[Amps] Caustic soda

[Barrie Smith]

Caustic soda and aluminum.

A few years back I built some heat-sinks for the diodes in a power supply.  Since they were two piece units, I drilled and tapped the aluminum for final assembly.

I then immersed the pieces in a sodium hydroxide solution to lend a nice satin finish.

After that treatment, the threads I had so carefully tapped were gone.  I had to go to a larger bolt.

The sodium hydroxide removes quite a bit of material, so any precision work should be done after the  treatment.

Barrie, W7ALW, DN36au,
QRV 6M, 432 & 1296 EME