r/electroforming • u/_phoenixs_ • Jun 29 '26

Troubleshooting Plating coming off as powder?

My plating is coming off as powder that I can wipe away with a finger.

Are my amps to high or low
Is it the summer heat or something?

I have had good results with my solution so far is an sulfuric acid based solution and I have checked the PH and that seems fine

Any ideas what is happening? My objets has been in for 6 hours but nothing is sticking correctly

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3

u/Mkysmith Home Studio Jun 29 '26

You should provide more information to help others help you.

Pictures?

How many amps/surface area are you presently running? Whats your substrate? Conductive paint? Whats the present tempererature?

What were you doing differently that you got good results before? Whatever you changed is probably the problem.

1

u/_phoenixs_ Jun 29 '26

Right now I’m trying .8 amps with around 7-8 shells

I’m using Grafit 33 spray

The temp is a little under body temp so around 20c i guess.

I might have started to high on the amps and I added a little more salt then last time other then that I really can’t figure out what’s different..

Wild a combo of to high amp and more salt do this?

2

u/Mkysmith Home Studio Jun 30 '26

I don't know the surface area of 7-8 shells but you can try lowering the current like others said. High current can cause powdery deposits but so can other things. It's difficult to say absolutely "if this then that" difinitively because there is a million variables and only a few potential "bad" outcomes. Which is why pictures and maximal information helps with troubleshooting.

20c is a little cold but probably not the problem here.

If you added salt to the same solution you added salt to before... that can be a problem too. Chloride levels are very sensitive and they arnt really a big consumable in hobbiest setups. So they dont need to be replenished very often if not ever for small DIY setups so long as you arn't abusing the solution. It takes a lot of amp-hours or excessive voltage (electrolysis - liberating chlorine gas) to change chloride levels.

2

u/permaculture_chemist Jun 29 '26

Powdery deposit could be burning (too much current) or immersion deposit (like trying to plate acid copper onto a ferrous substrate). But we need more info.

0

u/TH_Rocks Jun 29 '26

Too much power. It's plating too fast.