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- >> ############################################################## TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ############################################################## To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TECHNET ############################################################## Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information. If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5365 ##############################################################