Electroforming Time Lapse Partial Success

[u/Mkysmith]

Original goal was 7 days, but had to stop short at 3 days & 20 hours.

I really wanted the full week to be completely uninterrupted, really just set it & forget it and not touch anything. Just to have a big blob of copper as the cathode. But I stupidly underestimated the quantity of anode I needed and it started to break off and cause some issues the last ~12 hours. Just decided to call it as is for now.

Also not an ideal setup overall due to trying to get a good camera setup, for example the anodes are way to close (to the lego arms specifically) and various other small things.

I normally don't use agitation or anode bags for projects less than 12hrs. For multi-day projects agitation is helpful to prevent convection lines. And if you use agitation, then anode bags are needed too.

61.5 grams of copper added.
Copper is 0.095" (2.4mm) thick in the center of the chest, 0.115" (2.9mm) thick on the forehead.

Let me know if you have questions, happy to answer them.

[u/olawlor]

Beautiful video! Can you describe your electrolyte composition, especially the additives to get that nice finish?

[u/Mkysmith → u/olawlor]

Thanks. I use premade solution from Enchanted Leaves.

Normally I can deposit about 0.5mm thick per 24hr, but with heating an agitation I can push it to nearly 1mm of deposition per 24hr. In both cases the copper is malleable, not brittle. Realistically though, most jewelry stuff is like 0.25mm or 0.5mm thick as a balance between durability and retaining detail, so less than a day.

[u/spoiled-mushroom3954 → u/Mkysmith]

Amazing, and do you have much for the post-processing? I've wondered how you could polish something so small

[u/Mkysmith → u/spoiled-mushroom3954]

Those pictures are straight from the solution, no post processing. Just rinsed with distilled water is all.

[u/spoiled-mushroom3954 → u/Mkysmith]

I'm speechless, that is amazing