How to remove clear lacquer from Heatkiller for plating?

[eternal_fantasy]

As I seem to have posted in a pissing match thread with my question that was eventually locked, I'll try again with a new thread.

Originally Posted by Utnorris

There is no polishing or cleaning involved prior to the nickel plating.

Isn't the copper top of the Heatkiller lacquer coated? It has been over a month now since I ordered the plating service from ChilledPC.co.uk, and apperently the clear laqure is a pain to remove, as the nickle will not plate on top of the lacquer.

Some mails between me and Tom @ ChilledPC-

We had all our plating back yesterday, and the Heatkiller blocks have all come out with no nickel on the top surface at all.
Im currently contacting watercool to see if they treat the surface in anyway as its ruined about 5 blocks.

We've sent them off to another plater to have a look at - to see if he can do any better.
Sorry for the delay.

I then asked how the Heatkiller plating was done before as he had posted a Heatkiller he nickle-plated on their forums;

The first block we had done was polished first, then it still came out back, was stripped and then polished and recoated. This was why our current plater basically said dont bring any more in.

The guy who has them now has been in contact with a few people and should have them done next week.

The reason its taking so long is so we can do a perfect finish for you - worst that will happen is you will get a refund and we end up with 5 blocks ruined, but lets hope it doesnt come to that!

So with almost everyone saying it takes less then 5 minutes to prepare the Heatkiller for plating, how did you guys remove the clear lacquer from the top surface of the Heatkiller?

[cx-ray]

Originally Posted by eternal_fantasy

Isn't the copper top of the Heatkiller lacquer coated? It has been over a month now since I ordered the plating service from ChilledPC.co.uk, and apperently the clear laqure is a pain to remove, as the nickle will not plate on top of the lacquer.

Yes, it's clear coated. A good plater should know how to remove it with whatever solvent or acid bath.

Don't expect anything of top quality from that shop. I've been there once and waited for 7 mouths for my stuff. When it was finally delivered the custom stuff was of mediocre quality.

[BDW88]

Chemical paint stripper 15min paste type works best.

[Mekrel]

Originally Posted by cx-ray

Yes, it's clear coated. A good plater should know how to remove it with whatever solvent or acid bath.

Don't expect anything of top quality from that shop. I've been there once and waited for 7 mouths for my stuff. When it was finally delivered the custom stuff was of mediocre quality.

Well I've had 1,000s of parts modded by Chilled PC - and everything has been top notch and Tom knows how much of a perfectionist I am.

It doesn't take a genious to work out that Tom is working a tight over head scheme and doesn't have a horde of people working for him.

Add to that, the fact most custom work such as plating and powder coating is out sourced to companies who's other clients are probably shipping items in the 1000's to them.

Chilled PC in my opinion has gave Watercooling e-tailers here a kick up the arse. Kustom-PCs were probably the only shop with a wide range of case modding supplies before Tom came a long and they had PATHETIC availability.

My first WC build was modded 100% by myself, but the pain of buying expensive tools and machinery that was used all but once was just plain stupid - would rather wait a few months and have a perfectly modded case and no mess.

Guess that's just me.

OP: Try Nitro-mors (think this is the name) stripper. Halfords sell it. It comes in a larger rectangular metalic can with a picture of a wooden door on the front.

[zeropluszero]

I had my heatkiller nickel plated, and the plater said he had to remove the clear coat. he apparently used a sandblaster or something, because when i recieved mine back, it now has a matt finish (i'm alright with it, it looks different) catch is, i had Dreamaxx use her plater, and he had plated hers, and it came out perfectly smooth. so either the dude put both in an acid bath and left mine in too long, or he's sandblasted mine and not hers.

[cx-ray]

Originally Posted by Mekrel

Well I've had 1,000s of parts modded by Chilled PC - and everything has been top notch and Tom knows how much of a perfectionist I am.

C'mon...even his own brand Thermochill grills looks rather average. The aluminum is brushed away too far, as in, edges of the grill are wasted away/rounded. The anodizing and brushing itself doesn't come close to Lian Li. In comparison the brushing looks like it's done with a brillo pad.

I also ask for custom cutting of a Lian Li 343B top. It came back all scratched up. In the end I did the job myself and used his item as a cutting guide

...all this after paying over $900 in advance with him repeatedly promising my order was going to be completed soon. I already counted on 2-3 months delivery time. Not the 7 months by which time my PC components were outdated. As insult to injury he was selling items in stock reserved for me to other customers and having me wait for them even longer.

What other shops and suppliers do in the UK isn't my concern. My purchasing contract was with Chilled. He is responsible for the end result.

[eternal_fantasy]

Originally Posted by zeropluszero

I had my heatkiller nickel plated, and the plater said he had to remove the clear coat. he apparently used a sandblaster or something, because when i recieved mine back, it now has a matt finish (i'm alright with it, it looks different) catch is, i had Dreamaxx use her plater, and he had plated hers, and it came out perfectly smooth. so either the dude put both in an acid bath and left mine in too long, or he's sandblasted mine and not hers.

Hey you got a picture of your Heatkiller with the mat finish? I'm curious about the result

[Utnorris]

I didn't have to do anything with my Heatkiller prior to the Nickel Plating. The company that did it said the pre-bath takes care of all of that, so it wasn't necessary for me to do anything. I assume the acid bath they use prior takes the lacquer off. The only prep I did was taking the block apart, which was 4 screws.

