Hey all,
Just thought I’d share the latest items produced by my Glowforge. I edged the coasters with copper tape and then electroplated until I had a reasonably thick deposit of copper around each (plated for about 12 hours). I masked the proofgrade walnut plywood with latex before plating to help protect the finish and prevent the copper sulphate solution from soaking into the plywood through the score lines and sides.
The plating was a success. It adds time to the project but I really like the combination of copper and walnut.
The only issue I’ve had is that my Glowforge is skewing its prints, so the coasters did not fit together. I’ve emailed support about that issue and hopefully can get it resolved in the new year.
Aaron
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That’s unique!
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Such nice use of mixed materials! Beautiful result.
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Wow
Love the copper accent!!
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Wow! That’s attractive! Love that combination too. And I really like the simple lines you added.
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Beautiful! The care you took in making them really shows! 
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Wow, that is so cool! I’d love to hear more about your plating setup.
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I don’t mean to echo everybody else, but this seriously warrants a wow! I also would love to hear about your plating setup, and would like to know more about your history there and what made you consider doing this project. It’s a lot to ask, but I’m seriously intrigued by it 
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That’a awsome
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Love all of it! I’m especially fond of hexagons, too. Very nice.
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Oh, that’s truly lovely. Very clean and very elegant. I’m impressed.
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Looks great. Dunking wood as part of the process… I never would have even considered it.
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Thanks 
My setup is a bucket with copper electroforming solution from Rio Grande (thought about making my own, but figured that’s a task for later), a lab power supply from Amazon, some thick gauge copper wire to sacrifice for plating, and that’s about it! I watched a few videos on youtube for jewelry electroforming to make sure I wasn’t too far off and that helped a lot!
As for my history and what made me think of doing it, I guess it was triggered by imagining what I could do with the Glowforge, and then investigating what materials I could not work with (metals, etc.). Not being able to work with some materials was a little disappointing, so (of course) I thought of how break that constraint, and I was reminded of electroplating experiments in 7th grade chemistry class. I did a little reading and here took the route of plating copper onto copper tape.
Next, I’m planning on painting graphite onto some engraved wood and seeing how that goes, and after that, I’m thinking of depositing a thicker deposit to build up metal ‘bones’ within a piece that needs to have a lot of strength.
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