Posted by Gary Dodge on July 22, 2002 at 23:52:24:
In Reply to: narrow strips of glass posted by don on July 16, 2002 at 01:57:49:
Hi Don,
The first consideration is to be sure that you do not have all of your glass crammed together tightly. Glass needs room to expand as you solder it. Overly tight work tends to crack when soldered, but the small pieces are always going to crack first as they are just weaker than the big fat ones.
If that is not the problem, the key is not to get things too hot all at once. Instead of just running a solder bead as you would usually do, you need to apply the solder in dribs and drabs. Do a half inch here, then a half inch there alternating places around the piece. Make sure that you are using a temperature control and that you have the temperature set to melt the solder without lingering in one place too long, thus saturating the glass with heat, while at the same time not blazing hot either. Add flux frequently to cool the work. Later you can apply heat locally to smooth out the places where the short solder lines meet one another.
Another thing you might try, that I have not tested for this purpose would be to set the piece on top of a damp cloth to solder it. This might keep the heat from cracking your glass.
: Any suggestions on how to solder narrow pieces of stained glass, some a 1/4" wide, without the glass cracking. thank you