First you need a positive and a negative to power your electrolysis machine. For maximum safety I recommend buying a small trickle charger. Never let the positive and negative meet! If the charger is plugged in you may shock yourself and/or destroy your charger. The trickle charger should have a self resetting circuit breaker to keep you from causing any serious harm but please be careful as you are using electricity. This is not something that a child should be doing!
You take a glass container (small) and put distilled water in it with a little sodium carbonate (soda ash). I buy the kind you would use in a pool. You get copper wire and bend it in a loop and make a little grip or grabber to hold the end of the coin (you want only the top of the coin to touch the copper). I use an alligator clip to hold the copper wire and then attach the negative (black) clip to the alligator clip (just to make sure my permanent clips don't get dirty). You bend a fork or spoon and hang it over the end of the glass leaving half in the water and half outside the glass. You clip the positive (red) clip to it. You dangle the coin in the water (attach it with an adhesive wire holder or anything handy). Then you plug it in. Increase the amount of sodium to increase the action (or move the coin closer to the spoon). Don't let the positive and negative touch (or the coin and spoon). This could burn up your charger and/or cause a shock. Stir the water with a stick or anything that is not going to absorb the electricity to make sure the solution is mixed (you should do this before plugging it in and as needed during the process). The coin should fizzle after a few minutes depending on how much crud is on it. Check the coin every few minutes to see if the dirt is falling off (all coins should have had an initial cleaning before using electrolysis). It should take anywhere from a few minutes to 10 minutes for dirt to begin to fall (a coin with only minor dirt will only require a few minutes and dirt may not be visible falling off of the coin). Then unplug the charger and remove the coin. Use a small wire brush (preferably brass) and lightly brush the residue off the coin. Put in clean solution (if it is dirty looking) and repeat the process if the coin still has dirt on it. You may have to do this 1 to 4 times to get the coin cleaned. Make sure the final electrolysis is in fairly clean solution for the best result. You can shape your copper wire to hold more than one coin to speed up the process. I usually do 4 at a time (be careful not to electrolysis different metals at the same time as this will damage them). Make sure you are in a ventilated area as a very small amount of gas is created during the process. You will see a little amount of vapor, avoid smelling or breathing it. I don't think it is dangerous but better not to breath it. I work next to the kitchen sink to keep the mess under control. I have never had any problems with fumes but use caution. Do not use near an open flame. The fumes may be combustible.
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