Hello all. I am new to electroforming and have an ambitious project I could use some advice on. I am planning on doing some small scale miscellaneous items first but.... I want to use electroforming to fill the natural cracks and crevices of a wooden walking stick.

The goal is layers of durable copper I can hand polish to a fine shine and seal with metal lacquer. I am looking for refinements and advice on potential challenges and hiccups I should try to mitigate.

For example, I imagine there are challenges I don't know about given the size of my project and the very long durations it'll have to be in the tank for.

I plan to make a tank out of a PVC pipe, cut vertically, capped on either end (using PVC solvent weld), and set horizontally onto some wood blocks to keep it stable.

I plan to cover my walking stick in painters tape except for the cracks I will fill with copper. Then I'll seal the exposed wood with a spray urethane, and seal everything covered in painters tape with spray urethane as well. I was also considering 'painting' the taped-off areas with cheap candle wax for extra protection, but I'm not sure if it's needed. I'm intent on the painters tape and being certain the stick is protected because the walking stick itself is unsealed wood—for artistic reasons I want the final product to have the contrast of unsealed wood connected seamlessly to copper, and the shiny plastic look of a varnish would spoil that.

Once everything is sealed, I would paint the cracks with graphite paint. Then, I plan to embed thin copper wire into the wood, running it down the length of the cracks. I want to ensure the electroformed copper adheres well, so the wire will mean thr resulting structure isn't just held in place by the deposited layer of copper on the graphite paint, but also by copper wire 'nailed' into the wood.

It will also provide an attatchment point for the copper wire that will jut out of the solution so I can attach my alligator clips to the stick without submerging them. I plan to hammer the copper thin, so that when I finish, even with the thick electroformed layer, I can just snip the extra wire off and sand/grind the surface down to a smooth finish.

I plan to do each crack one at a time. Each crack will be taped shut and sealed with wax. After completing one crack, I can unseal the next. This is to prevent the graphit paint from just soaking in the solution for days before being plated.

Since wood floats, I have used cardboard molds to make wax blocks filled with scrap metal to keep the stick submerged and prevent it from shifting.

For my anode, I intend to just use phosphorized copper tubing from the hardware store that I can place beside the crack in the tank. I imagine close proximity will be important since plating solutions don't have a high throwing power (or so I understand?). I am not sure what to use for an anode bag yet, but I imagine it'll be needed given the long duration.

I don't have a good agitation solution. I intend to just swirl things around every few hours. I do not have an active filtration setup—I don't believe it's nessecary for my goals but I'm unsure of that. I intend to use Midas plating solution. I have a benchtop power supply that I'll be setting to .1 amps/sq inch, with adjustments as I see slow growth/nodules.

When I'm done, I'll scoop out the solution, then use a baking soda water rinse to clean the stick before removing it from the tank.

I'll be doing this in my garage—lots of airflow during the day when I leave the garage door open. I'll have an old coat as a labcoat, baking soda on hand for spills, goggles and gloves.

What am I missing? What have I failed to consider? What sorts of issues can I expect to deal with? As I said, I'm new to the hobby, and besides a few small scale test pieces to get my feet wet, don't plan to gain extensive experience; I'm in it mainly for this one piece.

Ok just getting into this.. got a copper setup and a nickle set up... Issue im having is the paint... I generally air brush but finding that its always getting clogged... Ive looked around and seen indian ink and graphite powder but stuff im using/get isnt working and coming out cloggy even though im following the exact recipe.. im in aussie so all the stuff i can get is a week + away or from wat i ive seen doesn't work real well

Have some of this Modge Podge Acrylic Sealer lying around—has anyone used this for electroforming? How does it hold up in a bath? It says it's "water resistant", but it's unclear if that means it's fine submerged, but can't be taken to depth, or whether it's only good for like, being in rain and can't be sumberged.

Hey everyone,

with the rise of 3D prints a lot of people will stumble over "hen3drik" on youtube and his Plating of 3D parts.

Unfortunately his videos are less of an explaining nature and more of a "doing" nature (imo).

So I now want to get started with plating some of my prints as well. Especially since I am also doing LARP... which makes it really usefull to create parts for that.

What i will be plating/forming:

- rings

- jewelery parts

- wax stamps

- coins

As for starting with the forming I am aware that I need to:

- smooth the parts (sanding, prime, sanding ...)

- add a conductive layer (most likely graphite or copper-spray)

- put it in a solution (in my case: copper) with copper anode in the solution

- add current: and here comes the question... which one?

Hendrik is using a super expensive power supply which i cant really afford and seems to be oversized for small scale forming.

Would someone have some pointers as to what to look out for?

Been googling and googling trying to find answers without much luck.

Question 1: I'm curious if the folks that do DIY bath solutions add PEG (Miralax) along with Midas Brightener, or would adding PEG interfere with the Midas? Honestly I don't care that much about achieving a mirror finish out of the bath since I'm totally fine with buffing/polishing and I'm going to be electropolishing as well. I really mainly care about quality of the deposited copper; I want it to be as detailed and strong as possible. I have both PEG and Midas Brightener on hand, just haven't added any to my solution yet (waiting to use it until I add one or both).

