This is my first time eletoforming and I decided to start with something small I waited around 40min and this is all I got a thin copper layer around the leg

I'm having to move my bath and I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on the need for extraction? I was thinking of putting it all (tank, rectifier ect) into a larger plastic tub with a lid. Do you think this would be ok or would fumes be an issue?

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I'm in that super cool beginning part of electroforming where I'm agonizing over what equipment I need and getting decision paralysis so hoping you guys can help. 😭 Ideally I'd like to not have to change my setup in the future unless I started doing much larger pieces or higher volumes, but I'd like to start off with the most low-maintenance small bath I can manage. I just can't figure out what to use for the bath specifically and the best way to set it up.

Here's the vital info:

• I'm going to plate mostly small things like jewelry. I currently have 2 quarts of solution from Rio Grande to start with, so don't need a very large container.

• I'd really like to use something that I can securely lid so it can be splash-proof if I'm moving it or something. My dexterity is not what it used to be and I make messes more often than I'd like. 😭 My current best idea is this food container from IKEA; I have both one of these and a similar plastic container on hand and can use either, or go grab something else entirely.

• For agitation/heat I bought a magnetic stirrer with heater, but it's still in the box so I can return it if it's not a good idea. I'm wondering if the heat would be too direct if I used a plastic container and the hot plate would be better used with glass instead?

• I've been reading people talking about using aquarium filters, heaters, and possibly bubblers? Can anybody tell me more about this? Like would I need a larger container (like an actual 1-5 gal aquarium) to be able to make those things work? Are there upsides or downsides to using the aquarium equipment? Using an aquarium filter sounds like it'd cut down a lot of bath maintenance.

• I have heavy copper wire for anode, my understanding is wire is best for if you're doing more detailed small pieces, is that correct? I've seen people wrapping I guess a filtering bag around pipe anodes; is it better to use pipe or plate for keeping the bath cleaner?

I'm hesitant to use what I see in beginner tutorials, like beakers or simple plastic bins, because I can't seal them with a watertight lid. And the only other setups I tend to see are much larger bins and things that are clearly more advanced and a larger scale than what I'm doing. I'd ideally like to be able to just not have to filter the bath constantly. (Also everybody's containers always seem to be open, am I right in assuming you can't have a lid on it while actively electroforming? That feels like one of those things that could be dangerous but I'm actually the worst ever at chemistry so I wouldn't know why. 😂)

I don't know, guys! I have everything else and I'm just absolutely stuck on the bath part of it and overthinking quite a lot, please help!

S

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Hey yall,

I’ve been trying to get my 3D models ready for electroforming, but I keep running into issues with the graphite coating. I’ve tried:

• Mixing graphite powder with 70% alcohol
• Mixing graphite powder with black acrylic paint

No matter what I do, I’m getting high resistance readings on my multimeter- around 200 ohms, even after applying multiple layers. It feels like this is way too high for electroforming to work properly.

Has anyone here done this successfully? I’d love to know:

• What mixtures or techniques worked for you?
• Is that resistance normal, or am I missing something?

I’m stuck and could really use some advice from people with experience. Thanks so much!

Hello! When I am electroforming, blue crystals start to build up on my anode (copper coil) after many hours of my pieces in the bath, does this always happen? Am I doing something wrong?

I'm trying to Copper Plate a figurine, and it almost always comes out dull and rough feeling.

This has happened with all previous attempts at plating (even plating metal pieces), and it's only this time I see some progress towards shininess. But the issue is, it's only shiny around the ears/tail. I feel it is important to note that whilst plating, I noticed that the ears and tail plated last.

https://preview.redd.it/guhh42c6xede1.png?width=335&format=png&auto=webp&s=e69827f352367495728e7ff358280dcbe9b7d73a

https://preview.redd.it/dvi9f0c7xede1.png?width=285&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c3025ce990a5a42adf1b855b9939ef75df3481e

Somes notes about my bath/electricity:
- 1 Gallon of Distilled Water
- ~900g of Copper Sulfate
- 40ml of Battery Acid (30%)
- ~10ml of Midas Replenishing Brightener + Some Extra Drops when Plating
- 10ml of Muriatic Acid (~27%?)

