Removing channel frames for plating?

[Jim R.]

I want to have the channel frames of the plate chokes on my stereomour plated but I want to know a bit more about how to remove the channel frames, etc.

I'm sure there is more to this than meets the eye, and obviously one has to lift the small tabs on the bottom and carefully pry the frame sides and then top, off, but what are the risks to the stack and is there anything else one should do as the frame is removed?  I'm thinking of things like vice grips or small C-clamps to hold the stack tight while one is working on the frames, perhaps a tight tolerance drill bit in the pilot holes in the stack?  Maybe both?

I hear a lot of chatter on why one should never do this, or remove bellends from transformers, but transformers aren't "born" with these things in place and they pretty much appear to be among the last things that are done before the piece is finished.

Can somebody out there who has done this give me some guidance on the best way to approach this?

Thanks,

Jim

[Paul Joppa]

The thing with plate chokes is, they are air-gapped so the "I" laminations are stacked together, separated from the "E" laminations by some paper-like material of calibrated thickness. IIRC, it's about 4 mils in this part. The whole assembly is then vacuum-impregnated with some kind of high-temperature shellac. If the channel frame were magically to disappear, the only thing holding the "I" laminations to the "E" laminations would be whatever shellac got wicked into the spacing paper. The individual laminations are glued together by this shellac as well.

It's hard to imagine a force strong enough to pry apart the channel frame and break the shellac that glues the frame to the laminations, but simultaneously too weak to break the two lamination stacks apart.

[Jim R.]

Paul,

Thanks, I did not know all of this.  Perhaps it's best to try to wand plate it as a unit.  Kind of rules out sandblasting the finish off the frame though.  Just requires a bit more effort, that's all.

Thanks,

Jim