my errors stacked up to halt progress for a few days. So I threw it back in solution and subbed in a rayovac 6v lantern battery to give it a jump start.

Sludge problems solved instantly. Also, I'm back to getting copper burn residue. Total time at 6 volts ~3 minutes.

Interestingly to me the branches on the right were not submerged and didn't get the power up.

From here, I will consider this a sacrificial experiment, but I think I can get a few more failures out of it.

I just got called to dinner. Be right back.