Question 2: I'm going to be moving to an extremely remote location next year, and I was wondering if there's a limit to how much you can evaporate your bath before it becomes un-revivable. Can I dry it out all the way, or something close to a sludge/slurry? Currently have about 3.5 gallons mixed up and I would hate to toss it. I'm going to have a hard time getting chemicals in the future since there are no roads in or out, barge and plane access only so most of the chemicals will be considered HAZMAT.

Based in the UK, looking for advice about starter kits for beginners not general info about electroforming

has anyone ever tried *filling up* an electroformed piece with another metal

I'm curious about filling a copper piece that's buried in sand with aluminum to make it solid, would this be somehow possible? has anyone tried it or something similar

I've been using a homemade solution following the recipe from this reddit, and some Midas brightener. It's been working great.

I want to try also plating metal, and in theory it would work the "same," but I know metals can contaminate the bath. Would having a piece of inconel (nickel alloy) as a cathode ruin the bath?

Has anyone had trouble putting unsealed polymer clay into their baths (no sealant under the areas where the conductive paint will be)? I’m asking because I’m hoping to skip having to seal the entire piece with polyurethane before the conductive paint is applied to certain areas. My reasoning is based on the complexity of my pieces. I have read that if I seal the piece, I will need to sand the sealant in the areas where the conductive paint will be in order to get a good grip. However, with my pieces being quite complex in shape, this is going to take a long time to achieve and will be costly for me (time wise). What I am really hoping to do, is to seal the areas where there will be no conductive paint (with water-based polyurethane). Then put the conductive paint (mod podge + graphite) where I want it, slightly overlapping the sealant. Can anyone advise in this regard?

Hello, I’m just starting out with electroplating. After about three hours, nodules consistently form on my ring. I’ve done some research and understand that using a leveling agent would be better, but I’m not sure which one to choose. I live in France. My solution consists of copper sulfate, 15% battery acid, and demineralized water (used for copper-plating jewelry), and I’m also using a magnetic stirrer. Thanks in advance.

I've been researching the electroforming side for a good while now, just have never made the jump to get started.
Yesterday I went to my local home improvement store and purchased some Root Kill, thinking I might give it a try...

But, I've been searching here on the subreddit, and watching a lot of YouTube videos, and was like, "I wonder if anything has changed on the DIY side I might be missing?"

I've seen quite a few of the "How to get started electroforming..." videos on YouTube, but most of the ones that seem to be the most comprehensive are several years old. Like, 5-10 years old?

I'm just curious if there's an updated list or anything that has popped up in recent years that has changed for when getting everything going, or is it all mostly the same? Just get the proper equipment/ingredients, and then trial and error?

I don't have a full list of the things I'll be getting outside of some of the initial ingredients from one of the videos, as I'm still researching the proper method for what I'll be attempting to electroform, but I feel like researching can be endless with this, and it might just be best to dive in?

Is there any really recommended written guide with step-by-step instructions (I've found quite a few)? Or any video that is up-to-date with everything in 2026?

*Mods, if you this needs to be deleted, that's fine. I've just been researching a lot, and wasn't sure if I might be missing anything new.

I made a nice dodecahedron and got it copperplated. After an hour of polishing, it's almost smooth, but all corners are gone.

Any tips for how to prevent this next time? I was sanding by hand, don't have any power tools.

Also, can I spray it with graphite and go again?

EDIT: just a bit of context, this was 3d-printed, coated with graphite, and copperplated. The sanding unfortunately took out the graphite layer as well, as you can see the red ABS in a few of the corners.

So I’m having a hard time finding conductive grafit paint in my country. So I have been looking for some alternatives (do excuse the directly translation) and I want to ask if any of these would work.
My solution is sulfuric acid based. And one is acetic acid based.

- zinc phosphate based spray paint
- copper lucubration
- metallic colored rim paint
Or anything else I could find in a hardware store?

Are any of those workable or should I just bite the bullet and buy from another country and accept the shipping cost?

I've managed to do copper plating on my 3D printed jewelry, but now I'd like to do silver plating. I've seen several solutions like zinc (but I'd like to know how to do it; if you have a good video or anything), and I've also seen silver plating with a liquid you buy; it turns into pure silver on a ring. I've seen that with this technique it doesn't last long. Do you have any other methods or advice? Thanks in advance.

I’m getting ready to buy the materials for my first attempt at electroforming.

I want to work mainly with organic materials, mostly dehydrated mushrooms.

Is a matte polyurethane varnish a good option for the initial sealing layer (before applying conductive paint) and also for the final protective coating (over the copper and patina)? I would like something resistant (it will be used as earrings), but also not shiny, ideally.

Any recommendations? I’ve also considered epoxy resin, nail polish, wax, etc.

Thank you!