the exposed metal i.e. it will start to flake off if not protected. What do you think?

Assuming you mean anodized aluminum, I've read that oven cleaner will strip it.... BUT....... I have no personal experience and have NO IDEA the actual process, how long it takes, and whether it will damage the aluminum.

Bare aluminum will not flake, but it can "corrode". This takes the form of a crusty, white aluminum oxide substance.
As long as you take care of it, bare aluminum "works" on guns, since many platers just bead blast aluminum parts to match hard chrome plated steel parts.
Properly cared for and kept clean its usually no trouble.

Oven cleaner and drain cleaner contain the same active chemical, NaOH or sodium hydroxide. In aqueous solution, it easily removes anodizing and will also dissolve bare aluminum if left on. Brownells sells an anodize stripper that is basically NaOH powder. If you follow the instructions, you can safely remove anodized coating with little or no damage to the underlying metal because the chemical concentration is controlled.

WOB

Thanks for your comments. The reason I said the aluminum flakes comes from a memo from S&W i:e I believe it was a New Jersey Police Dept. that was using Model 59's and the anodizing started coming off the frames. S&W claimed it was too tight a holster and the
salt air that caused the problem. It may have been another dept. or state even, but they claimed when the anodizing came off, the aluminum started to flake off. Not my words but S&W's, sounds like an excuse to me but whatever. I will try the Brownell's solution and thanks for the help.