I do adjust the Amps depending on the surface area of my piece. I am using 0.1 amps per square inch on constant current mode. For this particular figure, I can't get the exact surface area so I used 0.3-0.4. However, even with objects I could calculate the exact surface area of, the plating was still dull.

The plating was still dull before I added the Muratic Acid and extra drops of Brightener, although I believe it improved slightly after adding these.

I did have a magnetic stirrer running while it was plating, but I do not have a rotating hanger to hang the piece on. All of my pieces were suspended in the bath on a non-rotating copper wire.

I tried tumbling the piece in a rock tumbler full of walnut shells, and nothing really improved. I then tried to lightly sand the piece with sandpaper, and it only helped reveal minute streaks of shininess before the plating and paint was scuffed off.

https://preview.redd.it/mld40yvpyede1.png?width=261&format=png&auto=webp&s=81aa37e7c8efb1829cf75aa4e28a1c7955bba214

Here is the piece immediately after it was cleaned in a bath post-plating. It stopped looking shiny after drying off.

Any help?

I'm an artist and completely new to electroforming. I have been looking at some kits through Casewell, specifically their 4.5 gal Copper Plating kit. I have a tumbleweed I'd like to electroform. I'm not exactly sure how to figure the surface area of a tumbleweed (lol), but it could be easily submerged in the 6 gallon bucket the kit comes with.

Kit: https://caswellplating.com/bright-acid-copper-plating-kit-4-5-gal.html

There are some things I'll need that aren't included in the kit, like the power supply and conductive paint.

I guess my questions are:

What settings to set the voltage and amps to? I know this is dependent on surface area. The tumbleweed is about 1.5' long' x 6" wide, but it's a complex shape.

Could I reuse the solution? If so, about how many times?

How do you properly dispose of the solution after electroforming?

Would this be a good kit to handle this project or does anyone have other recommendations?

I'd also welcome any other comments, questions or feedback. This is probably not the best project to jump into electroforming with, but I really want to work this out.

Hey all, I recently got into electroplating and I’m looking my for some phosphorus doped copper anodes to help with the process; they are more optimal for plating than regular pure copper. Anybody know where I can find such an item? I’ve looked online but haven’t had much luck with finding companies that sell individual consumers and not bulk shipments. Thanks!

Help! I've fallen at the first hurdle..ive bought an electro forming starter kit but am finding the chunky instructions a bit overwhelming. It talks about acrylic sealer, silver-coater copper conductive paint and graphite conductive paint. What am I putting where? The "ring" is seaglass and copper wire. And then just some shells I've put on copper to attach to the electrodes.

Hi, I've seen a few people creating a gunmetal colour patina on their pieces. I was advised liver of sulphur which was great but looks dull 🤷‍♀️ and baking soda but this didn't seem to do anything. Anyone else have advice of achieving this look? TIA

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Hey guys, I’m having some weird issues with surface defects in my copper plating. Today I did my second ever attempt at plating, and this was the setup: Graphite painted and polished benchy 3D print in acidic copper sulfate solution with Midas brightener. Hotplate and magnetic stirrer was used to stir the solution on a mid to low speed, at 25 degrees C. I calculated the current for the plating to be around 0.94 amps (surface area of 0.9400 dm^2 x 1.00 A)

The first 4 pictures show a benchy that I plated at around 0.2 amps for a couple hours because I was wary of the calculated current that I got… it seemed too high. Plating was going smoothly, and so I tried to increase the current to 0.4 amps. As soon as I did, all the lines and dots started to appear on the hull of the benchy. These may have already been present, but somehow amplified by the higher current. Either way, the plate was smooth and shiny in that same area before the dots began to appear. In other areas, like the cabin, the benchy is smooth, but not shiny. Why does this occur?

