Glass Cutting - Soldering - Leading - Glass Creation/Selection - Tools
Supplies/Equipment - Puttying - Misc
Misc Tips:
To prevent solder from sticking to an area,
coat that area with White-Out. For instance, when soldering a
hinge to a box, coat hinge with White-Out where hinge parts meet
in order to allow the hinge to function when done soldering.
Remove White-Out with steel wool.
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When tinning a tube for a box hinge, insert
toothpick to prevent solder from clogging the tube.
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Solder will not stick to aluminum. Cut a soda
can with scissors to make a strip or square of aluminum and use
it to "desolder" two foiled pieces. Let the soldering
iron do the work melting the solder and slide the aluminum between
the pieces of glass as you melt the solder. The aluminum will
prevent the foiled glass from rejoining as the solder cools.
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When using steel windbars, mark the areas
of the windbar where you plan to attach it and use a propane
torch to pre-tin those areas. Then you'll only have to remelt
the solder with your iron to attach it to your panel. Direct
the iron's heat mainly to the windbar. Once that solder has been
melted, just rub the side of the iron's tip onto the lead joint
to which it's being attached. You HAVE planned this out and are
attaching the windbar at lead joints,right??
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You can use a putty brush to help hold windbars
in place until the first solder connection is made. Just put
the bristles facing down astride the windbar to keep it standing
vertical.
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Lead pattern scissors tend to be a little
generous in the amount they remove. This is fine on a pattern
that has pieces going every-which-way. But when you have a bunch
of parallel lines, these errors tend to cumulate. What to do?
Firstly you could use a straight edge and snap blade knife and
(with the uncut pattern on a piece of clear scrap glass) cut
a slightly narrower waste strip. The paper removed would be closer
to the actual size of the heart of the lead rather that the generous
size the lead scissors would have cut. (You can see this in the
DVD) But suppose you're already leading-up
and the glass is too narrow. There are two options I can think
of. One is to have narrow strips of light cardboard (like you
would find on the back of receipt books) that would go against
the heart of the lead to, in effect, make the glass wider. The
other choice would be to use reinforced lead. These are leads
that have brass buried in the heart of the lead and is normally
used to strengthen a panel. The heart is much thicker and will
take up extra space to make the glass fit better. They come with
a 3/16" or 1/4" face.
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send me any tips you think would be good to
add.
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