Posted by jan on February 18, 2003 at 22:41:36:
In Reply to: Soldering posted by Dawn on November 08, 2002 at 15:03:37:
: Hello,
: I'm new at stained glass. I have most of it down but I can't figure out how to solder. Everytime I do a project my solder is to thick and not beaded. Please help me!! Does Flux on the glass have anything to do with why yhe solder is so thick?
Hi Gary - I'm also really new at this stained glassing and I also am a soldering imbecile - or i feel like it anyway. I know what Dawn means when she says her solder is thick and not beaded. My soldering often ends up too thick and sometimes my beads are really nice and other times they are really "lumpy". I use 60/40 or 63/37 for my foil jobs and a liquid flux. My soldering iron is just an average soldering iron and I also have a temperature controller (the settings are full, 80,60,70 etc.- I don't really knows if that is good or bad.) I don't know if i just haven't got the hang of it or what - do i need to solder faster? do i need a hot/lower temperature? or do i just need more practice. Please help, or point me to where I need to go.