Is there a proper way to number patterns?
Question:
Is there a proper way to number the pieces on your patterns?
Answer:
Of course different types of designs call for different numbering
schemes, but one of my favorite numbering systems I'll call the
radial system. I start my numbers at the "one o'clock"
position and proceed clockwise around the panel, spiraling in to
the center.
For symmetrical panels I often don't use numbers at all, just letters like "TL" for top left, "TM" for top middle, etc. If there are three four or even five pieces in the same corner that are all easy to tell from one another they can all still be "TL"!
Also popular ........TML for top middle left , and on and on, as long as you can understand it yourself.
On very complicated panels
it is advantageous to keep for instance all the leaves of a tree
identified by a letter and a number, e.g. "L-27" for
the twenty seventh leaf. Be careful that leaf twenty seven is
close to leaf twenty six and so on, or you may find yourself
spending a lot of time just looking for where things go.
Hi!
Here is the Dilemma;
I made an 8 ft. window for a client, and I have only ever done 3
other lead projects. I usually work in copper foil. Anyway, when
the guy that came to do the installation came & tried to
install it, he broke a slightly curved piece on the edge. Okay, I
thought I can probably figure out how to fix it. Well, then as he
was getting ready to move it back into his truck, he stepped on a
piece, almost to the top of the window, and a piece that goes
from one edge to the other. It is framed out in 1/2" zinc, U
came, and done in 1/4" reinforced lead came. I have no idea
how to fix these pieces! PLEASE HELP!!!
Thanks., Lynn
Answer:
Lynn,
Of course I could probably give you better advice if I could see
what you've got there, perhaps this will be all the help you'll
need.
First, if the cames are a fairly wide profile flat came,
sometimes you can carefully lift (pry up) the leaf of the lead
cames, only cutting it in the corners, and slide a new slightly
smaller piece into the zinc came that frames the piece and down
into the lead cames that you had pried up. Then bend the leafs of
the cames flat again. Re-solder the corners where you had cut
them, then cement it so the glass will stay put.
If the cames are not wide leafed or very high round profiles, you
will probably need to disassemble the window down to the broken
pieces and reassemble it. The big secret here is to avoid trying
to use your iron to undo the joints. If you don't have a razor
saw, you should go to most any hardware store and pick one up.
(They fit into the large plastic X-acto type handles and cost
about $7 to $10.00)
Use the saw to saw the joints apart. Carefully cut flush into
each soldered joint you wish to get apart, right where the cames
meet. Saw them apart both front and back. If they are not totally
free you may need to flex the came a bit to break it loose, or
use an exacto knife to finish the job. Cut new glass (if you can
remove the old glass without breaking it up too much, you can
hold the pieces together with tape and use them as a pattern),
and reassemble the window.
Note, that sometimes is helps to just score the old glass up in a
criss cross pattern with a glass cutter and tap it with the ball
end of your cutter to smash it out, rather than trying to remove
it in large pieces. This will make it easier to saw the joints
apart.
Hope this helps.
Gary Dodge
Here's another question for you since
you have been great for me!!
How does one go about making the small rings to attach to the
stained glass?
Also what is the easiest way to attach these rings on a small
piece? I find that I don't seem to have enough hands.
Also when laying a bead should the solder be held on the top side
of the iron?
Thanks for your help,
Bill
Answer:
Hi Bill,
I usually just buy small jump rings to use, but if you want to
make your own rings, it is pretty simple. All you need is a wire
cutter, a dowel or metal rod, and maybe a pair of locking pliers
will help. For the size rings I like I use a 1/8" brass rod.
Just wrap some wire of the gauge you prefer, probably something
in the 19 gauge range, around the rod in tight coils like a
spring. (That's where you might need the pliers to hold the end
securely.) Then just slide the wire off the rod and just snip
rings off the coil!
As for attaching the rings, use a hemostat , (surgical clamp)
They are available at radio shack, (or at Dodge Studio, if you
can get here.) The hemostat has finger holes at the handle like a
scissors, but locks shut and allows you to clamp things into the
pointy jaw. Then you can handle tiny things easily. I lay the
suncatcher on the table and set a roll of solder on top so it
won't slide away as I solder the ring on. (Pre-tin the ring for a
sure attachment).
Finish by carrying a dab of solder on your iron tip and apply it to the point
where the ring touches your piece. Make sure that your attachment point
has either a good strong edge bead or is located at a solder junction so the
foil won't pull off under the weight.
Gary Dodge
Hi Gary,
I just found your web page and I think it's great.
