Posted by Gary Dodge on August 31, 2002 at 22:46:50:
In Reply to: Tradional Star Lantern Difficulties posted by Kim Willoughby on August 30, 2002 at 16:49:20:
Hi Kim,
Right off I can think of three possible causes for the problem you're having.
First and most basic is where you are making the solder tacks that are holding your assembly together. It sounds like you may be making solder tacks in the middle of the flat sides at the bottom of each of the point subassemblies. When you make a tack in the middle of a side, you are depending on the adhesive to hold things together. The foil can easily stretch enough in the middle to allow it to pull away from the glass.
If you make your tacks at the CORNERS of the assemblies, the foil can't easily pull away. In order for it to pull away the foil that runs up the side seams of each of the points would have to stretch a lot, and that would be quite a trick.
The second possible contributing factor is the weight of your copper foil. Copper foil comes in three thicknesses, 1.0, 1.25, and 1.5 mil thick. If you are using anything but the 1.5 mil, you may be saving a couple of pennies but you are not getting your monies worth. (Somewhere in the glassworking tips or help desk there is a complete coverage of the foil thickness issue.)
The third obvious possiblilty is that you are working with old foil with dried up adhesive or dirty glass that won't allow the adhesive to stick well. (Even so, if you properly observe the advice in suggestion one, the quality of the adhesive becomes unimportant.
Finally, if your technique is a bit rough and you still can't get things to work out, you can always cheat a bit. Simply use some 22 gauge copper wire to hold things together. When you get the first three points tacked in place, reinforce the assembly by laying a 22 gauge wire into the side seam of an attached point and bending it so that it proceeds up the side seam of the adjacent point and use some solder to secure the wire along the length of the seams.
Hope this helps, if not, let me know and we'll see if I can come up with other possibilities for you.
GaryD
: Hi! I'm in the process of making one of the Traditional Star Lanterns, and I'm having some trouble.
: I've successfully put together the 12 cone shapes, but I can't seem to get the cones to go together. I can solder 3 or 4 of them together, but then when I have to turn the assembly to fit another one on, inevitably one of the cones moves like a hinge and comes apart, pulling the foil right off.
: I've re-foiled and tried it three times...next time I might burst into tears. I know it will look fabulous if I can finish it - can anyone (Mr. Dodge?) give me any tips?
: Thanks,
: Kim