Problem With Solder and Foil

I need to remove the outside solder and foil of a stain glass piece that I did....the outside foil that I solder is pulling aways from the glass.....how would I do this without messing up the whole thing?

Answer

Hi,

Unfortunately there's no quick fix, butI'll give you three way to do it. There first one is the way I'd do it, but I'm a perfectionist!!

1. Remove all of the edge pieces of glass, pull off the foil, clean the glass with something like Goof Off, then wash it well in hot soapy water. Wipe each edge with alcohol, refoil the glass, and burnish extremely well. Put the glass back in place and solder it.

2. Run off as much solder as possible, or just pull off the foil that is loose, then put U came around the outside of the panel and solder at each joint. This would be the fastest way to fix the problem.

3. Pull off the outside foil without damaging any foil joining it from the inside. With a hot soldering iron, flatten the ends of the seams that go to the outside edge (so the new foil will lay flat over those ends). Clean the outside edge as described in number 2. Using a wider foil than you used on the inside, run a continuous piece of foil around the panel, burnishing it well. Solder it at the joints first, then continue to do your edge beading. It wouldn't hurt to solder an 18 or 20 gauge copper wire around the edge, then edge bead over it.

Your initial problem probably happened because the glass wasn't clean or the foil wasn't burnished well enough and flux got under the edges. Once that happens, the foil will not stick.

Clean the edges of your glass with alcohol before you foil. Just a little bit of alcohol on a cloth will clean a lot of edges, and the alcohol seems to make the foil stick better than ever. Make sure you burnish the foil so that it is flat along both edges...no gaps at all.

Like I said, there is no quick fix, but the fastest way would be using the U came.

The only good thing about mistakes is that they are a good lesson in learning what not to do the next time.

I hope one of these fixes will help you.