I have a question about stained glass. When I have completed a
piece of glass and have polished it, within a very short time, on
the solder appears a white residue. I have tried washing the
piece with water and vinegar, but this still happens. (This
happened on all the glass that I have made).
I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the water where I
live. Can you think of anything to correct this problem. It's
driving me crazy.
Answer :
Your problem is not uncommon. The vinegar is probably just
the WRONG thing to be using though. The problem is usually caused
by not getting rid of all the acidity in the flux and vinegar is
another acid, only making things worse. You need to try washing
the finished piece with baking soda, which neutralizes acids.
(And yes, if the water in your area is very acidic, this can add
to the problem.)
After you wash and dry the piece you can help further by waxing
the piece with either Kem-o-Pro stained glass finishing compound,
or a car wax with carnuba wax.
You might also try a different brand of flux and / or a different
brand of solder.
Hope this helps.
Gary Dodge
I have had an interest in stained glass but have never done
anything with stained glass.
Can you help with some information on how to get started. I know
I would enjoy doing a few small projects.
Please help if you can. I need to know
what tools and what kind of glass and where can I purchase these
at. Any information will be great.
Thanks,
Tammy
Tammy,
If at all possible the best way to get started is with a stained
glass class in a professional studio. Check the yellow pages
under "Glass stained and leaded".
If there are no studios in your area you can consider a course in
one of the adult education programs offered by schools, colleges
and community centers. There are several possible drawbacks to
this type of class. Often the organizers fail to properly qualify
instructors who may be little more than hobbyists and can teach
some really bogus stuff. Also the instructor has to carry the
supplies back and forth to the class so your glass and supply
selection may be very limited. Also you miss out on the whole
studio experience. Seeing the work of a professional instructor,
both in the showroom and perhaps even more interesting and
inspiring, works in progress. You may also miss out on access to
some of the specialized tools and machines in this setting.
If you have no other choice you can get an instructional book and
go it alone, but this can prove frustrating. (I still remember
what that was like almost 30 years ago).
As for the tools you'll need: the bare minimums are:
Glass cutter,
Waterproof marker
combination breaking/grozing pliers (there is no common tool box
substitute),
sickle stone to smooth edges,
soldering iron (not a gun) typically 80 watt or higher, although
Ungar makes a 45 watt that is adequate
Temperature control, (if you use the 45 watt you can probably get
away without this in the beginning)
Iron stand, (you can use a large tin can to start out)
Later on you'll want some of the amenities like a glass grinder
etc.
Exacto knife, scissors or pattern shear (a three bladed scissors
for cutting patterns)
Board, ceiling tile or homosote for soldering on.
Supplies:
Glass, copper foil or lead came, flux, solder, patina (optional
to color metal on the finished piece), poster board for making
patterns, carbon paper for transferring patterns, oil for the
glass cutter.
I don't think I've left any of the essentials out. All this
should run under $150.00 not including the grinder, unless you go
with all the top drawer tools and even then you should come in
under $200.00
If you can't find a shop in your area I'd be happy to find a
couple of names of mail order places for you, but you should
really experience a good shop if at all possible.
Good luck and have fun, Gary Dodge Dodge Studio Designs
Hello there,
I don't know the first thing about doing stained glass, but I
would really like to get started. I was wondering if you had any
beginner tips, books you can recommend or anything to help me get
started on some simple 2-D designs. Any help would be greatly
appreciated!
Thank You!
Ryan
Answer:
Ryan,
There are a number of good books out there, I would probably
recommend one that focuses on copper foil technique as most
people enjoy it more than lead came.
The best beginner advice I can give is to make the simplest thing
you can think of as a first project. No panels, just a tulip
suncatcher or something. It can come out completely messed up and
it will still be a tulip! If a panel doesn't fit right you won't
be able to complete it at all.
Also be aware that all the tools can feel very foreign and
awkward in the beginning. This is natural, it will pass.
Good luck and enjoy,
Gary Dodge
I've been working with glass for several years but seldom am satisfied with my soldering. It never seems to be as smooth and even as I'd like it. I start out with a good foil job making it even and smoothing it out very flat with my lathkin. I have an adjustable thermostat to help regulate the heat of my iron. I have several irons one being a Weller that will get quite hot. It's like an 80 watt. I also have a 100 watt.
Just how do you apply your
solder. I use 60/40 solid core solder,of course. I find it
especially difficult to make a thick edge around the edge and
often end up tinning in frustration. Thanks for any suggestions.
Sincerely, Chicki
Answer:
Chicki,
Here are the basics.
