How are ya'll this fine MONDAY mornin'?
(Whatchoo smokin' Steve?...sheesh, so cheery on a Monday!)
I'm just glad to be alive is all...hehehe. Anyhoo, I got just a couple of
replies
to my little query about repairing solder contaminated gold fingers with a
manual
plating system, and I thought I'd share with ya'll how I'm going about the
repairs.
I was told that I shouldn't plate any nickel over the existing gold, could
run into peeling
later...which makes sense. I had originally thought that I should plate some
nickel over
the area where the solder once was (since you can't get it all completely off
just with just
solder wick). But you can get all the solder off if you VERY CAREFULLY use an
X-acto
knife (with a VERY sharp blade) and VERY,VERY carefully scape the solder off
under
a microscope until you get down to the original gold that was plated on the
fingers. This
is done after you wick as much as you can from the finger. I can't emphasize
enough do
this very carefully and gingerly...you want to avoid getting in to the
original gold as much
as you can...it can be done. Then I take a burnishing tool (I used the round
smooth part
on a set of curved tweezers) and smoothed out any scratches I made from
scraping the
solder off. Having a smooth surface topography is key to get a nice even look
to the plating
that you'll do after this step. I prepare the finger for plating with what's
called an absorbent
or degreaser pen, then I plate away with the gold only. After I'm done, you
can't tell that
solder has ever been on the finger (As I take a bow...hehehe).
What's really critical, is the solder removal. You've got to be patient, and
not use too much
force, otherwise you'll get into the original gold and reduce the
thickness...don't wanna do
that! I think this method will eliminate most peeling concerns as I'm plating
gold on gold.
-Steve Gregory-
<< Mornin' All!
Say, I just got in a Gold plating kit from a company called "Hunter
Products"that I ordered to do repair on solder contaminated Gold Finger
contacts. They call it a "Micro Metalizer" system, and I gotta' few
questions for any of you who have used these pens.
I've done my first repair, and the fingers I've repaired don't quite look
the same as the ones that aren't contaminated. They're a bit lighter in the
shade of gold than the original ones. I'm thinking that's to be expected
because
I'm plating each finger manually and there's bound to be some variation vs.
what happens with plating when the fab was first made.
I removed all the solder from the finger, plated first with the nickel pen
that they provide, and then the Gold. The gold plating pen provided is
labeled 24 carat gold, but you can get 18 carat, and 14 carat pens, the 24
carat pen is what's provided with the kit.
Should I get a different carat pen? The pens are capable of plating 3 - 3.6
microns depending on the time the plating pen is on the surface of each
finger. How thick should I be plating the gold?
Thanks!
-Steve Gregory-
>>
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