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Milling Nickel plated aluminum


JB7280
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Has anyone here ever machined nickel plated aluminum?  The plater says it will be impossible to mask some of the features, so machining away the nickel plating has been suggested.  Has anyone here had success with this?  I'm told it's going to be a nightmare, and to avoid it at all costs.  

 

Any advice?

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1 hour ago, Leon82 said:

It has the possibility of flaking.

Of I had to I would program it to climb cut around the outside.

The areas I'll be machining are mostly faces.  Would tools intended for aluminum hold to removing the nickel?  It's only 12µm thick plating.

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Leave the floors heavy, plate it, ramp into the material past the plating. That way you are sidemilling the plating off. Come back in with a second tool to finish the floor and finish the "pocket" walls. Never done it with Nickel and Aluminum. But done alot of Silver/Aluminum and Nickel/Steel combinations without having the plating chip

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if you can get away with it, rough it and leave a good amount on the side (what ever you can), then take a finish cut using a reverse helix endmill.  This will push down on the plating so that it is supported by the substrate to minimize chipping and flaking.  Just don't go as deep as the rough, I don't think you want to cut the floor with this tool.  Once the wall is finished you can finish the floor with a traditional endmill and stay .0001-.0002 away from the wall.

https://www.ultra-tool.com/image/pdf_files/UltraCatV2021.1web.pdf  page 25 Series 329S Square End Four Flute • Left Hand Helix / RHC Downcut Milling

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48 minutes ago, AMCNitro said:

Get a new plater

Unfortunately it's an issue of approved suppliers, and I also can't blame him for having concerns about the masking.  The concerns seem pretty valid, but I'm not a plater, so there very well could be a way.  

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The high temperature green tape that the powder coaters use, works well for big surfaces.

If you need fancy masking shapes, obviously this can be "die cut" to give you the fancy shapes.

 I've also used rubberised "paint" before where you paint on the rubber and peel after plating.

Ultimately, the cost of plating rockets. But you do get a one hit part, rather than having to set it back up on a machine with risk of damage, scrap etc.

i.e. although you pay the plater more, you only handle the part once....

Nickel is ALL about preparation. The only success I have had is with prior bead blasting to uniformly "rough" the surface. But you have to be so careful with this, as your media has to be clean, and you have to have clean parts before blasting. Otherwise you're blasting oil into the surface....

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On 11/3/2021 at 3:05 PM, Newbeeee™ said:

The high temperature green tape that the powder coaters use, works well for big surfaces.

If you need fancy masking shapes, obviously this can be "die cut" to give you the fancy shapes.

 I've also used rubberised "paint" before where you paint on the rubber and peel after plating.

Ultimately, the cost of plating rockets. But you do get a one hit part, rather than having to set it back up on a machine with risk of damage, scrap etc.

i.e. although you pay the plater more, you only handle the part once....

Nickel is ALL about preparation. The only success I have had is with prior bead blasting to uniformly "rough" the surface. But you have to be so careful with this, as your media has to be clean, and you have to have clean parts before blasting. Otherwise you're blasting oil into the surface....

 

From what the plater says, most of the problems with the masking are due to very thin strips in some areas.  We are machining some sample  coupons, having them plated, and machining them, so I'm guessing it will prove to the customer that it's not a reasonable idea.  

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2 hours ago, JB7280 said:

 

From what the plater says, most of the problems with the masking are due to very thin strips in some areas.  We are machining some sample  coupons, having them plated, and machining them, so I'm guessing it will prove to the customer that it's not a reasonable idea.  

I am intrigued.....why mask nickel? It's conductive, you can solder to it, so it's great for conductivity and bonding etc?

Threads are luckily the only thing I had to encounter, although I had seen at the platers parts (we never made) that were masked for some reason?

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17 minutes ago, Newbeeee™ said:

I am intrigued.....why mask nickel? It's conductive, you can solder to it, so it's great for conductivity and bonding etc?

Threads are luckily the only thing I had to encounter, although I had seen at the platers parts (we never made) that were masked for some reason?

We usually retap our nickel plated threads.

 

For tight surfaces we compensate the .01mm for nickel usually. Unless it's a dowel pin hole we mask those.

For invar we had to have the plater nickel plate them strip them and replate them and it resulted in a better plating and no flaking

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On 11/5/2021 at 6:25 PM, Newbeeee™ said:

I am intrigued.....why mask nickel? It's conductive, you can solder to it, so it's great for conductivity and bonding etc?

Threads are luckily the only thing I had to encounter, although I had seen at the platers parts (we never made) that were masked for some reason?

Honestly, I'm not sure.  I know that each masked face is a critical feature, where a subassembly mounts.  Maybe they're concerned about flaking when attaching the subassembly?  I'm not sure, to be honest.

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