Always work with a clean tip. (We tin our iron tips up a lot higher up the tip than the manufacturer does.) Use a sal-ammoniac block to tin your tip and for cleaning.
Watch your temperature.
If immediately after cleaning your tip you see it
changing color to gold or purple (kind of iridescent
looking) your iron is too hot. Keep in mind that a dirty
iron does not melt solder well. A common mistake is to
assume that when the solder doesn't melt it means that
the iron is too cool, which leads people to turn the heat
up when it was really too hot in the first place!
(An added irony is that while an overheated dirty iron
won't melt solder well it can still be a remarkably
efficient tool for cracking your glass.)
Be sure to use enough
flux, but not too much (we use a
liquid flux, not paste). If your work fizzes and boils as
you solder you are probably using too much flux. (There
are a couple of brands of flux that are very watery and
are more prone to this behavior.)
The specific flux you choose can make all the difference.
In fact the company that makes our favorite flux also
makes our least favorite flux as well!
If you are sure your
iron is not too hot but it gets dirty quickly as soon as
you start melting solder onto it try several different
brands of solder. You would be surprised at the
differences in handling between even well respected
brands. (We use solder made with only virgin metals. We
find that it has less "junk" in it that dirties
the iron tip.)
For building up a thick bead
around the edge switch to a 50/50 solder. (It's thicker
in it's molten state than 60/40.) Don't let the iron get
too hot for this operation. The hotter it is the less
viscous (thinner) your solder will run. Thin solder just
won't stand up very high. Like comparing water to whipped
cream. The thick stuff stands up a lot higher.
Feed the solder onto
the iron tip rather high up. If the iron is clean enough
the solder will seem to disappear into the tip and
re-emerge at the bottom. (This will allow the solder to
gain the full temperature of the tip before it flows down
to the copper foil.)
If your solder forms balls or lumps that tend to fall off
the tip rather than disappear into it, the tip is not
clean enough and needs to be heated to a high heat and
cleaned thoroughly on a sal-ammoniac block.
Use sal-ammoniac water. Mix a couple of teaspoons broken from a sal-ammoniac tinning block into a cup of water. Each time you allow your iron to rest, even for a brief interval, before returning to work you should sharply jab the tinned portion of the tip (and only the tip) into the sal-ammoniac water. If done suddenly enough the shock of the sudden immersion will produce a kissing sound and all of the junk and crud on the iron tip will break away and leave the tip clean and shiny.
Make sure to maintain firm contact on your foil with the iron. Good soldering is all about heat transfer. If you don't get your foil heated up adequately you can't get a good bead.
Finally, as far as building a
good edge bead, we have detailed instructions in both our Holiday
Portfolio and Creatures
Great and Small books.
If you would like a free reprint of these instructions, US residents send a self addressed envelope with 34¢ postage to:
Dodge Studio Designs
1021 Route 82
Hopewell Jct., NY 12533-6139
Write the words "Edge Bead" in the lower left corner of the envelope.
Hi ! -
When tinning the edges of a sun catcher, what causes those
horrible solder sharpies that usually appear on the corners?
These hurt worse than any glass cut and I really would like to
avoid them.
Thanks for your help.
Answer:
Without seeing exactly what your
sharpies look like I can't be sure, but if I understand correctly
they are fairly needle like and made entirely of solder and they
form in a manner similar to making peaks in meringue pie topping.
As you draw the iron away from the work you draw up a peak in the
solder, (not an outcropping of the foil).
If so, then your problem is that you are not using enough flux or
not adding more flux when needed. Let me know if this sounds
right.
Gary Dodge
Follow-Up:
Solder meringue is it! I'll flux (but
not to much) and see how this works. Just for the record, I was
reading your tips on flux, and depending on what I'm doing, I
usually have better flux luck with the paste kind vs. the liquid
kind. The liquid kind for me tends to spit more. However, when
tinning a piece of copper wire (for a fishing pole or something),
the paste tends to spit and give me those black things on the
wire ( It almost looks like ash). Does flux go bad? Any more tips
for fluxing luck would be appreciated.
Thanks
Follow-up response:
There are liquid fluxes and there are
liquid fluxes. The absolute worst is made by the same company
that makes my favorite! There are a ton of other brands that fall
between the two extremes.
I find that the brand I use stays on the longest without re-
fluxing, runs the most even and shiny bead and has less of a
tendency to spit. The ones that spit worst are as thin as water,
not that my favorite is very thick.
Be careful not to create pools of flux, and when soldering the second side of a piece use less flux and brush it more to spread it well. ( When soldering the second side, steam can no longer vent out the back so boiling is more of a problem.)