Additionally, the plating flakes off with some mild scratching. How can I increase plating adhesion even after I’ve degreased and rinsed with water before plating?? I would note that somehow, the plating was more durable in the area where it was the shiniest, and took more effort with a screwdriver to chip off.

The final picture is of another benchy I let plate for about an hour with the full 0.94 A of current, which also has weird ridges and bumps, but was not shiny anywhere like the first benchy, and had dark spots.

Trying to electroform this acorn. This was my second attempt. My first seemed to fail because the resistance was too high. I measured something like 1M-ohm. So I painted more layers of my conductive paint and it got down to 1K-ohm from the ring to the tip of the acorn.

My paint is simply a mix of mod podge and graphite powder, thinned with just enough distilled water to make it brushable.

I had my power supply set to 0.14 amps as I roughly calculated this acorn was around 1.4 sq in

This was after about 14 hours in the bath.

Also my copper sulfate solution now looks like it developed a blue-green hue to it instead of being all blue.

Any help for someone just starting out? Maybe my paint isn’t right? Wrong current?

As we have a number of members who either service the electroplating, jewelry, or arts industry or are professionals / aspiring professionals we have shameless self-promotion Sundays. Please use this thread to show off your recent work complete with links to plug the item or yourself. Note that in no way does r/Electroforming or its mods endorse or in any way guarantee the items or services being shared.

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I saw a few videos of someone using what looked like copper foil to make a conductive layer to plate on some stones, I was wondering if anyone has experience using that sort of thing and if so what exactly are you using

My partner is an electrician so I have a big supply of copper wire (around 12 gauge) that I can use. Will this work in place of copper pipe?

Hey all. To everyone who plates using copper sulfate electrolyte, what containers do you use to store the liquid and to perform the plating process? I have some perfect shoebox size polypropylene containers I can use, they fit the size parts I’ll be working on. However, this is only compatible with my home brew nickel acetate. The sulfuric acid in copper sulfate solution could damage the polypropylene or contaminate the solution. I’ve seen that HDPE is resistant to sulfuric acid, but I haven’t seen any specifically labeled HDPE containers in the shoebox style I’m looking for. Another option is glass, but again, hard to find and more expensive. What do you guys use?

As we have a number of members who either service the electroplating, jewelry, or arts industry or are professionals / aspiring professionals we have shameless self-promotion Sundays. Please use this thread to show off your recent work complete with links to plug the item or yourself. Note that in no way does r/Electroforming or its mods endorse or in any way guarantee the items or services being shared.

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Hey guys. I’m new to electroplating and I’ve been trying different methods for a while now to polish graphite conductive coatings so that I can get a successful plating to occur. I airbrush my paint on with 2-4 coats and its conductivity at that point is usually around 6 kilo ohms (using less coats) and 1.5-3.5 kilo ohms (using more coats) every couple centimeters. I’ve from research seen that polishing the paint increases conductivity and helps facilitate plating. I’ve tried polishing myself with some success, but haven’t been able to achieve the same shine or smoothness I’ve seen others achieve. I’ve tried hand polishing with rags/towels, using buffer wheels on a drill, and tumbler polishing with walnut grains as seen here: (3:10 onward - https://youtu.be/TlD9USAhcEs?si=eWz6zv1a3AiinzLB). Polishing by hand and buff wheel seem to work decently, but not to the level of shine in the video. Additionally, whenever I try to polish on the tumbler I just get brown walnut dust and gunk covering my parts, and no polish on the coating at all. Does anyone have any tips as to how I can successfully polish with hand, buff wheel, or tumbler? Any advice is much appreciated.

I purchased this power supply recently and I cannot no matter what I do get it to pick up any amps I can't get it to plate anything.

Can anyone help? Have the same machine? Similar issue?

https://www.jaycar.com.au/0-15vdc-0-40a-regulated-switchmode-laboratory-power-supply/p/MP3091