How To Stop Organics From Floating In The Electroforming Bath

If you’ve ever electroformed organic materials, you probably know that they have the tendency to float at the surface of the bath. And this is actually a big problem, because it means only one side of your object is being plated, while the other side is actually out of the bath. But there is a simple trick you can use to solve this problem. Read on to find out how to stop organics from floating in the electroforming bath.

1. Take a piece of sea glass

I use sea glass to drag my organics at the bottom of my bath. Why sea glass? Because it is safe and doesn’t contaminate my electroforming solution. It will not dissolve with the acidity or plate. You can use other objects if you don’t have sea glass. But the thing you use must be safe for the bath or you’ll risk contamination. Also, it must not be in metal, otherwise, it will plate during electroforming.

2. Cut a piece of copper wire

Then, cut a piece of copper wire of 4-5 inches. I actually use enameled copper wire, because I don’t want it to plate during electroforming. Otherwise, it will compete with the object I’m trying to electroform. This is very important that you use a wire that doesn’t plate. It doesn’t have to be enameled copper, it can be plastic for example.

3. Attach your copper wire around your sea glass

Now, take the copper wire you just cut and attach it around your piece of sea glass. You can wrap it around the glass several times or just wrap it once and wrap the wires together at the top, as I did here. Just make sure you wrap it tight, and that your piece of glass is not going to fall on the sides.

4. Attach your weight to your hanging wire

In this step, we’re going to attach the weight to our hanging wire. Simply wrap your enameled wire around your hanging wire, where your organic will hang. This will put weight on your hanging wire and drag your organic at the bottom of the tank.

5. Put your organic in the bath

Now, you can put your organic on the hanging wire and plunge it in the bath. As you can see the leaf is now fully submerged in the bath. This means my item will be fully plated on both sides. There are probably other ways to stop organics from floating, but this is just the one I came up with.

Bottom line

Floating organics can be very annoying when electroforming. With my technique, you can fully plate an organic without attaching anything directly to your object. It’s a simple and effective way to drag your item to the bottom of your bath without contaminating it. How do you stop organics from floating? Let me know in the comments below!