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Tips and Techniques For Stained Glass
Here are some tips and techniques that I've developed
or heard about over the years. I use most of them all the time. Some of them
use common household items...most of which are things we all dispose of when we're through
with them. Tell us about them here.
Wooden clothes pins are very handy when working with glass.
Use the type that has a spring between the two pieces. You can pull them apart and use one piece for a burnishing fid
for copper foil work. You can make a lot of fids for a dollar! When edge beading small suncatchers, hold the glass with
a clothes pin. It makes turning the glass around much easier,
and it saves on burned fingers. Putting wire around the edges of anything copper foiled is easier if you hold the wire
in place with several, or many (depending on how much wire you are using), clothes pins. Make sure you use the wooden ones.
The plastic clothes pins melt easily, which makes a huge mess.
If you don't have a copper foil dispenser, just place the
roll of foil over a heavy jar or can. Now you can work with
the foil without it unwinding and getting away from you.
1. Use Q-tips to apply flux. They are small enough to apply the
flux exactly where you want it. They are cheap and disposable so you can use a new one as
often as you want. You are less likely to contaminate your flux since you can throw the
Q-tip away as soon as it begins to look dirty. 2. If you use liquid flux, pour a small amount into the lid when you are soldering a project.
Throw away what's left in the lid when you're done soldering. The flux gets contaminated
by dipping the applicator (brush or Q-tip) in it over and over again. The contamination
is usually what causes your solder to spit and sputter. By using a small amount in the
lid, rather than dipping into the original bottle, you will not contaminate the entire
bottle. 1. Use a damp paper towel, folded several times, to wipe
you soldering iron tip as you are soldering. The paper towel can be re-folded to get a
clean side, as needed. Keeping the iron tip clean gives you much nicer solder bead, as
there is no gunk from your iron to fall into the solder. This also helps to keep your
flux clean as mentioned in the "Flux" tip above.
When you make a box, put the sides together first, then make
a bottom to fit. It's much easier to make one bottom to fit
four sides then it is to make four sides to fit one bottom.
The same goes for the lid.
1. When you are soldering a lampshade, place
it in a shallow box with a lot of wadded up newspaper to support it. By moving
the newspaper around, you can position the lampshade at any angle you want,
for ease of soldering. 2. Any decorative gaps can be filled by holding a wet towel(squeezed
out so it's not dripping wet) underneath the gap, as you are soldering.
The towel keeps the solder from running through, and the wetness cools
the solder so it will set quickly. 3. If your lampshade has bridging pieces (if you make lampshades
on a form, you'll know what I'm talking about) place a piece of
masking tape on the back side of the gap to be bridged. Place
the bridging piece in the gap from the front side, and the tape
will hold it in the correct position while you solder it in place. Copper Foiled Panel or Suncatcher 
Cut the top and bottom off of a soft drink or beer can.
Regular scissors or tin snips will cut the can easily. Take care not to cut yourself
while you're cutting the aluminum. If you use regular scissors, they won't be much
good for anything else except cutting cans. Kitchen scissors work equally well with no
ill effects to the scissors.After you have cut off the top and bottom, cut the can into strips lengthwise, about 3/4" to 1" wide. Cut several of the 3/4 inch strips in half lengthwise, so that you have some narrower strips. To remove an edge piece:
Heat the solder at the edge until it melts. When it melts, while holding the soldering
iron on the seam, slide an aluminum strip between the two pieces. It will only partially
slide in at this point. (Hold the strip with a gloved hand...it gets hot). Slowly slide
the soldering iron along the seam and at the same time slide the aluminum strip right
behind the iron. It will open up the seam for you as you move along. Don't go too fast,
but, at the same time, you don't need to go at a snails pace. If you go too fast, the
solder will run back into the joint behind the aluminum strip. Practicing this technique
will teach you how fast to go. To remove pieces totally surrounded by glass:
When the piece is surrounded by other glass, heat the solder at any given point and,
using a narrower piece of aluminum, poke it into the melted solder and wiggle it until
it slips in between the two pieces of glass. It works best if you hold the soldering
iron on the back side while pushing the aluminum in from the front (or vise versa).
You might want to prop the panel up on something to make working from both sides easier.
Now you can slowly work the strip around the piece as described above. Once in a
while it won't work, especially if the glass is a very tight fit, but it is worth
trying first, before going to other methods. Sometimes it is easier to grab the aluminum strip with needle nose pliers once you get it started. It is easier to pull it along with the pliers instead of using your fingers. Once the piece is removed, run your soldering around the surrounding pieces to remove
any remaining solder. You want the edges of the surrounding pieces to be smooth and flat
so that the new piece of glass will fit back in the opening. Now you can continue the repair as usual. Before you solder them in place, put pennies or dimes
under the pieces you are replacing. The coins hold the pieces up to the proper height.
If you don't prop them up, the new glass will be at a different (lower) height than
the rest of the panel.
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