may be employed for electropolishing a metallic stent with reference to fig6 there is shown a cathodic structural arrangement 600 in which a plurality of cylindrical shaped mesh cathodes 602 604 606 are provided while three cylinders are shown in the figure fewer or more are possible each cathode 602 604 606 may have a similar length but their diameters differ the cylinders 602 604 606 are stacked concentrically however they are stacked out of phase with each other so that in combination they provide a stepped conical shaped profile that subtends an angle b as seen in fig6 each cylinder is prevented from telescopic movement in relation to a neighboring cylinder by pins 610 that are inserted to extend from a larger cylinder into a directly smaller cylinder that fits inside the larger cylinder preferably the pins are platinum or other highly conductive material so that negative charge applied to one cylinder will spread to all cylinders preferably the cylinders are each made of the same platinum iridium mesh that is used to produce the conically shaped cylindrical cathode 500 of the previous embodiment in use the resulting stacked cylindrical configuration 600 is utilized as a cathode for electropolishing stents in an electrolyte solution because it effectively has a stepped conical shape it may replace the frusto conical shaped cathode 500 that is shown in fig5 b a stent.