[millertime359]

Originally Posted by Utnorris

I didn't have to do anything with my Heatkiller prior to the Nickel Plating. The company that did it said the pre-bath takes care of all of that, so it wasn't necessary for me to do anything. I assume the acid bath they use prior takes the lacquer off. The only prep I did was taking the block apart, which was 4 screws.

That pre-bath is suppose to be part of any plating process. It is a pretty harsh chemical bath that will remove any impurities.

There are a couple of rinse stages that happen during the plating process and there is a charge placed to the part. A few different things could have happened during the plating process, for your part to not plate.

[zeropluszero]

Originally Posted by eternal_fantasy

Hey you got a picture of your Heatkiller with the mat finish? I'm curious about the result

[WeeMaan]

Originally Posted by zeropluszero

picture

That looks really bad.. :\

Edit: How much does Tom take to nickel plate a heatkiller?
I have had only good experiences with him and his shop before.

[Vapor]

I think it looks SO cool

It could be a little less orange/yellow though...but maybe that's the photo

[Darth_Penguin]

I removed the lacquer by polishing the surface to a mirror finish. I think a polished HK looks best anyway...

[nkresho]

Zero... That doesn't look right. That looks like paint or powdercoat. Maybe with metal flake in it. I'm not sure I would accept a plating job that came out that way.

[NaeKuh]

Originally Posted by Vapor

I think it looks SO cool

It could be a little less orange/yellow though...but maybe that's the photo

+1

i love a matted look over a mirror.

[millertime359]

Originally Posted by Vapor

I think it looks SO cool

It could be a little less orange/yellow though...but maybe that's the photo

I'm wondering the same, seems really orange. Anymore photos of it. Looks interesting.

[woffen]

Originally Posted by WeeMaan

That looks really bad.. :\

Edit: How much does Tom take to nickel plate a heatkiller?
I have had only good experiences with him and his shop before.

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/prod...roducts_id=998

[NaeKuh]

Originally Posted by woffen

http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/prod...roducts_id=998

best to spell it out...

Originally Posted by WeeMaan

That looks really bad.. :\

Edit: How much does Tom take to nickel plate a heatkiller?
I have had only good experiences with him and his shop before.

Product Description
This is a service to Chrome/Nickel Plate your waterblocks or any other metal part.

There is a minimum fee which we work on with the platers, so one block will cost £6.99.

However if you were to send us a batch of blocks, eg 4 then the cost will only rise to £10-£15 not 4 x £6.99. So please contact us with any enquiries you have as we may be able to batch your blocks with other customers ensuring everyone pays a fair price.


any respectable plater will acid dip the blocks first to clean it as norris said. Its part of the process.
Any Plater that gives u smack about extra work / time is just giving u excuses to charge more.
As i said the acid dip is ALWAYS part of the step, unless the plater wants to cheap his services.

The top coat is most likely a primer of some sort. It will go yam yam yam in acetone for a while, or a paint thiner and u can scrub it off, if u dont have an acid bath prepared.
But my last plater diped my blocks in nitric acid HNO3 b4 he started plating, and that came out bright as a virgin block b4 he plated it.

[zeropluszero]

it is silver in person, and yeh, it's just the photo.
it's definatly plated as well, like i said, i think he's either sand blasted it, or left it in the acid bath too long. i didnt really have much of a choice, i live in victoria australia, and had it sent to perth, the other side of australia for plating, so i couldnt really say to the plater, hey, that's not exactly what i was expecting.

[millertime359]

Originally Posted by zeropluszero

it is silver in person, and yeh, it's just the photo.
it's definatly plated as well, like i said, i think he's either sand blasted it, or left it in the acid bath too long. i didnt really have much of a choice, i live in victoria australia, and had it sent to perth, the other side of australia for plating, so i couldnt really say to the plater, hey, that's not exactly what i was expecting.

Looks like it got sandblasted, got anymore photos that it shows up better?

[Vapor]

Originally Posted by zeropluszero

it is silver in person, and yeh, it's just the photo.
it's definatly plated as well, like i said, i think he's either sand blasted it, or left it in the acid bath too long. i didnt really have much of a choice, i live in victoria australia, and had it sent to perth, the other side of australia for plating, so i couldnt really say to the plater, hey, that's not exactly what i was expecting.

Were the tops of microchannels smooth still?

[zeropluszero]

nah, it's currently in use at the moment so no other photos, except those in my worklog, which i havent gotten around to completing or posting here. check it out HERE
it's very pic heavy.

the whole top and bottom was the same finish, including the channels. the channels appeared to be fine, in that they looked more or less the same as before the plating, but slightly pitted.

i really dont think it did anything to change performance, but i dont have a before to gauge it off.

[turtletrax]

Looks like my heatkiller got ruined. I explained the situation in detail to them and said it is from germany and that getting another one wasn't easy or cheep. Then I didnt hear back from them for several days so I called them and the guy I dealt with "wasnt there", then I repeatedly called.

I just called again and he answered and I knew his voice and asked him how it went and he said "not good". So I get to go in tomorrow and most likely see a buggered block. If I take the time to repolish it and get it replated it should come out OK right?

Hope so.... They did such a good job on my EK stuff. Apparently they dont bath stuff properly....