Need help with washing/degreasing problem

[tomodell]

This is my first plating job. I have several (about 80) brass parts to old Penn Fishing reels that I need to nickel plate. They were all severly corroded, I have removed all of the old plating, sanded and buffed them to a high shine and made them ready to plate.
First, I knew that I needed to make sure they are clean and free of grease.
Since many of the parts had wax stuck on them from buffing compound I thought they needed a good scrubbing. I simply washed them with a sponge and Dawn dish soap (apple scent) in my garage sink (tap water). They looked great when I was fininshed and I put them in a cardboard box to dry. After drying, I discovered, to my horror, they had all turned brown with botchy stains on them. This brown stuff would not wash off. It appears that the soap I used reacted with the brass.
The only way I could get rid of this brown stuff was to buff them again. I did this, and they look good again, but now I need to de-grease them again. What can I use that won't mess up my brass?
Tom

[CarWiz]

1. Use lacquer thinner or acetone to remove buffing compound. (Since I don't know what you used for buffing.)
2. Wear non-latex and non-rubber gloves when handling parts. Do not touch parts barehanded.
3. Do not use tap water. Use distilled water for all mixes, rinses and water break tests.
4. Use SP Degreaser or similar non-treated soap in a heated degrease tank and give the dish soap back to the wife.
5. Do not let the items dry after the rinse and water break test. Go directly to plating or wet holding tank.
6. If you must store the items for more than a few minutes or they dry, use Pickle #4 for a 30-60 second immersion, rinse, WB-test, then plate.
7. If, at any time, the part fails the WB-test, return it to the degrease tank.

[KCV6]

Yep as CarWiz said, most important point is only degrease directly before plating.

try using a good citrus acid based cleaner (orange kitchen cleaner) to remove the wax build up. the other excelent first stage wax and heavy grease remover is the good old mechanics hand cleaner like like monkey grip (dumb name, may be called something different over there). Works a treat and you can clean your hands at the same time .

Wire the parts up and do not touch from this point. If you need to touch it, use nitril gloves, sold by all good safety equipment shops. I always degrase and rinse the gloves on before using.

If you do not have sp degreaser, buy it, or go to your local auto parts store and get alkaline (water based) degreaser. use 1/3 degreaser to 2/3 distilled/de-ionised water (I use just tap water, read further down). also buy a ceramic heater, the caswell ones are great and cheap, and get the solution nice and hot before using. have a second bucket with hot tap water for a quick vigorous rinse, then a spray bottle with distilled to final squirt rinse. The small amount of impurities in the rinse will not matter as you need to activate in 10% hydroclauric for around 30 seconds and then squirt rinse again just before you go into the plating tank.

Cheers, let us know how you go

Mark (happy as my $300 60A 0.8-15.5Vdc switchmode supply arrived today)

[tomodell]

Thanks for the advice. It will be several days before I attempt this again, but I will post here the results. I guess the key is to keep these things in water once they are cleaned and as soon as possible go to the plating stage. I will be using electroless nickel plating for most of the parts, on some I will be using a plug 'n' plate kit.

[tomodell]

Ok, I purchased Caswell's SP Degreaser, and fixed up a heated bath for it. I put some brass parts into it for 5 minutes. I took them out and rinsed them distilled water. They would not pass the water break test, so I put them in the bath for another 5 minutes. While in the Degreaser bath, some of them started turning brown again. Now I have brown parts that still won't pass the water break test.
I was wondering if the problem could be that the back side of these parts might still be greasy. All my efforts at polising has been on the front side and I have ignored the back side because they will be hidden. The back sides still have the original chrome on them and could still be greasy from the inside of the reel. Could having these back sides still be dirty be causing my problems?

[tbreaden]

Use the SP degreaser at 140f mininum. Use a tooth brush or rag to scrub the part. then rinse and check water break.