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-----Reverse electroplating using salt water
Q. I understand it is possible to reverse plate using Salt water. Does anyone here understand the process. Would I use a stainless steel negative cathode..?
Shawn Hastinghobbyist - Grove City, MN, USA
August 12, 2008
A. Hi, Shawn. Although it's clear in your mind what you want to do, it's hard to try to help you when I don't know quite what you are trying to achieve ... are you trying to recover gold/precious metals from something you are junking, or trying to restore an artifact, or trying to strip some kind of metal plating off of some kind of metal substrate before re-plating? What metal is the plating, what metal is the substrate, and what is the object. Thanks.
The reason there are many different types of chemical and electrochemical stripping solutions and methods is because simple saltwater sometimes won't work. For example if you're trying to strip nickel from steel, the moment there is even a pinhole exposing some steel, the steel will corrode and pit [preferentially to the nickel dissolving.
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Ted Mooney, P.E.
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