Abstract: A floating shield is provided for use in an electrolytic plating bath. The shield comprises an elongated trough in which substrates are loaded for plating. The substrates are held in the trough with the lower edge of each substrate below the plane of the edges of the trough. The trough prior to loading is sufficiently buoyant to float on the surface of the electrolyte but sinks into the bath after loading with substrates. In one embodiment the trough is slidably mounted for reciprocating vertical movement in guide members which form part of a mechanical agitator mounted in the bath. The floating shield device serves to facilitate deposition of a uniformly thick layer of metal on the substrate and avoids excessive deposition at the lower extremities of the substrate.