While learning about electron spin and the Stern-Gerlach experiment, I wondered if the experiment could be implemented using conducting electrons in copper and an external magnetic field? The electric field in the conductor would be quite weak, and the effects of moving charges in the magnetic field could be accounted for, leaving only a split between +1/2 and -1/2 electrons through a copper plate. The magnetic field could be generated with the same magnet arrangement as the original experiment, or using a simple parallel current-carrying wire where the magnetic field gradient goes towards that wire. The main current would be passed through a copper plate, and detection would have to occur at the end of the plate somehow.
It sounded alright to me, though I am concerned that conducting electrons would not behave in a lattice as they would in free space. Would such an experiment work?