Finish Washers

charvey

Enthusiastic about Wooden Canoes
Has anyone tried to remove the nickel plating from finish washers? Found these on ebay...put they are nickel plated. A simple electrified sulfuric acid dunk tank should take this plating right off. Right? Any thoughts?

a16015.jpg
 
Forgot to add that these finish washers are advertised as nickel plated brass.
 
You can make your own finish washers. A friend made this jig for me. You stick a brass washer in it and give it a good whack.

Finish washer maker.jpg
 
I really like the die punch, something definitely worth considering fabricating. I'm going to take a shot at the nickel plated brass washers (size 6,8, and 10) on ebay. They are relatively cheap per 100 and since I've messed with electrolysis plating removal before, I'm not too worried about the process to strip the plating. I imagine I'll have to experiment one washer at a time until I get it perfected. I"ll post the results in a few weeks.
 
Just to clarify. Please refer to the pictured photo as the finish washer in question which lays flat into a counter bored screw hole, it is not a conical washer protruding above the board surface. The conical protruding washers are quite common, the flat finish washers are not. If there is a source for the washer as pictured above, please share your source as I am looking for 100+ in size 8 and 10.
 
These are sometimes known as "flush finish washers" or in some cases "countersunk washers". There are also a couple types of them, the basic stamped sheet metal kind, like the photo above, and a straight-sided, insert type. If you are looking for them in quantity, you might check with these guys to see if they would make you a box of plain brass stamped ones. It sounds like they will do reasonably small orders and it sure would beat having to un-plate them yourself.
https://www.bokers.com/finishing_washers.asp

Lee Valley has the insert type, which are interesting (but pricey) and which might be good for things like thwart bolts, but they probably aren't the kind you are looking for at the moment. I wouldn't mind having a few in the tool box though. It looks like something that could be pretty handy to have on hand at times.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/hardware/Page.aspx?p=47230&cat=3,41306,41316
 
I just remembered I purchased some of the proper Old Town-style cup washers from Jerry Stelmok at Assembly a couple years ago. Betcha he still offers them.
 
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