Long ridges on copper electroform

A. Hi Gaelen. Duncan's posting was from 13 years ago, so we may not be able to reach him. Describing your own problem and parameters may be more productive.

Luck & Regards,

A. Hmm, a lot of atoms of copper moved since then.
I did solve the major issue which in went back to organic contamination.
In general, I was using a small tank and no filtering so bagging the anode was important and initial results were good and then deteriorated. I have since discovered that polyester sheet will work but many sheet materials are polyester cotton blends and over a period of use the cotton reacts with the acids and transfers soluble organic compounds into the solution.
Since then, I upgraded my methods via research including a lot of reference back to this site and now use professional PDO copper oval anodes a big tank polypropylene anode bags and when needed and activated carbon filtering when the stations show up.
Also leaned a back titration to measure chloride content and worked with a number of addition agents.
It has been a busy 15 years.

A. I found that surfactants like detergent caused this as did the fabric dressing on new calico fabric which years back used to be an animal hoof-based glue, also I think silicone-based polish and release agents can do this even when only airborne.
if you were using air agitation this could come in by accident from the air inlet and my happen as a one off.
The same things used in small amounts as addition agents will do this if the dose is increased as well.
Did you find that carbon filtering fixed the problem?

A. Very good article on trouble shooting acid copper plating baths : www.plateworld.com/editorial12.htm

Hope it helps and good luck!

Thanks again for your reply Duncan. Whatever the cause was seemed to plate out after a few rounds... we're still interested in what agent was at work ... we'll do some tests with surfactants and see what happens : )

Thanks Goran : )