When soldering the 2nd side of a foiled stained glass piece, it appears that the nice rounded solder bead on the 1st side gets distorted (flattened) because it is heated from the heat of soldering the 2nd side and the 1st side is resting on a flat surface. How can this be avoided?
if you are using a reostat on your iron turn it down some, move around to a different area dont stay in the same area to long, speed it up dont move to slow you can always come back to do a little touch up, its normal to get sag on back side sometime
does that mean that you should do the "good side" last? I'm afraid that touching up a side that has sagged might result in a less acceptable result.
What kind (brand and %) solder and flux are you using?
What kind of an iron?
How closely fit-up is the panel? (Big gaps, no gaps?)
Is your foil new (not oxidized?)
I have not started to solder this clock (20 pieces), but I have a grinder now, so most of the gaps are nearly 0 or very narrow. There are 3 areas that have a partial edge that have about a 0.10 inch wide gap. Sounds wide, but they are such a small percentage, that I hope that does not have to be redone.
Here are some photos of the area I am concerned with:
Speed and feed will determine how /if solder drops thru.
How fast you feed the solder to the tip and how fast you move the iron along the foil seem, with practice you will reach a point where the solder is melting down to the hot foil at the same rate you are feeding it to the iron. At that point the solder will stop dropping THROUGH the panel, and solder TO the panel, just takes practice, and move a little quicker than you have been. DO not connect to a rheostat with that iron, just practice, it will happen faster that way.
If you've not had that much practise at the soldering - why not find some 'scrap' glass (cheap, clear window glass will do fine) and have a bit of a 'play' on that first ? you'll be that much more confident and expert when you're doing it for real.
Try cutting a sheet of window glass into four or six pieces - foil them & then solder them back together again...? Be aware that it's possible to crack the glass by leaving the iron in position too long - maybe try doing this deliberately on the cheap glass - so's you know how to avoid it on the expensive clock-face! Also - wipe the crud off your iron on a dampened sponge, rag or, 'brillo' pad or newspaper every time you pick it up - helps to remove the oxide that builds up as you solder.
For what it's worth - here's how I'd go about soldering up your clock project... speaking only as an enthusiastic amateur
Set the parts up on your wooden board, as per your last photo. Put little 'dabs' of flux on the copper at key points (you're going to tack the panel before doing the 'proper' soldering)
Tack the panel with small 'blobs' of solder. Make sure that everything is where you want it to be (adjust if necessary) Flux all the copper tape - with the possible exception of the outside edges - then wipe a thin layer of solder down every seam - don't worry too much about forming a neat bead at this stage.
Using another wooden board - flip the panel over so you are now working on the back - careful - it's not very strong yet ! Flux the back of the panel - and solder it, taking care to get a neat, rounded bead (this is why you were 'playing' with the clear glass earlier.
Once you're happy with the rear of the panel, use the wooden board again to flip it back the right way up - and solder every seam - making truly excellent rounded beads
As you solder these front beads you'll find that, if you time it right, you can get a nice bead on the front without the solder on the back getting hot enough to melt - because there's a fair old thermal mass of solder there now. There's a knack to getting the iron moving slow enough to get a good melt, but not so slow that the heat penetrates to the back...
Sorry if I'm teaching you how to suck eggs..... .. but hope this helps.
By the way - some books say that, if you have really large gaps, you can use masking tape to stop the solder from falling though - but I guess if the gaps are that large then the 'right' way is to re-cut the glass... You could also 'caulk' the gap with a small piece of rolled-up foil - but if you can get the soldering right then there's really no need to...
Now stand back and congratulate yourself! Good luck Adrian Suffolk UK ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply
Thanks for all your suggestions, Adrian. Yes, it is one of my first. In fact, if you discount the practice tests that I did do on some window glass, it is my first with real stained glass. I did a sloppy butterfly with window glass. I may do some more practice with some window glass before I tackle this. I was thinking of using the approach you suggest of tacking the front first and completing the back before finishing the front. I'll let you know how I make out. I hope I don't have to "plug" the gaps. At least I'll start without plugging them to see how they turn out.
Ah, good - you've already done some 'learning' -much easier with 'cheap' glass .....
Not a bad idea - you want to be confident before you take an iron to the more expensive stuff. You might want to try creating a deliberately 'bad' fit between two pieces of glass - and then you can see the effect of the solder trying to drop through the gap.
As I say - the trick is to get 'sufficient' heat on the side you're working on, without having so much heat that it all goes soggy !
Maybe a useful exercise for you... Find some bare or tinner copper wire - strip some out of some old mains cable if you can't find any other. Bend the wire into a square - about 2" per side.
Foil up a piece of glass. Run some solder along the foil. Prop the glass up on edge. You're going to solder the wire square onto the edge of the glass.
Tack one corner of the wire square onto the foil. Now tack the other corner of the wire square onto the foil. So far, so good. Now - run a neat bead of solder along the side of the wire square so that the wire is enclosed in the solder. Go too fast, and you won't get a neat bead. Go too slow, and the whole thing will get too hot, and the wire loop will fall off the glass. Seems like a bit of a game
- but the point is that you should learn about how solder behaves, melts and sets. Give it a try !
That's a good plan. I make lots of suncatchers, and by now I can get away with soldering a neat bead on the front, then a bead on the back
- and (if necessary) just a quick touch with the iron on the front to finish off. However - these are generally quite small pieces - so they're much easier to handle than your large panel.
Another way, if you do have to plug, is to use offcuts of copper wire. The trouble with gaps is that they may tend to produce a 'wide' joint
- so the finished bead looks wider. Probably not going to be suh a problem with the size of panel you're making - but if it's a small piece of work then it can be a bit more obvious.
Good luck - look forward to seeing a photo of the final item !
Adrian Suffolk UK
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Just finish soldering one side. Then when you solder the other side, don't spend a long time on one area. Add a liitle solder at a time and then move on. come back and do the touch up once those pesky areas have cooled. If some solder melts through, continue on and then turn the panel over and pull off some of the huge solder clumps and do a touch up. No big deal. Practice getting your peices of glass cut so they fit better.
Andy
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