Hello -
My biggest problem when doing my stained glass projects is when I
have to cut out a small piece such as an angels face or hair and
getting that piece to fit properly. I have tried using the
pattern shears (which are hard to manipulate) and even regular
scissors (or manicure scissors work well for lots of curves). On
a good day the pattern is cut out perfect.
I thought I cut the glass piece out perfect, using either my band
saw or grinder. But alas, when I have to fit that piece, there
are parts that are too big and too small. I don't have that
"perfect" glass to glass fit. My only choice is to
re-cut (perhaps several times) or to re-cut the adjoining pieces.
My final icky choice is to just grind the parts that are too big
and fill the rest with solder. Any tips at all????
Desperate for the perfect fit.....
Answer:
There are a lot of questions
that need to be answered before I can give you a satisfactory
answer to your problem. Right now my first thought is that your
problem may be more one of personal expectations.
Often beginners have a misguided notion that the pieces of glass
should be cut to an unrealistic degree of precision. If you are
hoping to cut your glass and leave only the exact amount of room
that will allow you to foil the glass leaving all your pieces
tightly packed together with no spaces whatsoever in between,
your expectations are misguided. If you were to take the time to
carefully grind all your pieces to get that kind of fit, your
results might look nice but the work would be fatally flawed.
It is essential that there be
spaces between the glass so that solder can flow in between your
pieces of glass. This allows the solder bead on the front of your
piece to connect with the solder bead on the back. Without this
connection, your piece is only as strong as the copper foil that
it is wrapped in. You have glass with a filigree of solder on the
front and back sides but no structural strength!
Hope this helps...... (Remember, you are not building a watch or
a spacecraft. It just has to look good and be strong.)
Follow-up question:
I have a feeling you are right
and my expectations are a bit incorrect. I did have the
expectation that prior to foiling, after all the pieces are cut
and have been ground, that you are supposed to basically put the
piece together, looking for any one piece that does not fit
exactly or match the pattern that you lay it out on. Also
ensuring that all the pieces fit inside the pattern. Then push it
together to ensure that there is pretty much a glass to glass
fit. (looking for unwanted bumps) Then upon foiling, layout the
piece again, pushing the pieces as close together as possible so
you cannot see through the pieces. (And without buckling.) Is
this correct? This was to eventually achieve a perfect solder
line. My expectation was that if all the pieces were as such,
then you would have no "filling" to do.
"Filling" was bad or not necessarily good even a little
bit. Is that correct? If doing a little filling is ok, then I
feel MUCH better.
Follow-up:
If you did get all of your
glass to fit exactly before the foil goes
on, it wouldn't fit anymore after you foil it!
Foil, while kind of thin, can't be ignored. It does have
enough thickness to it to change the fit of your glass and you
MUST leave room between your glass pieces for it.
Second, if you can't see through the foiled pieces anywhere,
your solder can't get between your pieces of glass, and if solder
can't flow through from front to back your piece will be too weak
and may fail in time.
I saw stained glass suncatchers at the store and the metal was very shiny. Is there some kind of patina I can use to get this look?
The short answer to your question is no.
In all likelihood what you have seen is work that has been nickel plated in a commercial electroplating tank. There have been several attempts at making electroplating accessible to the hobbyist but in general electroplating equipment is both expensive and bulky, requiring use (and safe disposal) of toxic chemicals.
If you have never tried the cleaner/wax products available (we use a product called Kem-O-Pro Stained Glass Finishing Compound), check them out. While no match for a real electroplating job, with a bit of elbow grease you can give your shine a big boost and even add a silky feel to the glass. The carnuba wax in these products will also help to prevent oxidation of your metals.
Why is it when I tin the edges of a project, sometimes the edges don't stay tight? They lift up and are rough.
There are several factors that may be
contributing to your problem.
1) You may be getting poor adhesion of your foil due to foiling
dirty glass or not pressing the edges down firmly enough.
2) You may be using a light gauge foil. I have found thin foils
such as .001 will pucker more readily than a full strength foil
like .0015.
3) Your iron may be too hot. A very hot iron will cause extreme
and rapid expansion of your foil and the heat also softens the
adhesive allowing it to lift.
SIDE NOTES: Usually after the work has cooled a bit it is possible to press foil that has puckered flat again with no ill effects. I can't tell from your question if you intend to leave your project with a tinned edge, but I would not recommend it. A tinned edge is not structurally sound. It adds no strength to the project and will quickly lift and pull away if the project is washed well in a sink full of hot soapy water. We always build up a high round solder bead on the edges of all our work.