Electrolysis Question

[Killer Angel]

I made an Electrolysis kit. Jar, cell phone charger spoon etc. Mixed in baking soda and tried my first coin. Problem: Both the spoon and the coin were bubbling. Tried another outlet, same result. Switched out the charger for another charger, same result. The second charger got the coin going a abit more but after ten minutes, not much had come off. The coin is connected to the lead that is fizzing when dipped into the solution.

My understanding is that only the negative lead should bubble. What's the problem here, why are both the spoon and coin bubbling?

THX!

[Euqinu]

Could it have something to due with the water to electrolite concentration? Would too much electrolite and too little water cause this to happen? Perhaps the voltage/amperage is too high and the pieces are too close together?

Is the positive lead being submerged?

[N2CU]

Make sure the charger is a DC type. You can tell this by looking at the label to see something like "4.5VDC". Some chargers are AC and have the rectifier inside the device being charged. These won't work.

I've only used electrolysis on a few items so far but I have noticed bubbles coming off both electrodes. I think this is normal, after all the sacrificial electrode will be destroyed over a period of time from metal being removed.

Make sure the positive (+) lead goes to the sacrificial electrode and the negative (-) to the coin or other object being cleaned.

Use 1 tbsp of baking soda per gallon of water and you should be in business.

I'm currently cleaning an old axe head I found in horrible shape. Been at it for three days, changing the solution every day and giving the axe a scrubbing with a brush in between. I'm actually using a much larger power supply for this large object; 12VDC at 6 Amps although the actual current draw is about 3/4 A with fresh solution to 1/4 A when pretty dirty. For smaller objects I use a 5 VDC at 100 mA wall wart.

Hope this helps.

[Silver Searcher]

Could it have something to due with the water to electrolite concentration? Would too much electrolite and too little water cause this to happen? Perhaps the voltage/amperage is too high and the pieces are too close together?

Is the positive lead being submerged?

yep that's the problem....one end in, one out

SS