How do you "unplate" plated wood screws?

[Rolf]

Can't find unplated steel screws in Norway. Is there a simple way to remove plating?

Best regards

Rolfkt

[Michael]

Heat.

Michael

[Acer Saccharum]

Most plated objects can be reverse plated, but you need to have a battery, acid, and know how to do it, which I don't.

As Michael suggests, I'd burn the plating off. You may have to scrub the screws with steel wool and burn them a couple of times, but you should be able to clean them up pretty well.

Or if you have a lathe, you can make screws. I know it sounds tedious, but if you want really nice screws, sometimes that's the only way to get them.

[northmn]

I have a power wire brush that will take off plating.  Possibly a Dremmel brush would also work. 

DP

[C Wallingford]

If the screws are zinc plated you can use Muriatic to strip it off. It takes less then a minute.

[T*O*F]

If you burn the plating off screws, don't breathe the fumes.  They are poisonous.

[Benedict]

I soak them in cupric sulphate.  The plating is replaced by copper which wipes off with a rag.

Bruce

[Pete Allan]

I strip the plating off screws often and just use simple liquid toilet cleaner. I put the screws in a plastic drinking cup and pour in enough cleaner to cover them and in about 10 seconds of foaming action the screws are clean. Just rince in hot water and spray with WD40. I have never found any screws this didn't work well on.

[Black Hand]

People have used vinegar to remove some platings.  Not as fast as muriatic acid, but much less dangerous and toxic.

[JMatley]

A few months back a member of this forum located the web site below where you could purchase unplated steel screws and bolts.  I ordered a supply and the service and quality was very good.  Some of the screws are blued and but finish comes off real easy.  You may want to order a supply instead.
http://www.blacksmithbolt.com/

Jim

[Rolf]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try burning off the plating first.  If that doesn't work, I'll try some of the chemical metodes suggested. Shipping time to Norway is 14 days at least. I'd save time if I can get the plating off.

Best regards

Rolfkt

[davec2]

Rolfkt,

If you have access to any hydrochloric (i.e. muriatic acid) use the method suggested by cwallingford.   Just dilute some acid 50 / 50 with water and dip the screws into it quickly and rinse.  I tell my wife I use a pair of stainless steel tweezers to hold the screws, but I actually dip them in with my bare fingers and then dip both (fingers and screws) into a bowl of clear water.  As far as the toxicity $#@* goes, I wouldn't worry about it.  This is the same acid you carry around in your stomach (strong enough to dissolve an iron nail by the way) and is the same acid people throw into their swimming pools and hot tubs every day and them jump in after it.  Don't drink it or use it for eye drops, but it is a $#*! of a lot less of a "safety" issue than a gas stove or the 20 gallons of gasoline all of us sit on top of in our cars while we go whizzing around town at 60 mph.  For that matter, it is a $#*! of a lot less of a safety issue that a horn full of black powder hanging around your neck!

[T*O*F]

As far as the toxicity $#@* goes, I wouldn't worry about it.

The toxicity isn't from the chemicals  It's breathing the fumes from zinc, cadmium, or galvanized plated screws when burning the coating off.  Easily avoided in the open air or with a small fan to disperse them.

[caliber45]

Rolfkt -- Are you offended by leaving the plating on the portion of the screws that will be unseen (threads and bottom of the screw head)? If not, it's a simple matter to remove the surface of the screw head with 200-grit wet-or-dry sandpaper and the back edge of a hacksaw blade or something similar for the slot. -- paulallen, tucson az

[davec2]

TOF,

Good point, but I submit that you would have to burn the zinc plating (same material as "galvanized" just a different application process) off hundreds if not thousands of screws and purposely inhale the resulting zinc oxide fumes in a very enclosed space to even approach having a problem.  And, if you managed to do that, the resulting medical condition is referred to as the "zinc chills", a malady well known to many welders who have either welded a considerable amount of galvanized steel, or torch cut it, in confined spaces.   However, the immediately effective antidote for the zinc chills is to drink a glass of milk.  Bottom line, while it is theoretically possible to give yourself the temporary condition of zinc chills, you would really have to go out of your way to do it.  I would be more worried about handling the torch used to burn the plating off the screws and the fire danger resulting from an open flame.

[SCLoyalist]

A possible source of unplated steel screws might be a shop (or mail-order house) that specializes in antique furniture restoration.   I don't expect they like plated screws any more than gun makers do.

[JCKelly]

If you choose the vinegar approach, you may speed things up a bit by adding some salt (sodium chloride, table salt)   Salt + acetic acid = hydrochloric acid. Thankfully, it will be dilute.

You should see what the combination of vinegar and salt does to stainless fixtures used in making sauerkraut.

[dannybb55]

Try a little heat to damage the plating, then put them in a jar of white vinegar overnight, 8 to 10 hours at the least. The residue will wipe right off. At least this works with fire scale.

[Dave B]

I was told to use Birchwood Casy cold blue to remove the zinc pate on my screws. It does it in two seconds after dipping them into a cap full of the liquid. Fresh water rinse and wire brush them and your ready to use them.

[Dphariss]

Can't find unplated steel screws in Norway. Is there a simple way to remove plating?

Best regards

Rolfkt

I use the Muriatic acid sold to etch concrete to remove plating. Will remove it in seconds. Rinse in water and then oil lightly.

If its nickle its not really possible is the home workshop. Needs to be electrically stripped.

Dan

[HISTD]

As others have said, I have had good luck with heat. Sometimes a small bit of plating in the slot seems to fight me and require a file. Zinc is probably not really much of a toxicity problem in small quantities but cadmium is much more toxic. Still not much of a problem for a few screws but doing it outside eliminates the problem. Furniture makers in my neck of the woods seem to use a lot of bare or blued screws, maybe they do in Norway also.

[Swampwalker]

My method is ...  to ignore it!  By the time the gun is finished, the scews have had their threads deepened, the heads re-shaped to match surrounding contours, the slots are often deepened with a file, sometimes re-forged to narrow the slots, and finally, the heads are case-hardened to preserve the slots.  Somewhere in the process, any plating that was there is lost. 

[Mark Y]

toilet bowl cleaner works very well to remove plating off of wood screws.

[Kermit]

Yeah, but it REALLY STINKS! I just dump screws--or other plated hardware--into a cottage cheese or yogurt container and cover with hardware store muriatic acid. Outdoors. It'll bubble and fizz away for a while. When it's subsided to about the level of a half-consumed Coke, I dump the acid in the gravel driveway and run water over the parts to rinse. After that they go into a warm oven to dry, and then oil 'em. Acid has the advantage for me of getting the plating out of every nook and cranny.

[LURCHWV@BJS]

  9volt battery ,vinegar ,wire, and a nail. one wire on the nail,one one the screw, put nail and screw in vinegar bath (glass jar)(don't let them touch) Attach wires to battery let set a few hours, plate will go to nail. Positive wire on nail.


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